Application
Name: Sara
Livejournal: monday_is_fired
Contact: AIM: albloodsealsoul
Other Characters Played: Alphonse Elric (bloodseal_soul), Ciel Phantomhive (other_sights)
Are you 18 or over? Yes.
Canon: The Parasol Protectorate (aka “Soulless”, or the Alexia Tarabotti novels)
Character: Alexia Tarabotti
Timeline: The first book, directly after being successfully kidnapped by the wax man.
Personality: “She was the type of woman who, if thrown into a briar patch, would start to tidy it up by stripping off all the thorns.”
Pragmatic, self-sufficient, headstrong, possessed of a sharp tongue and an extraordinary capacity for being blunt, Alexia is an unlikely sort of heroine who is largely unconcerned or mildly annoyed with the frequent silliness of those around her. She has a dry wit, tends to be sarcastic and suspicious, and has a complete and utter lack of an imagination. She gesticulates and “talks with her hands” and how she holds her eyebrows is often a good indicator of her mood.
Though she’s a reliable sort in a crisis (being mostly of a mind that most ails are helped by a splash of cider vinegar) and utterly calm under pressure (the death threats are both tiresome and rude), Alexia is also invariably stubborn and is much quicker to become annoyed or angry than be upset or feel wounded. She often handles problems with a smart whack with her parasol, or by taking them apart verbally. She despises wallowing and overdramatic emotional outbursts, which makes her seem unsympathetic at times.
As a proper Victorian lady, Alexia cannot abide rudeness and introductions especially must be observed. Rather than be “rude” herself, she is instead as blunt as a person can possibly be (though this itself may extend into rudeness, though she rarely identifies it as such and is quick to defend it), and tends to be more so when she actively likes or dislikes a person. She gives little thought to the finer feelings, because her own happen to have little sway over her actions -- instead she is a healthy example of giving what she gets. This may at times result in liberal application of either the sharp side of her tongue or her parasol. The latter gets her into as much trouble as the former.
Alexia’s prime passion is scientific advancement and discovery. Though she is not a scientist herself, she is forever upending libraries and picking the brains of any intelligent person she comes across. New inventions and discoveries will always attract her attention and respect. Through the series, Alexia’s motives through the plots often involve her interest in these matters. Glassicals (microscopes), dirigibles (blimps), and aethographors (message transmitters) are only a few examples.
Beyond reading, another of Alexia’s interests is food, and a well-laid table or an excellent tea often go quite a ways to improving her opinion of a person as well as her mood. She eats enough to prompt a good many characters to comment on it, and her indulgence results in a fuller figure than the societal norm. Despite this, she keeps active and strong through activities such as horseback riding and taking frequent walks.
Alexia does not in fact have a soul. She does however have a heart and a mind; she is still human. However, this makes her almost overwhelmingly pragmatic. Though she isn’t inclined to emotional displays, she possesses the full range of human feelings. Despite having these feelings, they tend to be run through a filter of how sensible they are before she expresses them. She can be upset or embarrassed, critical of herself (usually in terms of her looks) and feel betrayed, hurt, repulsed, and uneasy. However, it is extremely hard to scare her, and despite being a lady of fine breeding and sensibility, she isn’t given to hysterics or fainting. Often her overt practicality and bluntness get her into trouble with the sensibilities of society, but she has no problem defending her own actions. The only time she might be ashamed of herself would be if she she had made some type of stupid mistake. Even then, she wouldn’t dwell on it long.
She understands the concepts of good and evil but thinks more in the terms of what is sensible and will help her country, her friends, and her own well being. She recognizes and appreciates kindness, trustworthiness and loyalty.
Alexia herself is not bothered by her soulless state. It is simply how she’s always been, and she does not consider herself either more or less because of it. It simply is.
With her own inability to be creative, Alexia tends to surround herself with all manner of characters that fill in the gaps in her own personality, friends she can rely on when she needs help, advice, or just an interesting day. She is the type to never let a problem lie, but that certainly does not mean she goes looking for trouble, or involving herself in useless pursuits.
A last passing but still somewhat important note because it creates an impact on how Alexia feels about herself; Alexia is half Italian, raised English. She has a strong Roman nose, a large mouth and tan skin, which make her look rather odd alongside thin, pale, delicate-featured English ladies. This, along with her abrasive nature, helped to dramatically slim her prospects of marriage. Though she doesn’t feel any angst associated with the matter, she is very aware how she is perceived by those around her.
Background:Alexia’s home canon is set in an alternate Victorian era London, in a steampunk-style world where vampires, werewolves and ghosts have made steps to integrate themselves into polite society. However, all the culture remains rather close to Victorian-era London, despite the additions of vampires in business, werewolves in the military, ghosts as spies, and dirigibles as viable modes of transportation.
First and foremost, it must be made clear that Alexia has no soul. The BUR (Bureau of Unnatural Registration) classifies her state as “Preternatural”. The reason for this state of being lies with Alexia’s father, Alessandro Tarabotti. The man was also soulless (for the trait always breeds true), Italian, and is quite thoroughly dead at the time of the series beginning. After he died, Alexia’s mother Leticia married Squire Herbert Loontwill and proceeded to have two rather silly daughters, Evylin and Felicity. Alexia does not get along with her family. The Loontwill ladies are fashionable, beautiful, and… that is quite all. They share absolutely no interests. Alexia describes her mother as “prone to wearing yellow and having hysterics”. This often results in all manner of squabbles at the breakfast table.
When Alexia was six years old, a very nice older gentleman of the Bureau of Unnatural Registry paid her a visit to inform her of her soulless state. Even at that age, Alexia had simply accepted what that meant, and promptly read up on Greek philosophy dealing reason, morals, and ethics extensively, figuring that being without a soul, she ought to acquire something to serve in its stead.
It seems that Alexia was always meant to be a spinster. At the age of fifteen, when most young girls reached viable age to start looking for a husband, her mother simply never bothered to go to expense of a coming-out party in the hope of attracting prospects. Mrs. Loontwill simply figured that on account of Alexia’s looks, personality and being excessively inclined to the scientific, she wasn’t worth investing the time or expense. Therefore, Alexia went on the shelf and remained there. Though Alexia never pointedly wished for a husband, it would have been nice to have the option of having one. Instead, she considers her prospects a complete wash, and rather relishes the freedom of it, as well as the ability to duck certain societal norms expected of young ladies. (The constant presence of a chaperon, for instance.)
At some point between this and the start of the series, there was the “hedgehog incident”, which has never fully been explained in detail, but created a mixed impression with a loud, Scottish, emotional werewolf Alpha, Conall Maccon, Earl of Woolsey, as his sensible, plain and dignified Beta, Professor Randolph Lyall.
The very beginning of the series opens with twenty-six year old Alexia at a ball inside the homestead of yet another member of the London elite, who had not provided any sort of meal at the get-together. Starving, Alexia finds a quiet library and orders a tea from the staff. Shortly after it’s delivered, she is accosted by a vampire with a lisp, who promptly attempts to attack and feed from her without even introducing himself. Naturally, Alexia picks up her parasol and proceeds to give him a few stiff whacks with it, and then remove a wooden hairstick from her hair, setting it to his chest in order to make him behave.
Strangely, when Alexia’s touch reverts the vampire to human, he does not understand the effect, nor does he recognize a Preternatural (see powers/abilities for a full synopsis of this effect). Though the existence of Preternaturals is largely kept a secret from the daylight community, all of the Supernatural sect are well-versed exactly what a Preternatural is, and how potentially dangerous they are.
After a bit of verbal sparring, the vampire simply attacks her again with the hairstick lodged a few inches under his skin. Alexia manages, by dumb luck and heavy application of her parasol, to lodge it into his heart and kill him.
In the ensuing hullabaloo, Alexia pretends to faint to avoid being questioned, though she is “woken up” by Lord Maccon and Professor Lyall, who were in attendance to the ball but also happen to be ranking officials within the BUR. Alexia and Lord Maccon have a few heated words, and Professor Lyall confirms the fallen vampire to be of the Westminster hive, though with a badly-tied cravat and a terribly starched shirt, he doesn’t seem the right fit for such a high-ranking hive of vampires. Add that to his utter lack of a supernatural education, and nothing seems to quite fit.
Alexia again insists to Lord Maccon that she could be of use to the BUR in investigating this sort of thing, but he brushes her off. The next day, after a bit of breakfast table discomfort with Alexia’s family, she sets out for a walk with her friend Ivy Hisselpenny, a particularly dramatic young lady who tends to wear horrible hats. As they walk about the park they are approached instead by a Miss Mabel Dair, a drone (or servant) of the Westminster Hive of vampires. Miss Dair delivers an invitation to Alexia asking her to call on the Countess Nadasty, Queen of the Westminster Hive.
Alexia then consults with her dear friend, a flamboyant rove vampire called Lord Akeldama, who seems to be one of the greatest dealers of information in all of the books (as well as a powerful presence), and he confirms the fact that it’s very likely something odd is happening. Either the Countess knows what happened with the vampire in the library and wishes to “urge” Alexia to keep quiet, or given the circumstances, there might be something deeper, something that she believes Alexia would know about.
Lord Akeldama urges her to go to Lord Maccon to attempt to “use her feminine wiles” to extract as much information as possible out of him before going to see the Countess.
Upon consulting Lord Maccon the next morning, they have come to a conclusion; either the Countess is metamorphosing new vampires without BUR registry (which would be incredibly strange, considering what a grand affair a successful metamorphosis is), or they have a rove Queen (a Queen being the only type of vampire able to metamorphose others in Alexia’s world), changing new vampires outside of registry -- a potential problem that could be very serious for the current civilized state of the vampire community.
The meeting serves to establish quite a bit of unresolved sexual tension between the two, mostly on Lord Maccon’s part, and mostly of the sort of him being very frustrated with Alexia in general.
That night, Alexia is reduced to sneaking out of her own home with the help of her very capable butler, Floote (said butler having been an attendant of her fathers’, and the only one in the household aware of her soullessness).
Alexia, finally in the company of the Countess Nadasty, is exposed to vampire politics and finds herself thoroughly disgusted fairly quickly. After threatening to leave, she sits down to a very uncomfortable tea with the Countess, in which the vampire reveals that the vampire that attacked her was not one of hers, and in fact the hive is terribly wary of it all. Despite this, they won’t give her more information, insisting it will be dealt with internally as a threat to the hive itself, and they find themselves at a standstill.
As she leaves, Alexia is accosted by the French maid Angelique, who pleads with her to take a message to the BUR: vampires, especially roves, are going missing. Her master had been one, and she fears she won’t last long in the Countess’ care.
Vampires are going missing, as well as appearing out of thin air.
Upon leaving, Alexia walks right into a kidnapping attempt in the form of a strange carriage, a man in shadows, and another man that seems to be made entirely of wax. While they attempt to drug her with chloroform, Alexia struggles long enough to enable Lord Maccon to come crashing into the carriage in part-wolf form, savage the wax man and save her, though the assailants get away.
They are about to get to resolving their sexual tension when they are interrupted by Professor Lyall, back from a trip to research the surrounding area. Apparently, many loner werewolves have gone missing as well, pointing to something much more widespread.
After this, the book begins to focus more on Alexia and Lord Maccon’s lack of ability to understand each others’ motives and wants, which eventually culminates in them discovered in a compromising position by Alexia’s mother, who berates Alexia extensively and demands Lord Maccon marry her, though Alexia refuses on grounds of entrapment, refusing to believe Lord Maccon would be interested in actually marrying her.
The plot picks back up again when Alexia’s files at the BUR go missing, and the wax man makes a reappearance in the middle of the night outside of Alexia’s window, though he’s fought off by a security detail of several BUR vampires.
By now it is the full moon, and instead of staying in, Alexia goes to visit Lord Akeldama, who dismisses his drones for the night (as the full moon generally becomes a night of merry-making for vampire households, werewolves otherwise occupied) and settles in for a visit alone with Alexia. Unfortunately this visit is crashed by several hired men, as well as the very same wax man. Though they appear to be after Lord Akeldama, Alexia is also drugged with chloroform and quite rudely kidnapped.
It is at this point she appears in Adstringendum, as ruffled as an angry goose.
Abilities/Additional Notes: Alexia was born without a soul. Rather than being a power, it is a state of living and requires no thought on her part to inflict the influence of her soullessness. Mere contact with her will cause her Preternatural abilities to take effect, even through thick clothing.
Alexia’s very soullessness acts as a black hole, or void. Vampires call her “soul-sucker” and werewolves call her “curse-breaker”. Because vampires, werewolves and ghosts in Alexia’s world are created through an excess of soul combined with the right metamorphosis, she is able to nullify them through touch.
Alexia’s physical touch to a supernatural or superhuman being of any ilk returns them instead to human form. The form they are returned to is fully functioning; in later books Conall, a werewolf, grows stubble overnight when he sleeps while touching her -- and they make a point to avoid contact while sleeping, because he will age, and potentially grow old and die.
In the case of ghosts, which are not alive and have mostly crossed over, Alexia must find their remains and touch them to enact her abilities. Her very touch breaks their tether to the world of the living and allows them to move on to the afterlife. Humans are seemingly unaffected by her touch.
Because Alexia’s ability nullifies the supernatural influence of soul matter, any abilities that rely on a soul’s influence to function (such as the powers of the shinigami, alchemy, etc) this would mean that through the duration of Alexia touching a character, their abilities and state would be returned to that of a ordinary human.
Magic, also being a supernatural ability, would either completely dissipate or bounce off of her, having a completely lack of effect. Though this means that she would be unable to be harmed by magic, this almost means she would be unable to be helped by it. Healing abilities and the like will be of no help to her.
Her soullessness creates almost a negative space. To anyone able to see/sense souls, she would appear as a void in the world.
To add, the Preternatural ability seems linked with Alexia’s physical form. Changeless, the second book of the series, describes the act of always completely cremating the body of a Preternatural after death. The body of a Preternatural, mummified and preserved, expanded the being’s influence to a radius of all of London and some surrounding countryside. Alexia keeps this particular knowledge secret, knowing that her very blood, skin, bones and innards could all potentially be used as a lethal weapon against the Supernatural community. As if anyone needed more of a reason to kill her.
Aside from being without a soul, Alexia is otherwise an athletic, healthy, but very ordinary human woman. She can swing a very mean parasol (as Lord Maccon can attest) but otherwise is generally not a threat.
Sample Journal Post: [There is a very pronounced rustle of taffeta skirts and ivory satin, followed by a huff of a rather perturbed lady. The accent that comes forth is upper-crust London, make no mistake.]
Of all the bothers. To wake up in the middle of some -- some wasteland! How very unnecessary and inefficient. One must hope, if one is kidnapped, to have the comfort of it being done by professionals.
[She pauses, getting a better grip on a sturdy parasol -- one with what appears to be a silver buckshot at the tip. After another few moments of pondering and searching about, she picks up the PCD, giving a much better shot of her face. Coffee-colored skin, dark eyebrows and eyes, a very full mouth and a somewhat large nose.
Both angular eyebrows lift upwards as she begins to tweak the knobs and buttons, looking quite fascinated with it.
Ladies and gentleman, Alexia Tarabotti.]
Sample RP: Of all the bothers indeed. Alexia had spent the better part of several minutes attempting to navigate the debris in boots, which was proving to be quite the impractical thing. Broken glass and exposed, rusty nails made it a terrible idea to remove them, either- though Alexia shuddered at the very thought of being barefoot outside one’s home.
She took to prodding bits of debris with her parasol, listening carefully for any signs of life -- had she been with a soul, she might have been thoroughly spooked and impossibly worried, but all that managed to get through was a touch of apprehension at not immediately finding a certain flamboyantly-dressed vampire in her company.
Gradually, she came to the conclusion that the assailants had been after said vampire, and they had dumped her in this wasteland along the way, having somehow found her superfluous -- which was odd, as the wax man had attempted to kidnap her twice before and had finally succeeded. She shuddered in disgust at the thought of that creature, though it was beyond her to imagine what they might be doing with her friend in her absence. In this case, her lack of imagination was preferable.
There were no carriage marks. Indeed, there were no fresh footprints anywhere about, other than hers. She began to find herself somewhat annoyed and intensely curious. What a frustratingly involved sort of mystery. If only she could find some sort of clue-
Ah-ha. A small device, black against the darkness, possessed of buttons, a screen and a small, blinking red light.
What a nicely tidy place to start.