app for lastvoyages

[bitteraftertaste]

BECAUSE OF THE BITTER AFTERTASTE?
No, because once you've tasted it, that's all you want to drink.

User Name/Nick: Gwen
User DW: betterdeadthanred
AIM/IM: girlwonder004 @ AIM
E-mail: isthereair@gmail.com
Other Characters: Dick Grayson, Charles Xavier, Bucky Barnes, Luther Scott, David 8.

Character Name: Vesper Lynd
Series: James Bond (films)
Age: 27
From When?: After her suicide in Casino Royale.

Inmate/Warden: Warden. Vesper might be considered a traitor, but she was acting out of love for her boyfriend and then for Bond, and is a fundamentally good person at heart. She knows what she did was wrong and isn't proud of herself for being forced into such a situation in the slightest, thus making her far more warden material than inmate.
Item: Her cellphone.

Abilities/Powers: Vesper is a normal human with no supernatural skills or abilities. She is a very good liar and is an intelligent, resourceful woman, but is basically a non supernatural civilian.

Personality: Your first impression of Vesper is likely to be that she's a cooly assertive, confident woman who doesn't take anyone's crap, which is for the most part extremely accurate. Vesper knows she's very good at what she does - she wouldn't have earned the job she has otherwise - and she knows she's intelligent, attractive, and more than capable of standing up for herself against people who think they're better than her. This can make her seem unapproachable and maybe a little unfriendly, even though she's perfectly polite to people who are polite to her, but it's largely a sort of armor and weapon to make people see past the fact that she's an attractive woman, and understand that she's an independent, competent person.

So, unsurprisingly, some of this is masking insecurities that she won't be taken seriously, because she hasn't been, in the past. It's overcompensating to make sure that doesn't happen again, even if she is genuinely self aware enough to know that there's no reason other than her gender and physical appearance to feel insecure about herself. She's not interested in being an accessory on the arm of the most powerful man in the room and being well liked because she's attractive. She wants people to acknowledge her intelligence and competence, and so she makes a concerted effort to shoot down attempts at flirting with dry, witty personal critique and thereby deflate men's overinflated sense of self. This can come off as arrogance, and give the impression that she thinks she's better than everyone around her, which isn't really true. Again, she's self aware enough to know she's attractive, very smart and good at what she does, but she doesn't really intentionally try to put others down because of it, or consider herself above them.

When verbally sparring with her, it's difficult to make her really lose her cool. She's capable of staying calm, cool and collected even when she's very upset, angry or frustrated, and while she can and does appear more emotional or even a little intimated, she holds her ground and doesn't break down or buckle just because someone's getting upset with her. Her sense of humor is definitely dry, witty, sarcastic, and more than occasionally down right acerbic. Banter comes very naturally to her, especially when she has a willing partner, and it can range from playful to scathing and anywhere in between. This is a versatile, useful tool for her, both in keeping people at arm's length when she's not interested in their song and dance routine, or simply a way for people to grow on her, once she's gotten to know them better.

Vesper is very good at reading people, and is difficult to really read herself. She can look at someone and listen to them talk and make often accurate educated guesses about them, particularly if they happen to be fellow orphaned, slightly obnoxious, stubborn men. She is easily exasperated by people who appear reckless, because she tends to go into things much more subtly and values discretion and following the plan, and likes to feel like she's in control of things, even though recently, she's had things very much taken out of her control.

She doesn't often talk about herself. Her childhood would probably best be described as unhappy, and she's not interested in whining about it or the difficulties of being an attractive, intelligent woman in what is traditionally a man's job. It's better to appear unshakeable and invulnerable to people's probing, and to deflect with humor, dry wit or outright critique of the interested party's own behavior instead of getting into personal matters. Even when she gets to know someone particularly well, she's capable of keeping her cards very close to the vest, and doesn't have a tell. There are certain things she likely won't tell anyone on the Barge without the help of a truth flood or very intense relationship build up - details about James and his profession, how she betrayed him, how exactly she was blackmailed into working for Quantum - and will pass herself off as just a normal accountant with a bargain to make. She is good at keeping people's secrets, including her own, and while she's ashamed by her own actions, she'll keep details of Bond and MI6's efforts a secret out of loyalty and obligation.

She is not a secret agent or a spy or a superhero. Even despite her unusual circumstances, she's never really been in a dangerous, immediately life threatening situation until she was assigned to help monitor Bond at Casino Royale, and is thus very much a civilian with no formal survival training. That said, Vesper doesn't freeze or cower or run away in the face of danger or a situation she doesn't know how to deal with. She is quick to act without getting in the way, jumping to help James disarm the members of the LRA and fixing the defibrillator and activating it when she finds Bond going into cardiac arrest in his car. This isn't to say she's reckless or stupid - she knows she doesn't have the training to compete and survive with trained killers - but simply that she's also unwilling to sit on the sidelines when there's something she can do to help. Especially once someone's gained her loyalty, she won't be satisfied being told to sit on the sidelines, and definitely won't put herself there willingly. It is, after all, what got her into trouble in the first place.

Because Vesper is very loyal. As previously stated, it does take a lot to really get to know her, and once you've proven that you're an interesting person who's apparently sticking around and don't just think of her as a Barbie doll, it means you've really put in a lot of effort into getting to know her, and it's likely you've grown on her, too. Vesper will go to great lengths for the few people she really loves and cares about, and this is really her biggest weakness and her most easily exploitable character trait.

Vesper describes herself as a complicated woman, and while that's not necessarily entirely true - many women are, after all, forced into situations where they feel the need to overcompensate for the fact that they aren't a man and everyone (male or female) can do crazy things for the people you love - it is easy to see where people can have different opinions of her and what she was responsible for, and indeed how Vesper might see herself that way. She was never a willing participant in Quantum's schemes, but was being manipulated and blackmailed into believing Quantum would kill her boyfriend if she didn't cooperate and help them. Fearing for Yusef's life, Vesper agreed to help despite the moral dilemma because she loved him, and that's what you do for people you love. She never expected to fall for Bond and realize she couldn't just hand him over to Quantum, either, and thus found herself in the awkward situation of effectively dooming the man she loved to save the man she'd betrayed before ever even meeting him, who she was also in love with. For a while, she believed things could work out, but realized they'd never be able to run away from Quantum forever, and decided she'd rather spare Bond and kill herself, rather than continue risking his life any further or facing his rejection when he found out what she'd done.

So it's safe to say she feels pretty guilty about what she did. Not only did she betray Bond, but she wasn't even able to save Yusef like she'd set out to do, and she felt trapped and couldn't live with the guilt. This is still something she'll be struggling with on the Barge, and will likely be even quieter about herself and her reasons for being here than she would have been before, and she certainly won't be advertising that she died before coming here and hasn't made a deal to save her own life.

Barge Reactions: The Barge will probably present a bit of a learning curve, considering Vesper's world is one where most of the Barge residents are things of fiction. She's never encountered vampires or superheroes or telepaths before, and while she'll probably adapt quickly enough to it, it will still be strange initially.

As a warden, Vesper will be extremely professional with her inmate and other wardens. This is her job. She's not here to make friends, and wardens should hold themselves to a high standard for the sake of cohesion and providing good examples for the inmates to follow. She'll likely frown upon wardens who threaten to cross the line, and probably have some issues regarding her own placement in the grand scheme of things, because she's done some bad things she feels enormously guilty for, and might sometimes doubt her ability or the fairness in her "wardening" a criminal. She won't love the Admiral's lack of organization and transparency, but will keep her thoughts to herself unless she's particularly peeved.

She will likely do well with an inmate who needs either a cool professional who won't coddle them or take any of their crap, or someone who's willing to be patient for her to warm up to them. A younger inmate might get a warmer relationship right off the bat, and in general, she probably won't do well with someone with an interest in hurting her, as she doesn't really have much by way of self defense skills besides being intelligent and quick thinking. She also probably won't talk about herself in any great depth no matter who she's paired with, even when pushed for more information, and without the help of floods or other events likely won't say anything about exactly why and how she's on the Barge. If that's going to be a major issue for an inmate, it's probably best to pair with someone other than Vesper.

Path to Redemption: -----

History: Vesper's Film History on Wikipedia.

Sample Journal Entry:
[Vesper has been a little scarce since the Barge pulled into port in Vegas. She checked in with her inmate, stuck by them for the most part to make sure they were keeping out of trouble (with slightly mixed results) and has largely kept to herself in the day or so since they got back on board. She's had some things to think about, even if this wasn't exactly Montenegro.

She still looks as calm, cool and collected as always when she turns on the video feed, wearing her hair in a simple bun and once again back in the more simple dark top and slacks she's fond of on the Barge, rather than the cocktail dresses the Admiral saw fit to provide her in her hotel room.]

I suppose we should all be thanking the Admiral for a relatively uneventful weekend. I'd never been to Las Vegas before. It was certainly an experience. [Although there's sort of a wryness to her expression that might suggest she didn't actually enjoy it. Or maybe she did. It's difficult to say.

There's a moment where she's tempted to leave it at that or at least direct the conversation back towards more neutral ground, because she's not really one for getting philosophical on the network or talking much about herself, but after a moment's hesitation, she doesn't.]

Someone once told me that in poker, you don't play your hand, you play the person across from you. And even though he was a bit of an arrogant bastard, [Who she fell in love with and kinda died for, but it's easier to tell you all about how much of a jackass he was. B(] he was right.

And it's not just about poker, is it? Playing the other person's hand is what we're all trying to do, here, whether you realize it or not, no matter what side of the line you find yourself on.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing, [She's just as guilty of it as anyone else here, and perhaps even more so than others, because so much of what she's done here is basically an elaborate bluff.] but it's still something to consider. Maybe that port could teach us something after all. [After a beat, she smiles a little more genuinely, even if there's still some of that sarcastic wryness that usually accompanies her smiles.] Beyond who can't gamble to save their lives, of course.

Sample RP:
When Vesper received her inmate's file, she was actually almost surprised to see it was a fairly comprehensive discussion of who this person was and what exactly had brought them here. Considering the Admiral apparently hadn't seen fit to let them know about things like floods, ports, or much of anything beyond the simplest job description, and wasn't very keen on providing more explanation even when being directly questioned, she'd almost been expecting a sheet of paper with her inmate's name on it, if that, so the file sitting on the desk of her hotel room in Montenegro came as an almost pleasant surprise.

She made sure to read it over twice before meeting with them- once quickly, just to get an idea of what exactly she'd gotten herself into when the Admiral had plucked her out of the water and told her she still had the chance to fix some of her mistakes, and the second time more thoroughly, making sure she absorbed the whole thing before arranging a meeting. The last thing she wanted to do was go in unprepared, considering how much was riding on this.

She caught herself staring at the blank expanse of wall where the door to the adjoining suite had been. There was a part of her that couldn't help but wonder what James would have to say about all this, the Barge, her being here, her new assignment. It wasn't like he'd know what the hell he was doing with a file like this either, but at least he might have some insight or perspective into these people that she was lacking. Or some moral support.

But she shook herself from that thought. She took the file, her communicator and her cellphone, threw them into her bag and left her room behind to meet her inmate and discuss strategy. It wasn't important, and it wouldn't do to dwell on the past too much, now. There was nothing that could be done about how things had worked out, and she would get this job accomplished on her own, come Hell or - ha - high water.

Special Notes: More voice samples -> one, two, three