Mendacity
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| "The Magnificent Mendacity" | |
| Mendacity | |
| Player: @Oubliette | |
| Origin: | Magic |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Controler |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Unknown |
| Known Aliases: | Anne, Annie Chapman, Black Annie. |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | Unknown |
| Height: | 5'10" |
| Weight: | 150 lbs |
| Eye Color: | Blue/Green |
| Hair Color: | Prematurely Grey / White |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Unknown, Previously believed British |
| Occupation: | Ex-Stage Magician |
| Place of Birth: | Unknown |
| Base of Operations: | Unknown |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Unknown |
| Known Powers | |
| Spellcasting, Spirit Summoning | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Perported expansive knowledge of magic and the mystical world. | |
| Equipment | |
| Antique chain (worn about her waist), 1932 Rolls-Royce Phantom | |
| ' | |
Avra-Kadavra!.
Contents |
Description
In public and while working as a 'hero', Mendacity wears her old stage costume (which some have suggested borders of public indecency) ; black fishnets, a silk tuxedo vest with tails, white gloves and of course, the chain around her waist she is never without. Her hair is shoulder length and silvery-grey one would expect of an old woman, though her face is that of someone no older than mid to late-twenties at most. She also has no defining marks or scars on her body.
When she's not in costume, she dresses in jeans, worn but comfortable sneakers, t-shirt and a weathered leather raincoat, though she's been known to dress up from time to time, favoring a decidedly 'punk/rebellious' motif.
Currently Mendacity, or Anne as she's known around her neighborhood, is living in Salamanca, in the Croatoa area just north of Paragon City, in a ground level apartment of a turn-of-the-century townhouse.
Personality
Irreverent and blunt are just a few of the kinder words that might be used by the other heroes of the world when describing Mendacity. If anyone in America could understand her thick English accent and British insults she would likely be considered vulgar. Unlike most heroes, she doesn't act as if she's above the rest of humanity, unrelated to their social needs and regularly flirts with other heroes and citizens alike, though she's rarely with anyone, seemingly having terrible luck with love. This could possibly have to do to her lack of social mores and brash manners. For example, at a recent memorial service for victims of the Rikti Attacks on Paragon City, she attempted to 'pick up' a Rhode Island Senator, much to the disapproval of other heroes. Mendacity was of course, shameless.
Mendacity doesn't bother with a dualistic identity as some heroes do. She's mostly comfortable being recognized as Mendacity out of the costume, being almost impossible due to wearing her chain belt at all times, but only gives her name as Anne. She seems to enjoy the limelight in costume but pointedly avoids reporters out of costume, clearly disliking questions about her past.
Recent History
During the end of 2007, the 'heroic' career she'd taken on has all but come to a halt as she tendered her resignation with the Pillars of Virtue for undisclosed reasons and fairly vanished from the public eye. Those that have seen her here and there, report that she's begun to speak with an American accent, mostly holding private discussions with various people, some masked, some civilian, notably, the hero Shadowstormm and the villain, Checkout Girl, though her motives and what was discussed remains unclear.
Stage Career
Mendacity first came on the scene in in the early late seventies as a stage magician's assistant, working under 'The Amazing Morto', a a bizarrist who performed all manner of elaborate tricks, but using a horror and mystical theme in performance.
On more than one occasion, he (in all likelihood) caused the death of an assistant or volunteer from the audience. After managed he orphaned two children, asking their mother to assist him with his trick "Faust's Wardrobe" and rendering her into a pile of ash, his career was in shambles. Nobody would work with him for fear of falling under the magician's 'curse', despite the prosecution failing to convict him due to an incredibly persuasive lawyer, (who showed up for that one case never to be heard from afterward).
A few years later, Morto re-emerged, with an unknown young woman bearing silver-grey hair. She took the stage with him and the dark cloud of death that befell any of Morto's assistants, passed. For a while, they enjoyed the limelight. Working the eastern seaboard; New York, The Catskills, Atlantic City. though they utterly avoided Vegas and Reno. For about five years, they were somewhat famous in the stage circuit. Then, in 1980, Morto simply vanished. Their next date was canceled and the grey-haired girl that brought Morto's doves on stage disappeared too.
Solo Career
In 1985, a new magician showed up, as the opening act. She bore the same silvery-grey hair and a variation on her assistant's costume, weilding a whole array of tricks that enchanted the audience and caught the attention of promoters and the media. Despite being offered high profile shows and venues, The Magnificent Mendacity declined in favor of smaller locations and last minute bookings, seemingly avoiding stardom.
Giving Up The Stage
On All-Hallows Eve in 2001, Mendacity gave her last performance at the Puzzle Box, a tiny and cramped little venue with a small (and mostly drunken) audience, doing her old routine as usual, except at the end, where she gave a long speech on the nature of Halloween night and it's significance to death and the departed. She finished her monologue by cracking open the already-thin veil between the spirit world and the living, allowing each one of them a personal visit with a dead relitive. This was met with mixed reaction, sending half the audience screaming from the club.
In the audience that night, was a man in attendance she'd heard of before but never met. After the show, they had a drink at the bar. He was Ross Coldwell and a member of the 'Midnight Squad', a team of mystics, magicians, and scholars, unified in defending Paragon City from evil occultists like the Circle of Thorns, though unlike other hero organizations, operating in secrecy. It is rumored that Mendacity was offered membership in the secretive organization, though, few know how the conversation ended.
The next day Mendacity notified her agent that she was out of the business and to cancel all booked engagements, giving no explanation, dropping out of the public spotlight then and there. Seven months later, the Rikti arrived.
On February 12th, Mandacity purportedly gave a private performance for somewhere in Paragon City, but despite the details being a mystery, speculation and rumor abound as she was seen in stage costume at the dimensional nightclub, Pocket D.
Equipment and Weaponry
Antique Chain Belt
Wrapped around her waist, locked in place by an antique padlock what seems to date from the 1800's, the chain seems to be hand forged links of a black metal with veins of green running through it. It gives off a light luminous cast in dim lighting and staring at it, others, empaths and those with a strong connection to the spirit world, swear that it whispers in an undecipherable tongue. Whatever it is, Mendacity has never discussed it to any living soul.
1932 Rolls-Royce Phantom
In 1952, the personal possessions of Pamela Colman-Smith, noted witch and writer, were auctioned off to satisfy debts accumulated in life. One of those items was her 1932 Rolls-Royce Phantom convertible and it was sold to an American actress famous for her roles in numerous German silent films from the 1930's.
A year later, in late September, the actress and socialite, driving the car in the Scottish Highlands with three friends on an excursion disappeared.
The vehicle appeared thirty years later when an antique automobile enthusiast spotted the Rolls-Royce outside a Manhattan nightclub, looking as if it had spent the last thirty years parked there, worn and dilapidated on the outside and inside as well though to a lesser extent. Recognizing several details unique to Coleman-Smith's car, he became exited and waited for the owner int he hopes of purchasing it, restoring it to it's former glory and adding it to his collection.
Mendacity, returning to the vehicle after a show, flatly refused to sell the antique, at any price, despite the man's generous offers, as well as refusing to discuss where she'd gotten it. He soon became angry, threatening to involved the police and slinging insults that likened the stage magician to a peddler of sexual delights (in a manner of speaking).
The would be purchaser was discovered the next morning in New York City bank vault, wearing a cocktail dress, bound, gagged with a stack of hundred dollar bills. He couldn't remember anything of the previous evening, how he ended up in the vault or where he'd gotten the donkey.
Since "officially" putting magic to the use of public interest, she has been seen driving the '32 Phantom in Paragon City as well as numerous cities across the globe, some on the same day, lending to the belief that either through magic of her own, or by some means of the vehicles, it can achieve trans-location. Additionally, despite it's dilapidated appearance, it runs exceptionally well with the engine having a deep echoing growl. People riding in the vehicle will sometimes notice a slight smell of decay and soil, occasionally catching a whiff of blood. Also, on the cream coloured calfskin seats are dark russet stains, evidence of bloodshed long since past, now just part of the leather's hue.
It has been rumored that attempts to chase down the auto have utterly failed and a 1994 Connecticut police report says after attempting to get the driver of the car to stop and giving chase for several miles, it entered a foggy stretch of highway and vanished.
The license place on the vehicle remains the once placed there by the original owner Pamela Colman-Smith in England. HEX-616.
Rumored Abilities
- Indestructability - The vehicle has thus far, survived all damage to it, returning to it's less than perfect but still very intact condition.
- Discorporation - Rumor circulates that the car has been seen to become a luminescent ghostly apparition and vanish, much like the ghost vehicle legend.
- Translocation - The car has been seen in more than one place in the same day, even thousands of miles apart.
Affiliations
- The Midnight Squad (Rumored)
- Pillars of Virtue - Mendacity publicly joined the 'Pillars' in 2007 after two minor failed attempts at being part of a team. Her style was unorthodox and soon the more narrow minded members became increasingly uncomfortable around her and rarely utilized her for tasks and with her increasingly long periods of disappearance that none seemed to be able to explain. The last time the Pillars saw her was during their 'thanksgiving day feast', after Mendacity had been out working rather than partaking, stopping in to say goodbye to Daross, one of the very few that had shown the woman any consideration.
Since that frigid, rainiy, November night Mendacity has given up the costume in favor of civilian clothing and no reports of her teaming with any other 'supers' has been reported. (See Recent History)
The Past
While not all considered -spoilers- below, the following information is considered 'Use at your discression', available to other characters if they would know or if efforts are made to investigate it.
"The 12 Dead of Christmas"
On December 23rd, 1968, Mendacity (then going under the name Annie Chapman) was found at an apartment building in King's Row in a state of catatonia when neighbors reported a smell coming from the locked basement. Unable to give her name or explain why she was kneeling down in a room who's walls were painted with blood she was cuffed and taken for questioning. Officers found twelve bodies in the room, arranged in a circular pattern, feet towards the center of a circle. Inside the circle arcane symbols were etched, requiring P.P.D. detectives to call on M.A.G.I. agents for assistance.
Anne was unable to speak and after extensive questioning, was taken to Astoria Asylum for treatment where she was held as a suspect in the killings. Doctors found her unharmed despite police finding blood on her hands and face and as the days wore on Psychologists were unable to get her to speak and several months went by before she did more than stare from the day-room window or scream during the night.
One day in the fall of 1967 she walked to the Nurse's Station and asked where she was and what the date was as if she'd just woken from a long sleep. Police questioned her over the next three days in several meetings, where she gave lucid statements of the murders, explaining bluntly that it was a demon-led cult and that they'd all been devoured at the end of the ritual by the very thing they'd summoned. Police were dubious to say the least and the mood surrounding her questioning was tense.
On the third day of questioning, Annie was seen walking into a supply closet and promptly vanished. The case was never solved and today remains a hobby for a number of retired investigators of the time.
((Coming Soon))
Contact this character's creator:
- In-game: @Oubliette
- Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe: Oubliette
