Application for babylonwood

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The Player
User Name/Nick: Katie
User LJ: superkappa
AIM/IM: MoonGoddessSK
E-mail: mostlyverytired@gmail.com
Other Characters: Cordelia Chase

The Character
Character Name: Jessica Hamby
Character Journal: virginvampire
Canon: True Blood
Age: 17
From When?: The end of “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’”, the season two finale, right before she chooses to seduce and drain the random truck driver.

Abilities/Powers: She has typical vampire abilities such as superhuman strength, speed, and heightened healing and senses. She is also immortal. When Bill teaches her how to glamour people it seems to be one of her strengths, she is naturally very gifted at doing it. She can even glamour several people at once, something much older and stronger vampires cannot accomplish. Being a vampire, she does have several weaknesses: a wooden stake to the heart, silver, fire and sunlight.
Power Limitations: She’s not particularly strong because she’s such a new vampire, honestly. The only thing that she’s particularly strong at is glamouring people, and if that needs to be toned down, it certainly could be.
Inventory
-Strapless red dress
-Purse
-Bracelet
-Necklace
-Dinner purse
-High heeled shoes
-A THIRST FOR HUMAN BLOOOODDDD

Personality:
Jessica is almost the living embodiment of the old nursery rhyme, "There was a girl, who had a curl in the middle of her forehead, and when she was good she was very good, and when she was bad she was horrible."

That is to say, Jessica is the sort of character who has two dueling natures. Part of this is because she's a vampire, and part of it because she lived a very, very repressed life before she was turned and now she suddenly has all this freedom and power for the first time ever in her life, and she has no idea how to deal with any of it.

For the most part, Jessica tries to be a good girl like she was always raised to be. And sometimes, it actually works. When she's with Hoyt, who usually shows her love and acceptance, she's sweet and calm. The normal childish tendencies that can be seen in her as assuaged because she doesn't have to worry about him liking her or not, he already does. For the first time in her life, someone just accepts and loves her, and it feels almost too good to be true.

And that's important to her, because what Jessica wants and needs more than anything else in life is acceptance. It was something she never got from her father who repressed and beat her, and her mother who turned a blind eye to her plight. When she got turned she looked for it from Bill, Eric and Pam but they all decided she was too annoying to deal with. And that's hard on her, because she feels like she doesn't have a place in the world. She's not like the other vampires, but she's not a regular girl either. And she doesn't know what she wants to be. This is why when Hoyt breaks up with her in the end of season two, it's extremely traumatizing on her. Because he was the one person who seemed to love her no matter what, and in her eyes she screwed that up too. So what was the point in trying anymore?

She's very fragile, and at this point in her life, she could really go one of two ways. She could grow into being a powerful, good vampire, or she could become an out of control monster. The problem is part of her wants to be both, she is torn between her two innate natures. More than anything else, she wants someone else to tell her what to be, to shower her what's right, but she has no guidance. Bill turned her and then basically abandoned her and she has all these changes and urges that she just doesn't understand. So it makes her angry, because that's how most people respond to that which they don't understand.

In many ways, Jessica is like a small child. Though she wants to be good, to be liked and loved, she's very immature. When she doesn't get her way, she's very likely to sling insults and pout and throw fits. The world seems unfair to her, like it's picking on her for some reason she can't understand. This is especially seen in her interactions with Bill, who she blames for her situation, as he's the one who turned her in the first place.

Even when she manages to find things to be happy, it seems like she's always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Because she's not used to things going right in her life because they never have before. In a way, a lot of her acting out is a form of deflection. A way to try to push people away before they can get too close and hurt her. And even when she does manage to form a bond, she can never understand it. Because she hates herself and doesn’t know how to love who or what she’s become, she can’t understand why anyone else would care about her.

Jessica also has a lot of anger in her and has no idea how to control herself when she gets angry. This is shown when she tries to get revenge on her father for beating her, or when she bites Hoyt's mother for insulting her and her relationship with Hoyt. Because Bill is always off with Sookie or doing other things than teaching Jessica she has no idea how to control her vampiric nature.

But one of the most humanizing things about Jessica is that she still feels intense guilt over the things she does after she loses control. She still has a conscience, and because of that, when she messes up it just reconfirms her already existing ideas about lack of self worth. Although she initially seems to really enjoy the freedom that was given to her by being turned, it’s also caused her to see herself as something less than human. More and more, she begins seeing herself as a monster, because how could she do the things she does without being one?

This is especially true for the canon point I am pulling her from. In a lot of ways, she sees killing that man on accident as the point of no return. She was a monster who wasn't allowed to be happy, that's how she saw herself. But by picking her up before that, it gives her a chance to go another route, perhaps one that teaches her control and a way to like herself. A way to exist in something other than self loathing and shame.


History:
Jessica Hamby was born and raised to a middle class, extremely Christian family. Because of her family's upbringing, she was sent to a small school and kept away from most of the world. She wasn't allowed a computer or a cell phone, and the only music she was allowed to listen to was Christian Rock, if you can call that music.

The few priveleges she did have were only earned by doing chores and keeping up good grades. Most of her lessons were geared toward teaching her own to be a proper lady. She was to dress in plain, knee length dresses, sit right and things of that general nature. If she somehow failed to meet her father's standards, he would punish her by taking out his belt and beating with her. Her mother was either too dumb to notice, or too scared to say anything. Either way, she didn't dare interfere.

Because of her father's abusive nature, Jessica very rarely dared to rebel. It wasn't worth it. But one night, her friends told her about how they were going to sneak out and go to a party, and she decided to take a risk and sneak out as well. Though she knew she was taking a risk, she had no idea how much this act of rebellion would end up costing her. While she is out she is kidnapped by a group of vampires and stuffed into the back seat of a care. She had no idea where they were taking her, but when they got there she was presented in the middle of a tribunal for Bill Compton. She was offered up as his punishment, he would have to turn her into a vampire to make up for the one that he killed. There was no real rhyme or reason to why Jessica was chosen for this, she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

After Jessica woke up from the grave Bill had dug for her, she was a vampire, and completely estatic. The way she saw it, she would never have to obey rules or anything else ever again. No more worrying about Daddy or his belt, she was finally free. Bill squashes this idea about as quickly as it formed. He insists that she has to mainstream and drink True Blood like he does.

She stayed with Eric and Pam for a while at Fangtasia, as Bill had other things he needed to take care of. This was where she got her first taste of real freedom. She was allowed to do pretty much whatever she wanted and allowed to dress however she wanted. This made it even more difficult for her when she was returned to Bill for being "too annoying."

Though she often disagreed and rebelled against Bill, she bonded with his girlfriend Sookie almost immediately. She gets Sookie to take her to see her family, where she sneaks inside to talk to them, going against her promise not to do so. When her father starts to yell at her, she fights back, nearly killing him with the belt he used to beat her with. Bill's interference is the only thing that keeps her from going through with it.

One night when Bill was out and had left her inside the house all by herself yet again, Jessica headed out to Merlott's, the local bar. It was there that she met Hoyt, and they were instantly attracted to one another. She took him back to Bill's where he taught her how to play the Wii and they kissed. When her fangs appeared out of arousal, she was embarrassed, but he comforted her, telling her he liked her just the way she was. They they continued making out until Bill arrived and found them, throwing Hoyt out. He claimed he was doing it for Hoyt's sake, because Jessica was too dangerous.

She then goes to Dallas with Sookie and Bill, where she is mostly left by herself in the hotel room. She uses the cell phone that she glamoured someone into giving her and she talks to Hoyt on the phone nightly until suddenly, she can't reach him anymore. She gets angry and starts pouring out True Blood and lashing out until he suddenly arrives there, explaining that his mother had cut off his cell phone service.
Hoyt stays with her in Dallas, and it is there that they both loose their virginity to one another. Eventually, Bill catches them again and sends them back to Bon Temps. When they get there, they attempt to have sex once more and this is when Jessica discovers that her hymen regrew. Because she was a virgin when she was turned into a vampire, she was going to be a virgin for the rest of her life. She was, neeedless to say, not pleased to hear this.

While the town is being overtaken by Maryanne, Hoyt's mother stays with them in Bill's house so they can keep an eye on her while under Maryanne's spell. She keeps insulting and provoking Jessica and eventually, Jessica cannot take it anymore, and lashes out, attacking his mother, trying to train her. Hoyt lashes out at her and breaks up with her.

After they break up, and everything seems ot be back to normal Jessica dresses up nice and tells Bill she's trying to make up with Hoyt. Spoiler: she isn't. Instead she's going out to try to seduce someone so she can feed on them. She ends up draining them too much and kills them. She's being picked up from right before she starts feeding on the poor unfortunate trucker.



First Person Sample: [5-10 Sentences]
[A video feed turns on. Jessica is staring at the screen, a little unsure about how to do this.]

Hello? Is this thing on or what? I ain't too good with technology stuff yet. Ain't got a lot of experience with it or nothin'.

So what is this weird place anyways? I mean, we got forests back in Bon Tomp, but they ain't nice or pretty like they are here. They're kind of just gross and dark there, not really the kinda place you'd wanna go out on your own in or anythin' like that.

I just wanna know why the hell I'm here already! I'm so hungry, I was just about to eat and everythin'. It's totally not fair at all.

Nothin' good ever hapens to me. It totally blows.

So does it beep when your time's up? I’m never quite sure just how you’re ‘sposed to work one of these things.
[She gets up and starts fiddling around with the buttons.]

Oh, maybe it's thi-

[Video is done transmitting.]


Prose Sample: [3-5 paragraphs, 3rd Person POV]
Jessica's eyes flew open and something suddenly seemed amiss. It was sunny. She hadn't felt the sunshine on her skin in months, not since Bill turned her, forced into becoming a monster. And it didn't hurt. She knew that it wouldn't have as strong of an effect on her as it would an older vampire like Bill or Eric but it should be having some sort of effect.

Maybe she was still asleep. Dreaming. Not that's dreamed since she was dead. So that couldn't be the case.

She rose to her feet, bearing her fangs in a careful stance. What was going on? Sure, there was wilderness back in Bon Temps, but none of it was as nice as the Woods here. It was all..surreal and pretty looking, like somethin' out of a dream or fairytale. But Jessica knew better than to give that thought much better. Life wasn't a fairytale, not when it came to her.

As she made her way through the trees, looking for a sign of anyone else the urge to feed was growing stronger. She was just about to eat before she suddenly ended up in the place. And she was so hungry and this was so unfair.

"Is anyone out there? I'm gettin' really sick and tired of just bein' by myself already. What is this place?" She called out. No answer. She paused, stomping on the ground and frowning before sitting down in the leaves with a pout.

"Why do these things always happen to me anyways? I'm so hungry and I'm all alone and this just sucks."

She'd think maybe she was being punished but she hadn't even fed on that guy yet. And it wasn't like she was gonna kill him or anything. She just wanted some fresh food for once. Was that so bad?

Apparently.


Special Notes: