Eachdraidh app

[shewasvery]

( PLAYER ★ INFORMATION )

NAME: Karin
AGE: mid-30s in the rear view mirror
CONTACT: finalprogramme, finalprogramme
CURRENT CHARACTERS & LATEST AC: N/A

RESERVATION LINK: Reservation

( CHARACTER ★ INFORMATION )

DOES THIS CHARACTER MEET SKELETAL BASICS? Yes
NAME & AGE: Victoria Lowell, 50
CANON & CANON POINT: The Confessions of Dorian Gray, after the events of S3.08. (Supplemented by the BFA Dark Shadows story "The Skin Walkers”; see Canon Information.)
CANON INFORMATION:: General write-up here.

PERSONALITY:

“What I am, Mr Gray—sorry, Mr Wilde—is extremely influential. My organisation has a relationship with the establishment going back centuries.”
“Sorry, but what organisation is that, exactly?”
“The Lowell Foundation.”
“Vanity project?”
“Family business. My great-grandmother established it after moving to England after the turn of the last century. Before that the organisation went by an altogether more archaic title.”
—Victoria explains and doesn’t explain herself to Toby and Dorian, “Displacement Activity”

Victoria's virtues include considerable intelligence, a good grasp of psychology, tenacity, and unflappability. She’s capable of mischief—particularly of a spiteful sort—and has a sense of fun that doesn’t always square with everyone else’s. Her general demeanor is that of a Head Bitch In Charge ice queen, rarely showing much emotion beyond a sort of cool amusement at just about everything—including walking in on Dorian enjoying being fed upon by Toby.

“You have until six PM to make a decision. In the meantime I’d think about getting him home; it’ll be dawn in a matter of hours. I’ll leave you to enjoy your midnight feast.”
“So. She was—very.”
“Isn’t she just.”
—Victoria saying goodnight to Toby and Dorian, “Heart and Soul”

The supernatural really doesn’t faze her, and (up to a point), the worse things get, the more fun she seems to be having. Some part of her plainly thrives on adrenaline and on messing with people’s heads; there are probably easier ways for her to accomplish her goals, but why go for easy when you can have exciting? She’s confident and mischievous enough that she’ll tease a vampire with all kinds of seductive talk of blood before straight-up blue-fanging more or less because she can.

“Believe me, Mr Matthews, I’m not counting on either of you trusting me. That’s what makes this adventure so thrilling. […] But tell me, to satisfy my own raging curiosity, how would you do it? If you were to kill me—how? I mean, would it be a quick, efficient kill, functional, to the point? A broken neck? Or something you’d want to savor? Are you hungry, Tobias? Is that it? You are, aren’t you? Even now you’re thinking about it. The taste of my blood. Warm. Metallic. Dripping on the tip of your tongue. Imagine it. Because I can tell you now—it’s never going to happen.”
—Victoria messing with Toby’s head (and baser urges), “Displacement Activity"

She's a very convincing liar who manages to keep Dorian guessing at her true intentions all the way up to the end, with the skill and savvy to pull off a heist while also deflecting suspicion away from herself and on to Dorian and Toby. She plays her cards close to her chest and gives out information only as needed, discretion being a useful skill in her line of work. As a result she does often come across as a snotty know-it-all, but she also seems to cultivate this manner on purpose.

“I have my—”
“Contacts? Yes, you said, in fact that’s all that you’ve said about a lot of things.”
“What can I say? I’m consistent at least.”
—Victoria being smug and Toby being cranky, “Displacement Activity”

Victoria is married to her work. She doesn't seem to have any relationships in canon, and judging from how she manipulates Dorian and Toby, she probably sees emotional attachments as a potential exploitable weakness. There would have to be something very special to attract her to another person, and it's unlikely that they would be her priority. Toby at one point suspects her of having lustful designs on Dorian, but even if he does see something, it's just as likely an act to play to Dorian's ego and Toby's possessiveness.

“Oh look at you! It’s so sweet! You! And him! Pretending you’re so cool and disinterested in each other even after all this time.”
“I see you’ve done your homework.”
“Hardly. It’s obvious just from looking at you. He’s too proud to admit of course, but you, you’re smitten.”
“Possibly.”
“It’s nice. If he makes you happy. Does he make you happy, Tobias?”
“It makes me happy to be around him. Not sure that’s the same.”
“But it’s enough. Each of you is all the other has in the world now.”
“You mean he’s all that I have.”
“Not at all. He may not show it, but he couldn’t be happier that you’re back in his life. He truly has nothing else. Hold on to that thought.”
“Oh. I, um—thank you. I will.”
—Victoria playing Toby like a violin, “Displacement Activity”

Interestingly, her willingness to use supernatural tools vs. the stated remit of the Lowell Foundation seems to have been largely unexamined. Like a politician on a moral crusade who solicits prostitutes and has a drug habit, Victoria runs her war against the supernatural with magical tools, and she doesn’t seem to see any contradiction in that. As far as she is concerned, it’s simply fighting fire with fire, as she says herself at one point. If anyone has ever pointed out any inconsistencies to her on this, she hasn’t listened.

If she has one significant weakness, it's that her dedication to her cause sometimes blinds her to unintended consequences. (Er. No pun intended.) Similarly, her intelligence and experience have given her a certain amount of hubris and confidence in her own ability to handle even the most messed-up situations. Her biggest blunder is her failure to realise that Dorian's portrait, once given flesh, would have a lot of sadistic urges and rage to work out, and that her being right there would make her a perfect target. This is, of course, her fatal error.

“What are you doing?”
“You’re an educated woman, Miss Lowell. You must surely have foreseen this. Ah, a pity we couldn’t have met under different circumstances. You really are rather attractive. And you have the prettiest eyes.”
"Oh god! No! Please!”
“Ssh. Stay still. You think you see so much. What if we changed that?”
[…]
“I did what I came here for! I set you free.”
“Then you really are committed to your cause. But do you truly believe I’ll turn against myself?”
“After everything he’s put you through? Letting you waste away while he’s lived his life? He must be the only person you’ve ever truly hated. Isn’t that right?”
“Perhaps, Miss Lowell. But fear not, I have more than enough hatred for everyone.”
—Victoria meets her end at the hands of Dorian’s portrait, “The Darkest Hour”

Oh, and. As a result of her demise, which involved enucleation and getting stabbed and/or her throat cut, she now has a thing about eyes. Any threat to her eyes is likely to be met with panicked violence.

It’s entirely fair to wonder how someone committed to the elimination of supernatural threats will react to a world that is filthy with magic. She will be less than thrilled with it, though she’s too experienced (and frankly, too glad to not be dead) to let that ruin her day. She will look to gain power and information with two goals in mind. The first is to gather as much intel as she can and find a way to communicate it back to the Foundation, for use in their stated mission. The second, which is insanely ambitious to say the very least and which will develop in her mind over time, is to find a way to undo the enchantments of the Seelie and Unseelie—ideally by destroying both—and set everyone in the Drabwurld free. (With the exception of other supernatural beings, which can just as well go up in smoke with the rest of the Drabwurld.)

COURT ALLIANCE & REASONING: In D&D terms, Victoria is Lawful Neutral, on the border with Lawful Evil. She is more Seelie than Unseelie, with caveats.

Seelie Code:

• **Death Before Dishonour**: Slightly dubious; from a certain point of view, Victoria lies like a rug to get the job done. She uses the phrase “you have my word” more than once, and while the letter may be true, the intent is debatable (she promises Dorian that if the Eternity Canvas adds up to nothing, he will never have to deal with her again—and indeed, had her plan succeeded and he’d been destroyed, he would certainly never have had to deal with her ever again). Her lies are mostly those of omission. She never actually tells Dorian what the Lowell Foundation does—only what it is, and in a roundabout sort of way.
• **Love Conquers All**: In a strange and ironic way, she *does* believe in this. She sends Dorian to summon his heart’s desire from Madame Pandora’s cards, and then leverages Toby’s love for Dorian to give the portrait life. “Conquers” might be overstating the case—but she does believe it has power.
• **Beauty Is Life**: Not so much. The supernatural may be beautiful, but that doesn’t mean it must be protected.
• **Never Forget a Debt**: She seems likely to make a promise that is literally true, even if the result isn’t what the other person had in mind (see Death Before Dishonour). She might not have major qualms about breaking a promise for expediency, but her experience with supernatural nasties would suggest that this is often a Very Bad Idea. She’ll rules-lawyer herself out of a situation rather than breaking her word outright if possible.

Unseelie Code:

• **Change is Good**: Not so much. Change is good if it involves the reduction of chaos, and for “chaos” read “supernatural forces”. She is invested in the current political/social establishment and doesn’t want anything to rock the boat. She believes that the Lowell Foundation's mission—the elimination of supernatural dangers (and nearly every such thing is a danger simply by virtue of it being supernatural)—makes the world a safer place. The ultimate goal is one of reducing chaos and threats to the established order.
• **Glamour is Free**: Definitely not. Supernatural things are bad; it's okay if she or her people use them for the “right reasons”—but no one else is allowed.
• **Honour is a Lie**: Victoria probably would say that honour is a social construct in the sense that most people understand it, but at the same time she understands the power involved in oaths. See also “Never Forget a Debt".
• **Passion Before Duty**: Nope. Rather, for her, her duty *is* her passion. She plays dangerously, but she never forgets her ultimate goals.

ABILITIES:

• Intelligence, subterfuge, problem-solving.
• Politics and diplomacy, necessary for maintaining the Foundation's relationships with those in power.
• Management skills: she runs what appears to be a rather large and fearsome organisation (though somehow none of them were there to grab her body after things went south in CoDG 3.08, but I'm sure there was a good reason for it).
• Presumably the language skills necessary to negotiate magical texts—Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Sanskrit. Also some finishing school French and German.
• She can perform magical rituals with the right tools for the job, and can use magic items successfully if she knows how. She's a research witch, so to speak, rather than an instinctive or innate one.
• Since she’s apparently descended from Jackson Lowell in the Dark Shadows story "The Skin Walkers", it is entirely possible that she has some kind of latent or recessive lycanthrope genes in there somewhere. She shows no signs of lycanthropy, but that might explain why she can use magic, and in any case, this could be leveraged for fun things someday.

INVENTORY:

• Smartphone, disabled outside the station.
• A large Smythson handbag, with standard 21st century odds and ends (pens, paper, wallet, lip balm, a handful of pounds and euros, etc., nothing magical or odd, except for...).
• A small bronze knife similar to a Secespita, suitable for ritual bloodletting and self-protection at close quarters. (Knife not described in canon, but she must have cut herself with something to do the summoning ritual, so I'm making one up.)
• The Salisbury Bloodstone, a magical gem that can raise the dead and give corporeal life to powerful spirits. Nerfed on arrival. It uses blood magic to do its thing, so any use it could here will probably not be nice. Possible alternate uses include: a magical beacon, a weapon of some kind, a magnifier for other magic, or magic that uses equivalent blood/soulstuff from the user to heal another. In any case, it will require blood, and Victoria will have to learn how to use it in the new setting. Not described in detail in canon, but Victoria absconds with it easily, so it can't be that big. Let's say it's a smooth, ovoid, palm-sized stone, shades of dark green flecked with deep red streaks, highly polished. **Per mod note** it will be usable only once.