0: Info
Character Name: Alice Morgan
Series: Luther
Age: Never stated; estimating 26
From When?: The end of the series finale - see History
Inmate/Warden: Inmate. Alice is a killer. She knows the difference between right and wrong but just doesn't care.
Abilities/Powers: N/A, she's very clever but that's it.
Personality:
Alice is a malignant narcissist; her pathological need for attention and validation can be likened to a drug addiction. She will threaten, kill and manipulate to make sure that she is someone's centre of attention, to the extent that Luther had to threaten to frame someone else for the murder of her parents to make her back off (see History); she would sooner do as he asked than let someone else take the credit for her work and deprive her of her place at the centre of her parents' mysterious murder.
Her motivations are unknowable by design. When asked why she killed her parents, she simply says it was because she wanted to; given the lack of any triggering event besides a slow build of resentment, this may well be true, although she may have needed to carry out the act to reassure herself of her sense of identity; she felt compelled to keep potentially damning evidence as a reminder of who she really was under the various acts she played. She describes herself once as being 'slightly kooky, a bit random' but her behaviour doesn't bear this out; she does very little on the spur of the moment, and plans ahead very carefully. While she is more than intelligent enough to consider the consequences of her actions insofar as they will affect her or her plans, the wider moral ramifications are shrugged off as unimportant.
The way she relates to others is almost wholly negative; she perceives herself as being hurt, offended and humiliated by people around her, people of lesser minds and little insight. She matured early sexually, and may be quite promiscuous as a means of feeding her narcissism, but she considers her lovers with the same disregard as everyone else, bordering on disgust. The upshot of this is when she encounters someone who can keep up with her intellectually, someone she judges as being 'special', the way she relates to them becomes dangerously obsessive.
In day-to-day interactions, her affect changes enormously depending on who she's talking to and what she expects to get out of the conversation. When she first met Luther after her parents' deaths, she was playing the broken, pathetic victim almost perfectly; when he saw through her she dropped the act, almost gloating over the fact that they both knew she was the killer but he couldn't prove it. At other times she plays seductress, at others the academic, and sometimes behaves like a malicious, gleeful little girl.
At almost all times she's articulate, eloquent and rarely attempts to conceal her intelligence; generally she's good-tempered and rarely outright abusive. The only exception is when she feels like she's being ignored; she responds with deeply felt anger when someone turns their back, doesn't let her get the last word in or responds to her highly dubious 'favours' with ingratitude. During these rages she can be very petty and sullen.
After getting over the initial 'wtf' of the Barge, Alice will probably quite enjoy herself, and will at least attempt to foster several different personalities when dealing with different people so as to get the greatest possible benefit.
Path to Redemption:
Within her canon timeline, Alice had become a little more human; she saw herself as being capable of experiencing love, which was new, although what she did out of her 'love' for Luther was pretty batshit by most people's standards. She isn't a psychopath, but the emotions she's feeling and the emotions she's expressing can be completely at odds.
Ideally, she will need a Warden who can keep up with her intellectually without being closed off emotionally. Treating her need for attention as you'd treat a child's - by ignoring bad behaviour and rewarding good - just won't work; she'll just keep acting out with increasing violence until she gets her validation somewhere. Any decent Warden will be able to curb most of her more malicious tendencies just by being active and attentive.
Her decision to kill her parents as a means of grabbing attention was probably influenced by her resentment over how quickly her fame as a genius burnt out; to graduate, she will need to start perceiving her intellect as something positive, not just as a tool to mess with other people and satisfy her ego. Her narcissism is not something that is ever going to go away but it can be fed with positive accomplishments in her field of expertise.
History:
A celebrated child prodigy, Alice attended Oxford University at the age of 13 and left aged 18 with a PhD in the distribution of dark matter in disc galaxies. It was likely the media attention, high expectations, and sense of superiority placed upon her during her formative years that seeded her poisonous narcissism as an adult. She also came to resent her parents, who had basked in the light of her genius without having any real understanding of their daughter or her work. When she vanished from the limelight, working as a research fellow in London, she turned to more malign ways of satisfying her need for attention: she shot both her parents and their dog, and - by using a polymer-frame gun, hidden in the dog's body, knowing it would be incinerated - destroyed any forensic evidence that would link her to the crime.
DCI John Luther, the lead detective on the case, saw through her 'mourning daughter' act - much to her delight - but couldn't prove that she was the killer. Seeing him as a worthy adversary, perhaps even a kindred spirit, Alice started doing 'favours' for Luther - she threatened Luther's estranged wife, Zoe, and set a gang of girls on Zoe's lover as part of a convoluted (yet ultimately successful) plan to get Zoe and Luther back together. At the same time, although he denied that they were friends, Luther used her as a sounding board on ongoing cases, knowing that she had the mind of a killer.
Although he claimed to hate her meddling, eventually Luther used Alice's preoccupation to his advantage. Henry Madsen, a paedophile he had tried to kill, had awoken from his coma and was sure to give up Luther; Luther told Alice that while the Madsen investigation was hanging over his head, he couldn't see her any more. Predictably enough, Alice responded by setting Madsen's hospital on fire to create a distraction while she swanned into his room and suffocated him. It's overwhelmingly likely that she knew she was being manipulated but just didn't care.
Eventually, when Luther's was framed for Zoe's murder - by a colleague and close friend, Ian - he went to Alice for help getting his revenge, and she agreed with great enthusiasm. Eventually they tricked Ian into a showdown at a deserted railway station; Luther refused to kill him, wanting him to serve hard time for what he'd done, but Alice picked up the slack with remarkable cheerfulness and shot Ian, killing him instantly.
By this point, they were surrounded by armed police who were preparing to storm the station. For the purposes of the game, I will use this as a point of near-death for Alice - who was already a murder suspect and holding a smoking gun.
User Name/Nick: Naomi
User LJ: asyndeta
AIM/IM: metonumia
E-mail: asyndeta@gmail.com
Other Characters: Tosh, Shego, Iroh
Series: Luther
Age: Never stated; estimating 26
From When?: The end of the series finale - see History
Inmate/Warden: Inmate. Alice is a killer. She knows the difference between right and wrong but just doesn't care.
Abilities/Powers: N/A, she's very clever but that's it.
Personality:
Alice is a malignant narcissist; her pathological need for attention and validation can be likened to a drug addiction. She will threaten, kill and manipulate to make sure that she is someone's centre of attention, to the extent that Luther had to threaten to frame someone else for the murder of her parents to make her back off (see History); she would sooner do as he asked than let someone else take the credit for her work and deprive her of her place at the centre of her parents' mysterious murder.
Her motivations are unknowable by design. When asked why she killed her parents, she simply says it was because she wanted to; given the lack of any triggering event besides a slow build of resentment, this may well be true, although she may have needed to carry out the act to reassure herself of her sense of identity; she felt compelled to keep potentially damning evidence as a reminder of who she really was under the various acts she played. She describes herself once as being 'slightly kooky, a bit random' but her behaviour doesn't bear this out; she does very little on the spur of the moment, and plans ahead very carefully. While she is more than intelligent enough to consider the consequences of her actions insofar as they will affect her or her plans, the wider moral ramifications are shrugged off as unimportant.
The way she relates to others is almost wholly negative; she perceives herself as being hurt, offended and humiliated by people around her, people of lesser minds and little insight. She matured early sexually, and may be quite promiscuous as a means of feeding her narcissism, but she considers her lovers with the same disregard as everyone else, bordering on disgust. The upshot of this is when she encounters someone who can keep up with her intellectually, someone she judges as being 'special', the way she relates to them becomes dangerously obsessive.
In day-to-day interactions, her affect changes enormously depending on who she's talking to and what she expects to get out of the conversation. When she first met Luther after her parents' deaths, she was playing the broken, pathetic victim almost perfectly; when he saw through her she dropped the act, almost gloating over the fact that they both knew she was the killer but he couldn't prove it. At other times she plays seductress, at others the academic, and sometimes behaves like a malicious, gleeful little girl.
At almost all times she's articulate, eloquent and rarely attempts to conceal her intelligence; generally she's good-tempered and rarely outright abusive. The only exception is when she feels like she's being ignored; she responds with deeply felt anger when someone turns their back, doesn't let her get the last word in or responds to her highly dubious 'favours' with ingratitude. During these rages she can be very petty and sullen.
After getting over the initial 'wtf' of the Barge, Alice will probably quite enjoy herself, and will at least attempt to foster several different personalities when dealing with different people so as to get the greatest possible benefit.
Path to Redemption:
Within her canon timeline, Alice had become a little more human; she saw herself as being capable of experiencing love, which was new, although what she did out of her 'love' for Luther was pretty batshit by most people's standards. She isn't a psychopath, but the emotions she's feeling and the emotions she's expressing can be completely at odds.
Ideally, she will need a Warden who can keep up with her intellectually without being closed off emotionally. Treating her need for attention as you'd treat a child's - by ignoring bad behaviour and rewarding good - just won't work; she'll just keep acting out with increasing violence until she gets her validation somewhere. Any decent Warden will be able to curb most of her more malicious tendencies just by being active and attentive.
Her decision to kill her parents as a means of grabbing attention was probably influenced by her resentment over how quickly her fame as a genius burnt out; to graduate, she will need to start perceiving her intellect as something positive, not just as a tool to mess with other people and satisfy her ego. Her narcissism is not something that is ever going to go away but it can be fed with positive accomplishments in her field of expertise.
History:
A celebrated child prodigy, Alice attended Oxford University at the age of 13 and left aged 18 with a PhD in the distribution of dark matter in disc galaxies. It was likely the media attention, high expectations, and sense of superiority placed upon her during her formative years that seeded her poisonous narcissism as an adult. She also came to resent her parents, who had basked in the light of her genius without having any real understanding of their daughter or her work. When she vanished from the limelight, working as a research fellow in London, she turned to more malign ways of satisfying her need for attention: she shot both her parents and their dog, and - by using a polymer-frame gun, hidden in the dog's body, knowing it would be incinerated - destroyed any forensic evidence that would link her to the crime.
DCI John Luther, the lead detective on the case, saw through her 'mourning daughter' act - much to her delight - but couldn't prove that she was the killer. Seeing him as a worthy adversary, perhaps even a kindred spirit, Alice started doing 'favours' for Luther - she threatened Luther's estranged wife, Zoe, and set a gang of girls on Zoe's lover as part of a convoluted (yet ultimately successful) plan to get Zoe and Luther back together. At the same time, although he denied that they were friends, Luther used her as a sounding board on ongoing cases, knowing that she had the mind of a killer.
Although he claimed to hate her meddling, eventually Luther used Alice's preoccupation to his advantage. Henry Madsen, a paedophile he had tried to kill, had awoken from his coma and was sure to give up Luther; Luther told Alice that while the Madsen investigation was hanging over his head, he couldn't see her any more. Predictably enough, Alice responded by setting Madsen's hospital on fire to create a distraction while she swanned into his room and suffocated him. It's overwhelmingly likely that she knew she was being manipulated but just didn't care.
Eventually, when Luther's was framed for Zoe's murder - by a colleague and close friend, Ian - he went to Alice for help getting his revenge, and she agreed with great enthusiasm. Eventually they tricked Ian into a showdown at a deserted railway station; Luther refused to kill him, wanting him to serve hard time for what he'd done, but Alice picked up the slack with remarkable cheerfulness and shot Ian, killing him instantly.
By this point, they were surrounded by armed police who were preparing to storm the station. For the purposes of the game, I will use this as a point of near-death for Alice - who was already a murder suspect and holding a smoking gun.
User Name/Nick: Naomi
User LJ: asyndeta
AIM/IM: metonumia
E-mail: asyndeta@gmail.com
Other Characters: Tosh, Shego, Iroh