holloways_keep app
Name: Wolf
Age: 26
Journal: wolflupin
Contact: AIM @ Gosperru2
1. Character's Name: Veronica King
2. Age: 25
3. Background: Veronica King was the youngest child of a rather poor couple. She had three older brothers (Adam, Nicky and Trey) and a twin brother, Michael. Due to their mother having become pregnant with the oldest boy when she was only 17, she never completed high school. Their father, at least, did manage to finish, but decided to forgo college in lieu of finding a job. That went about as well as you could expect it to, so the (at the time) small family ended up moving into a rundown housing unit on the bad side of town.
That would have been fine, had they not had anymore children. With four more children now in the picture, it became harder and harder for them to pay their bills and buy food and essentials. When Veronica and Michael were old enough to go to school, their mother found a couple of jobs to help their father. This helped, but with both parents holding two jobs each just to survive, this left the children alone a majority of the time. After a few years, Adam and Nicky (14 and 15 respectively) joined a local street gang knows as the Dead End Reds, which left Trey, who was only 12 at the time, to take care of Veronica and Michael, who were 8.
Five years later, the five siblings were sitting on the steps of their apartment building when a car full of boys from a rival gang committed a driveby. Veronica and Michael were the only two to survive, thanks to their brothers shielding them. Both were severely traumatized and refused to talk to anyone but each other for the next three years.
What no one knew was that the two had been planning revenge for their brothers. For everyone who knew them, it was a jarring change. They were withdrawn and sullen, and suddenly were reaching out to peple again. Their parents were just glad that they had their children back. Whenever the two asked for something, they jumped at the chance to do something for their children. When Veronica and Michael asked to be enrolled in self-defense classes, they got it. When they started to show an interest in crime scene investion, their parents wavered a little, but ultimately bought them whatever books they wanted. When Michael asked for a BB gun, it took a little convincing, but eventually he won their parents over. The twins would then take empty soda cans up to the roof and practiced shooting. Over the next five years, Veronica and Michael prepared themselves for what they had been planning. When they graduated high school, they moved out to a one-room loft apartment so their parents wouldn't be connected to their plan at all. Veronica took a job as a bartender in a bar that was well-known as a place where all the cops went after work, while Michael went one step further and actually entered the police academy.
After saving enough money, Michael ventured out into the city and bought a few guns from an arms dealer, so as to cut down on the chance of any bullets or shells being traced back to them. He bought a couple of handguns and a rifle - all he could really afford at the time - before returning to Veronica. Over the next month, they bought clothes that were rather non-descript and would help hide their identities: dark pants, long-sleeved turtlenecks, knit caps and a couple of masks from a party store that would cover the top halves of their faces. They paid with cash and made sure to go out of their way to buy them from stores as far as possible from their apartment.
It started out small. They beat the small time criminals they could find (petty thiefs and the like). Then it escalated to vigilante justice in the form of killing drug dealers, prostitutes, and rapists. Then murderers were found strung out in the street in front of their crime scenes. Pedophiles were found mutilated beyond recognition. The media and the police were in an uproar over all these deaths. Any leads they had led to dead ends; the few who had seen them were too scared of being next if they snitched to say anything.
Any evidence that was found that might eventually point to him and Veronica were surreptiously contaminated by Michael. DNA samples were ripped open and mixed with the other evidence, security footage were unspooled or scratched, or mysteriously disappeared. It was risky, but Michael would always use the excuse that he was in the evidence room to look at cold case files, which he often used to help figure out who they were going to attack next. There a few times when they were wrong, but Veronica didn't care. For her, it wasn't about justice. It was about building fear. Michael, on the other hand, always felt regret when they wrongly killed someone.
Eventually, though, Michael did get caught. Luckily for him, it was one of his coworkers who had worked law enforcement long enough to realize that most of the criminals he saw were repeat offenders. So instead of turning Michael in, he offered to help. He would pass along information about some people who had passed his desk many times over his career. On her end, Veronica used her position as a confidant to get drunk cops to open up to her, gleaning bits of information that were vital to their work. She made sure only to ply the drunkest ones for information - the ones who weren't likely to remember talking to her the next day.
Then they committed their coup d'etat. Not long after Veronica and Michael started picking off criminals, Veronica had joined the Dead End Reds and had insinuated herself in as a friend of the leader. As the numbers dwindled with each gang member that was killed, Veronica eventually felt it safe to make her move, and violently beat to death the leader of the Reds. Michael, hiding on the roof of a nearby building, killed anyone who made a move to help the Reds' leader. Once he was dead, she gave the rest an ultimatimum. Follow them or be killed. The only catch was that they had to stop committing crimes of any sort beyond what they were allowed to by Veronica and Michael. Most decided they'd rather live, and the few that did leave were shot by Michael after leaving the building.
No one left after that.
Veronica and Michael took control and let the Reds know that they planned to completely obliterate their rival gang, the West Street Blues. Over the next several weeks, the Reds followed Veronica and Michael's guerrilla warfare tactics, which slowly chipped away at the Blues. Once satisfied that their numbers were small enough, Veronica and Michael led a large party of those they trusted the most and wiped out the rest of the Blues.
Feeling accomplished, Veronica and Michael began the final stages of their plan: increase their numbers to the point that crime was nonexistent in the territory they had taken over. But, as with any hostile takeover, there were those who didn't appreciate Veronica and Michael's means, even though they liked the end result. Mostly it was the police, who still couldn't quite pin down Veronica and Michael, but there were a few pockets of gangs and organized crime units that were after both their heads.
Unfortunately, Veronica let her guard down once and it bit her in the ass. She had gone home alone one night to sleep after pulling an all-nighter searching for a rapist who had decided to strike in her area. Exhausted, she hadn't thought to take anyone with her and was attacked and knocked unconscious.
And that's when Veronica shows up in the Keep.
4. Personality: Veronica knows what she wants, and is not afraid of doing whatever it takes to get it. And what she wants is to take over her city and run it the way she thinks it should be run: with an iron fist to get rid of crime. She is aware of the hypocrisy of using crime to quash crime, but she's not bothered by being called a hypocrit. For her, all that matters is that no one else have to go through what her family went through, even if that means having to kill as many people as it takes to convince them that crime is a bad idea in her city. Veronica is serious and motivated when in her on-the-job mentality and hardly ever lets herself get distracted when in the middle of something important. She's a thinker and hates to make any sort of move without planning incessantly, though she tends to ditch plans when emotional.
Veronica is manipulative and not afraid to use whatever she has to get what she wants. She has basically no empathy for anybody and doesn't try to pretend that she does unless she feels it will get her something. The only people that she has any feelings for at all are her family and young children. She angers easily, and has trouble controlling herself when angered. She's not above attacking and/or killing someone just to prove a point, though she prefers not to do it too much because it loses shock value. She can be mocking or insolent, usually when in a bad mood, though sometimes just because she feels like it. She's also terribly vain and hates for anyone to see any imperfections (perceived or real).
Veronica does have her good sides as well. While she doesn't trust easily, once she does, that person will have her trust and loyalty forever unless they do something to make her lose that trust. She will defend those close to her to the death if needed, and will do just about anything for them if they need help. Veronica can be nice, but she is only truly sincere to very few people. She is polite and courteous when she has no reason to feel negatively about someone, and while not the greatest with kids, she tries to at least be patient with them. Her brother Michael was the nicer of the two, so she usually tries to act like him when she doesn't need to be the scary leader.
5. Previous Game Developments: N/A
6. Appearance: Veronica is 5 foot 8 inches tall, and has a deceptively small, athletic build. She has shoulder-length brown hair and brown eyes. Veronica tries to hide the scars she has, the worst of which are on her torso and arms, and are from assorted wounds from knives (and even one from a gunshot on her hip).
7. Abilities: Veronica is a good shot with a gun and is actually rather strong despite how small she looks. She's skilled at hand-to-hand combat (but prefers to use weapons), and is pretty good with Parkour when there's enough stuff to launch herself off of.
8. Languages: English and just enough Spanish to be conversational
9. Items: A rather tattered backpack with an iPod, a couple of sci-fi novels, a thick, ringed notebook with a map of her city paperclipped to it, and a handful of different colored pens rubberbanded together. Several boxes of .45mm ammunition are also in there, though they are now rubber bullets.
10. Weapons: A .45mm handgun and a metal pipe (the cliche kind you see in movies when someone needs a handy weapon).
11. Writing sample - Third Person Prose:
Veronica had been waiting for this moment for a long time, and she knew Michael had as well. They had planned this for years, ever since their brothers had shielded them from certain death with their bodies. She swallowed and glanced over at Michael, who reached out to give her hand a quick squeeze before jerking his head towards the man they had been following.
He was just a petty thief - he had knocked over a few liquor stores in the area before - and barely worth their time, but they couldn't just storm in on the big guns on their first night.
He turned a corner and disappeared down an alleyway Veronica knew he used as a shortcut. Both her and Michael sped up and rounded the corner at a run, not giving the man a chance to turn around completely before Michael swung the wooden bat he was carrying at the man's head.
Veronica stepped back to watch the entryway just in case someone heard the noise and decided to investigate. She listened as Michael hit the man a couple more times before there was a sudden scuffling behind her. Veronica turned around, only to see the man had managed to grab the bat and was trying to wrestle it away from Michael.
Sighing heavily, Veronica looked around for a moment before spotting a metal pipe on the ground between herself and the two men on the ground. Walking purposefully towards it, she scooped it up and took the two steps needed to close the distance between them before raising it up above her head.
She waited until Michael noticed and flipped them around to give her a clear shot before bringing it down hard on the man's back. He collapsed, stunned, and Michael shoved him off to stand up. Veronica gave him a look as he brushed himself off before nudging the man on the ground with her foot.
He groaned.
Veronica smirked and hefted the pipe up to rest on her shoulder, "Listen, we don't have anything against you personally, but spread the word among your little criminal friends. We're coming to get you, one by one."
He tried to look up, but she planted her foot on his head and shoved it back down, "What the hell does that mean?"
Veronica sighed and rolled her eyes, "It's simple. We catch anyone committing a crime, we're going after them. You got off with a beating because you're a petty criminal. Be glad we left you alive. Now get out of here before I change my mind."
He nodded and picked himself up, running down the alley in the opposite direction of Veronica and Michael.
Michael reached up and ruffled Veronica's hat to mess up her hair, laughing at her scandalized look, "Come on, let's get out of here."
Veronica mock-scowled as she fixed her hat and turned to follow Michael, "Alright, let's go. We got work to do."
12. Character sample - Q&A:
You wake to find yourself handcuffed to another person and standing in the desert. What is your relationship to the person and how did you get there?
Most likely it'd be Michael, my twin brother. The most likely reason we'd end up handcuffed in the desert is because we pissed off the wrong person and actually managed to get caught for once. If it ended up being someone I couldn't stand, I'd probably try to kill them and/or cut their arm off so I wouldn't get stuck with them. Plus, I wouldn't have to share resources.
You find a door with 'Do Not Enter' printed on it's front. It doesn't appear to be locked in any way. Do you obey the sign and leave it alone, or take a look inside?
Obviously I would go inside. All the best stuff is hidden behind closed doors. Maybe I'll get lucky and there will be something in there I can use to blackmail somebody powerful into funding my little operation. Can't get anywhere in life if I just follow all the rules like a good little girl.
Your closest companion at the Keep calls you over to their room. When you get there, they hand you a knife and tell you that the person passed out on their bed has contracted a deadly, incurable contagion which will go viral in a matter of hours, but your friend doesn't have the heart to kill them. What do you do?
Kill them. This one person could result in potentially hundreds of deaths, and their death won't weigh on my mind at all. Killing one to save the many is the most logical choice. I...would probably even kill one of my family to prevent an outbreak if it came down to it. They'd understand, at least. Especially Michael, he would probably beg me to do it if he weren't passed out. It'd be hard, though.
13. Tattoo: Around her right thigh.
14. Room Preference: No preference!