take a look at my body; look at my hands - there's so much here that I don't understand
General
Canon Source: True Blood
Canon Format: Live-Action HBO. Though apparently there is a graphic novel based on the show? Any events involving Jessica in that graphic novel I’m not counting.
Character's Name: Jessica Hamby
Character's Age: 17 years of human age; less than several months as a vampire.
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. N/A
What form will your character's NV take? iPhone, similar to the Hitomi Jessica had when she was in Kannagara.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: Jessica is a vampire, so the list of her abilities entails:
- Super Strength, which will increase as she ages
- Super Speed, which will also increase as she ages
- Heightened Senses: her sense of smell and hearing is at least twice as better as a human's.
- Glamoring, which is basically hypnosis; when glamoring, she can basically “suggest” memories away, or coerce answers from people. But this has a cost: glamour too much, and there will be nearly-irreparable mental damage. Jessica is the only known vampire in canon who can glamour two people at a time, and is said that she has a talent for it.
While it's not glamoring by definition, vampires have a certain aura to them that can make people drawn to them.
- Her fangs. In combination of her strength and speed, she can easily rip a man’s throat out in seconds.
- Vampire blood, or “V”: Her blood is basically narcotic; it gives the user the trip of the lifetime, as well as increased libido, enhanced senses and strength. There’s a catch: if drunk directly from her body, she can sense the consumer’s location and emotions, as well as give the consumer erotic dreams about her.
However, she can't walk in the sun without burning up and silver is the only thing that can restrain her. She can't enter a house uninvited (unless she glamors the resident) and if her invitation to the home is revoked, she is forced to leave. Jessica is immune to other diseases and virus, with the exception of Hepatitis D, which can lead to her being weakened, though how long this state of vulnerability lasts is unknown. And, of course, a wooden stake to the heart is fatal, and decapitation can kill her. Canon shows that vampires can fly but this ability increases in effectiveness in age (her Maker, Bill Compton, is over a hundred years old and can levitate), so it's unknown if she even has the ability yet.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? She’s a vampire. She doesn’t need any more powers.
Weapons: No weapons.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: Here is the link to her background.
Point in Canon: Jessica's latest canon update from Kannagara is from Episode 8, Season 3, Night of the Sun when Jessica is killing a werewolf.
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history.
Jessica was taken to Kannagara when she sneaked out of Bill’s house and be on her own for the first time as a vampire. While entering Merlotte’s, she is instead transported to Himorogi, a sacred field of the gods where all newcomers arrived from their worlds. There, she strike out on her own, at first living in a cave when she needed a safe place to sleep and protection against the sun. Eventually she encounters Chrome, a nice, quiet woman who just happens to be a member of the mafia in her world. They hit it off and soon became roommates while living in a very shady city called Yomisato.
Due to her communicator’s (called a Hitomi) tendency to broadcast dreams, she dreamed of giving away V as a drug, which calls to the attention of Mello and Matt. After some convincing, she agrees to take part of selling V. After taking her roommate and her asshole boyfriend Mukuro as additional security, the business of selling V thrived, with the occasional hiccup of a monster invasion. She also became intimate with Matt, and gained a Terrible Terror familiar she named Malcolm.
Then Elfangor arrived. At first starting as a friendship between Matt and Elfangor, it soon became far more romantic, much to Jessica’s jealousy. Things became quite strained until Elfangor was murdered, and Jessica being kidnapped by the native population discovering the source of V. After being rescued, Jessica left Yomisato for the sanctuary of Mizusato. Before arriving at Siren’s Port, Jessica has a prophetic dream broadcasted on the Hitomi network. When she arrives, she will only have the clothes on her back and Malcolm, the Terrible Terror she taken in.
Character Personality: For all of her undead nature, Jessica used to be a normal, sheltered girl from Louisiana. Growing up in a strict Christian household with a father who regimented her life, she takes joy in sneaking out to clubs and getting drunk while pretending to be the best Christian girl any proud father would have. Despite the emotional and physical abuse she faced from her parents, she has a spoiled attitude and will whine about anything. Over the course of canon she pretty much dropped this "pampered princess" attitude as she tries to start living her new life as a vampire. As she soon discovered what it was like to be a minority, she tries to balance her needs as a vampire to the needs of having a relationship to a man who's willing to accept her for what she is. When she makes mistakes, she falls hard, but the knowledge and the wisdom she learned from those mistakes make up for it. In all, she is a quick learner.
Like most girls her age, she can be very passive-aggressive and have a mean streak, such as glamoring customers into not giving tips to a fellow waitress who is annoying her. But Jessica can be very kind, and be quick to amend her mean nature, as she did by glamoring the last customer into giving all of her money to the very waitress Jessica was annoyed with in the first place.
In short: Jessica can be judgmental, but she’s also quick to change her mind. On the opposite side of the spectrum, she’s also very nice to others, unless they are not nice to her - which lead to her temper that can take her to some hot water. Jessica may play the passive-aggressive act, but she lacks the patience for it in the long term. When she’s angry at people, she’ll shows her fangs, and she’ll scorn them, yell at them, even threatened and/or glamor them. She may be the youngest vampire (even classified as a “baby vampire”), but she’ll stand her ground until it comes to her head that it may or may not be such a good idea. And by then, it may be too late.
There is also her stubbornness and her sense of independence that maybe likened to usual teenage broods and struggle for individuality. But it very well been how she comes from a family that basically suffocated and restrained her; so she takes her new found freedom seriously and will rebel at any attempt that she finds restraining. The only person that she has to obey any commands whether she likes or not is Bill, her Maker. Anyone else who’ll try to make her change her ways will receive a taste of her temper.
One of the more changing aspects to Jessica's character is that while she's quick to adapt to the fact that she has to drink blood, even revels in it, she hasn't fully embraced her predatory nature that comes with it. Because in her human life she's been denied what she wanted - boys, freedom, and a natural curiosity - she'll of course, go after that when given the first opportunity. But she hasn't considered of entertaining the instincts of her vampire state, and it confuses her and makes her unhappy. This can make her defensive when question about these things, as she wants to figure it out on her own without someone pointing it out.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game:
Jessica is more or less the same, but she had becomes a lot savvier in her ways. She has more control of her powers and due to past traumatic events in Kannagara and in her canon update there, she's less inclined to hold back should she feel threatened in way or form. (Meaning that any sort of assault = instant death, no questions.) Jessica's becoming more in touch with her wild vampire nature, but is still hesitant in completely accepting the darker aspects of it. She was also had a less of a bratty attitude, and is in the stage where she wonders the nature of monsters, and how much of it applies to her.
Her savvier nature came about when she spent a great deal of time with less-than-savory individuals - namely Mukuro Rokumo from KHR and Mello from Death Note, and was part of a vast underworld network involving drugs, prostitution, weapons sales and just about everything else. These involvements have given Jessica a sharp eye on things when normally she wouldn’t notice, and even create a small ruthless streak if forced to act.
Character Plans: Jessica will be confused, annoyed, and heartbroken that she’ll be at the Port - after all, she carved out a life for herself in Kannagara and was taken away to this place. At first, she’ll just try to survive the city, learn how to safely drink blood, who to avoid, ect. But then she’ll try to reach out to any fellow vampires/undead/freaks, but she’ll also try to reach out to anyone who visited to Kannagara. However, I want her to deal with her separation anxiety as well, so she might go off the deep end and act like a "proper" vampire would.
Appearance/PB: Jessica is portrayed by Deborah Ann Woll. Here are the icon set for Jessica.
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[ The video flickers, and there is a young girl around her late teens, red hair tied into a tight bun and in a deep red kimono with swirly, black patterns. She may looked worried, but the tone of her voice indicates otherwise. As though she has been through this before. ]
My name is Jessica Hamby and I'm not from here.
[ She appears to hear something that the NV has failed to pick up, because she turns her head, alert and quiet. A small green shape flutters by; a strange mix between a bat and a green lizard with horns. As soon as it appears it's gone. Jessica relaxes. ]
I know this is another alternate reality because I've been to one before.
[ Jessica lowers her eyes and has the expression of considering what else to say. ]
Back home, I come from Bon Temps, Louisiana. In the other reality, I'm from Kannagara.
If there's anyone who's even heard from those places, please pick up, okay?
[ Finally, at last, she sounds a little distressed. She tries to pull herself together but it's clear that she's just plain lost.
And just like that, the video ends with a click. ]
Third Person Sample
Jessica recalls this: a dragon, bleeding throats, and the impassive moon above. All from a dream, she knows - the last thing she she remembers before pulling into a world of concrete and neon lights, very much the opposite of Kannagara's stone-and-wooden villages and fireflies fluttering to the summer sky. People have told her on the network what she needs to know - this is Siren's Pull, the Core has taken you away (so far away), there are two companies, this place is a shithole, watch your step. This island is so much different from Kannagara - there is no concrete point, no dreams, no mountains to climb over within seconds and skies that take three days to darken. There is no Chrome and Mukuro here (they were gone long ago), no Lenalee, no Elfangor.
No Matt.
She's on her own.
Again.
The streets are empty. Monster crawl around, eyes turning toward her. They might attack her. They might not. She's a creature of the night, just like them.One lunges, claws reaching. In a blur, she dodges and grabs the frail-looking arm. The thing shrieks, trying to scratch at her, bite her. Jessica breaks its arm and almost tears it out of its socket. Grabs the back of the head - god, this thing, it looks like a little toddler or something - and forces it to go on its knees. The monster-child keens a high pitch wail (the children back home-home, where her father once made her babysit little brats and she remembers she hated it, hated their screams and demands when she's not allowed to make her own ) making her own teeth vibrate. Jessica bashes the child into the concrete again and again, black blood leaking around her fingers, fangs drawn out. She doesn't dare to try to bite the thing.
Jessica's learned in Kannagara that one does not just bite monsters.
After the thing dies, she leaves the body to rot. What will happen to the corpse? Will it be eaten by its fellows? Would government workers pick it up in the daytime?
She moves on, finding something that might accommodate her for the night. She might ask someone on the NV about it, but for now, she'll keep her vampire nature to herself, just to be safe. She wipes her hands on the inside of her sleeve, the black blood smearing on the cloth in wisps. Jessica realizes that once she goes inside any building, she might turn some heads with her exotic kimono.
Might as well make the most of it, Jessica grounds herself.
An hour pass and she come across a club. Some raunchy club, not unlike Fangtasia from back home. She notes the small letters PROPERY OF AGI on the sign. She opens the door and makes herself welcome, already glamoring a bouncer to she doesn't have to be bothered of her age.
The moment she takes a seat, a young man in a business suit sat down next to her. She raises an eyebrow.
"Here for a drink?" he asks, giving off a charming grin Jessica knows he practiced in the mirror and on dozens of girls.
Jessica glances around and sees strippers dancing on the poles, gyrating their hips, lips open in fake pleasure, strapped dollar bills wavering in the movement. She looks back at the man and notices the faint tap tap tap beat of his neck.
"I'm thinking," Jessica begins, leaning forward, looking at the man straight in the eye while hiding her bloodstained hands. "Much more than that tonight."