Charlene "Charlie" Annick

Vintage Saga
Daughter of Cacophony
Keeper of Elysium at Harling's Upstairs

Description


~Blonde and beautiful, although hardly busty, Charlie strolls forward into the light. The young womans seems too thin, almost ungainly in her height-weight distribution. Nevertheless, her features emanate warmth and confidence. It's a self-assurance that borders on pre-emptive aggression, like a dog looking for an excuse to lash out and snap. Her sleek, golden hair is trimmed only short enough to bounce just below her slender neck. Her face boasts an intoxicating radiance from a combination of make-up and a surreal smile. Charlie may just be a girl by today's standards. But she knows fashion. She chooses gorgeous gowns or fancy lace, draping herself in black and white. Rarely will she be found "slumming" in casual street clothes. Charlie is pierced in both ears and the navel (although that's not always evident). She also dons a black leather collar from which silver rings dangle. All in all, she comes across as a glamour girl. Despite her excessive thinness, Charlie commands an alluring appeal. Her unblemished skin, vibrant hair, fashion sense, cerulean eyes, and her sweet smile lead those she meets to her captivating siren's voice.~

OOC: Appearance 3; Masquerade 3, Style 2; Clan Prestige 1, Fame 1; Baby Face

"You made me stronger/
You made me greater/
But you took everything away/
Everything that makes me me/
My sweet angel raped me."

History


Life

Always a resident of Kansas City, Charlie grew up in a loving, whole family. Her parents were fixated with middle class income. Charlie also had the benefit of a sibling, an older sister named Leslie whom she didn't ever quite get along with. But Charlie possessed plenty of friends as a girl and she was always a leader among her friends. She chose what they did that afternoon after school. It pretty much continued thusly through her youth.

But in mid-junior high and through high school, Charlie began to explore her talents. Like her big sister, she demonstrated a gift for the spoken and written language of man. She excelled in French and Spanish. Charlie was an attractive girl and threw herself into cheerleading and chorus. Her voice took off like a skyrocket: she was a natural soprano, the chorus director told her. She led the chorus with beautiful solos that brought tears to the eyes of parents at concerts. So Charlie began to take professional singing lessons. Her parents hoped that she'd follow up on her linguistic talent, as Leslie was doing. But they entertained her "new phase" and let her go to Angela Starling, a retired opera diva who lived out of town and now taught.

Under Angela's tutelage, Charlie explored and developed her natural gift for song. After months of lessons, the young-seeming Angela encouraged Charlie to follow her dreams. Charlie became enrapt with music. She could feel it welling up inside of her the more time she spent learning from Angela. With new lessons came new musical outbursts of wordless tunes she dreamed up. Music was at her fingertips, it seemed. She just couldn't pin it all down. Charlie brought her gift for language into it, trying to write lyrics to better nail down the music. But it didn't work. Growing frustrated with herself and depressed at her parents' insistence that she look to the future and go to college for language, Charlie began to isolate from her friends more and more. She also feared becoming just like her smart but somewhat pudgy sister. With all the fear and frustration and depression piling up, Charlie began to lose her appetite. And then she figured that it wasn't that big a deal. If she wanted to make her own future, she needed to look as gorgeous and slender as pop stars like Christina and Britney. She needed to shed some of her excess weight. In her senior year of high school, Charlie became bulimic. She didn't realize she just needed time to shed the last of her "baby fat". And no one told her otherwise; her parents never discovered her illness.

Then Charlie graduated high school in 2001. She graduated with honors and a scholarship to Kansas City University for Spanish. With this finality, her bulimia slowly faded off on its own. She abandoned her scholarship to begin singing some of the few original tunes she managed to put down in music and words in clubs. Angela sponsored her talent and helped her score her first few jobs. Her parents, however, were furious. They threatened to disown her if she didn't go to college, if she didn't take the academic opportunity her intelligence afforded. But Charlie refused to buckle under the parental pressure and fled her life-long home.

Embrace & Siring

Charlie went to Angela, crying for help. Angela took her into her home. And that's where Charlie learned what Angela really was: Kindred. A vampire. Angela offered the girl a chance to follow her dreams. Angela offered Charlie the Embrace. Charlie was promised immortality and freedom from the obligations that were tossed onto her shoulders. Angela warned the girl that the existence of the Kindred could be bleak sometimes. And that there were dangers from other vampires if she didn't get along. But hungering for that freedom to pursue her dreams, Charlie accepted Angela's offer. The vampire already retrieved permission from the Prince to Embrace Charlie if her life at home didn't work out. So the Change began. For the first time and last, Angela fed from Charlie and drained the life out of the girl. She fed her a copious amount of vitae back and Charlie arose one of the Kindred.

Although Charlie was still hungry, Angela took the time to begin explaining to her all the realities of being Kindred. Charlie learned of the Camarilla and the Traditions, the laws of the Prince. She was warned that blood was the life and that she would have to hunt and feed every night. Charlie began to have second thoughts right away. She knew that vampires drank blood -- who didn't know that? She just...didn't want to believe it. And now she was one of them. As repulsed by her true nature as she was, Charlie steeled herself to adapt as best she could. Charlie was introduced to the Prince. Then she returned to Angela's home, her haven, to learn all she could of her bloodline's special gifts. For Charlie learned of the Clans, and learned that she belonged to a rare breed of vampire -- the Daughters of Cacophony. Song was their trade. And with special training and tutelage from Angela over the next six months, Charlie developed her special powers of Melpominee.

Early Years

But then Angela had to move far away to give aid to her own sire back in Vienna, Austria. Charlie was alone in Kansas City, without clanmates or friends. She began to attend Camarilla Court and events, but she vastly felt out of place. Most of the other Clans wanted nothing to do with her, seeing her as mere "fluff". Even the Toreador, who had the most in common with her bloodline, largely dismissed and ostracized the fledgling. Only one, a Poseur named Ellen Reinfield, paid her much attention at all. Swiftly, Charlie began to feel depressed and lonely. Those feelings only compounded the disgust she felt for her true nature. She could barely handle hunting any longer. While luring a victim into the shadows and onto her fangs was easy for the attractive girl, the taste of blood brought dry heaves and vile horror forward. More than once, she vomited all the blood back up on her Vessel. Bulimia had returned. But Charlie was stubborn. She refused to accept the permanency of her vampiric state. But as much as she tried, she could not think of a substitute to drinking blood. She was lucky if she kept down a pint a week. Charlie's undead body only grew more and more fragile.

Yet while her body weakened, the music that had been locked up inside of her throughout her youth was released. Her amazing talent was soon put on display, as her only Kindred friend, Ellen, gave her a chance. She was allowed to perform at Ellen's favorite night club, the "Crimson Canary". That led to other jobs at other clubs and events. And in every performance, Charlie wowed the public with her intensity, beauty, and originality (comparatively considering the style of pop she employed). The bombshell exploded in the area from the summer of 2003 until the winter of 2004. Charlie was definitely making her mark and earning her kudos from distant clanmates -- letters of praise were sent to her new apartment at least once a month. Some Kindred who witnessed her performances even complimented with amazement at how her music tamed their hunger and restless souls.

Unfortunately, her frail body and bulimic feeding habit caught up with Charlie. The Hunger drove her to near maddening frenzies in back alleys. But every time, the good-natured young artist managed to restrain those urges. She fled back to her haven in crimson tears often. She would throw herself onto her bed and weep all night, pass out come dawn, and do it again the next night. Until finally, one morning, she didn't wake up at all...

The torpor only lasted a week, however. Charlie's desperate clutch to her humanity kept that nightmarish, deep sleep blissfully short compared to some vampires. When she stirred a week later, she found herself face down in a pool of her own tears. She felt the emptiness inside of her and lusted for blood even as that urge repulsed her still. Overcome with sorrow and depression, she buried herself back into her bed and willed herself back into the bloody nightmares. For two months Charlie slept. No one ever bothered to check on her. No one really even noticed that she was gone. Not even Ellen searched: "a flighty bloodline are the Daughters of Cacophony".

Recent Years

The Spring Equinox auspiciously drew Charlie back awake. She felt as though she learned nothing, however. Only the Hunger compelled her on raw instinct from her haven and down into the streets. She cornered a homeless man in a back alley and practically tore into the poor fellow. She backed away only as she felt the dying pulse of her victim. She left him in the garbage and rushed away in horror at what she had done. She called him an ambulance from the closest payphone. Then she curled up in a corner and sobbed again. The pulse of blood was replaced with the beat of music finally.

But she still felt terrible at what she did to the man. Charlie realized she did learn something: she'd have to be stronger. She learned that the Hunger could overwhelm her music. She learned that she would have to become a stronger girl altogether if she hoped to staunch the rabid instincts of the Beast Within. And Charlie knew that music was the key. If she could tame the savage beast in others, she could tame it in herself. Couldn't she?

So she almost immediately began to seek out friends to help her through her existence. She discovered Hannah Bell, a groupie fan from Charlie's past performance nights. The young woman proved to be an asset, versed in what would ultimately make her a decent ghoul. So after obtaining permission from the Prince, Charlie drew Hannah into the world of the Kindred as her personal steward. Then she turned her eyes to local musicians, searching for talent befitting a band in service to her musical gifts. Her ambitions as a performer were not reduced with the Embrace, clearly! On the contrary, Charlie found even higher hopes with her "unlocked" talent. It was just a matter of time and effort.

Harling's Upstairs


Harling's Upstairs thrives as an archetypal midtown bar, complete with live music every night of the week. From the street, it looks like an old brick building, the red blocks long faded to a deep gray hue. It's tucked in between several other storefronts and houses split into apartments. Parking is available in the back lot, but it's the bright dark-blue neon sign that catches the attention from the newspaper-littered street and sidewalk. Come dusk, powerful music pulses through the walls and thumps out an inviting rhythm to passersby.

The lobby is paneled in wood and dimly lit. The menu's specials and banners proclaiming the week's entertainers are posted here, along with many other sponsors and advertisements. The music overwhelms visitors as soon as they arrive, drawing them in to dance and drink, or turn away and leave now if they seek quieter venues. This place isn't for the quiet or the meek. This is for people who crave, who need, music pumped into their bodies intravenously. Classic, alternative, and Celtic rock dominates the week, though blues helps patrons chill out on Saturday.

Through the threshold of the lobby, the air is acrid with smoke and the scent of liquor. A centrally placed concrete dais lit with colorful lights and smoke machines host some local band and their drums, keyboards, and electric guitars trump the laughter and the deafening rumble of a couple dozen conversations. Directly back are the restrooms. To the right, the paneled walls are dominated by the lengthy and often crowded bar. Four or five bartenders are required to man the counter. Waitresses dance past groping hands and pass out ordered drinks to the score of circular tables filling up the first floor of Harling's Upstairs.

Iron steps twist upwards to the open second floor, allowing those on this surrounding landing to view the stage from above. More tables and dimmer lighting set a more private mood up here, which is actually the salon area of this Camarilla-claimed den. A dumbwaiter to the far right of Harling's Upstairs upstairs assists service. No riding! The far back of the upstairs area is shortened by the expansion of the wall to incorporate a small room. It is windowless and the door kept locked; it is assumed this is office space. To a degree it is, but it is actually fitted with lounge chairs and comfortable sofas. The desk and computer and paperwork are all shoved off to the side and out of the way. This is where visiting Kindred may relax and chat in private…or perhaps to indulge in "VIP" vessels.

And it is known that the Keeper of this Camarilla Elysium, Charlene "Charlie" Annick, is a very gracious hostess. She supplies ignorant "groupie" vessels to hungry visitors, from whom they may sip. And she herself provides entertainment beyond the ken of most listeners. She takes the stage and quiet awe descends on the crowd. Her rich soprano voice is no operetta, but it carries clearer than any pop tart go muster. It tickles the heart and soul and all to a modern melody. She embodies the bar's typical music of Celtic rock and colors it with a bit of peppy punk, as if she were a cross between Trina Meade and Gwen Stefani. Visiting Harling's Upstairs can be a nice break from more upper class establishments or a quick fix for those in a pinch for relatively clean vitae. But what price may visitors pay? The entrancing quality of Charlie's voice seems like it can turn anyone into a regular patron of Harling's Upstairs.

Weakness
Siren Surreality


Charlene conquered her debilitating horror regarding drinking the blood she requires to survive. But with that deepened self-confidence rose a quiet disturbance within the Siren. Her penchant for inspiring passions...and madness...are rising to climatic heights. Soon she will become all the things for which Sirens are feared and revered, hated and adored. The social isolation she will suffer will bring her much more misery, and that will only amplify the misery she pours back onto the world through her songs.

Likelihood of Corruption


Average.

She's a vampire that is fighting heartily against the Beast Within. She finds her outlets in music. But unfortunately, she's still but a whelp. Her fall from humanity is inevitable. On the bright side, though she doesn't realize it (since she hasn't even tried), she can't Embrace anyone even if she wanted to. Her "artificial bloodline" tends to lose all potency after 13th Generation.



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