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She awoke early, hearing his cries and slipping from bed. Shuffling tiny bare feet across the filthy wood floor, she made her way out to the livingroom as she rubbed her eyes. It was with experience that this tiny girl raised her baby brother in her arms and carried him back to her bed. With an expertise born to routine, she changed his diapers and played with him, before carrying him to the kitchen, in search of breakfast. There was no sense looking to her parents for assistance... Daddy had never been around and Mommy was... somewhere... trying to earn money. She'd fixed some of the evaporated milk and was feeding her brother, when a knock came at the door... The woman was frowning as Jas looked up at her.
"I'm Lisa, from Child Protective Services... Can I come in?"
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Jasamine looked up at the woman before her...
"So you're gonna be my and Tony's mama?"
With the innocence of youth, she was very accepting. She didn't understand why she and her brother were taken from their home but she did not dwell on that which had happened. Typical of most small children, she still possessed the ability to dream and, to a child, what better dream is there than a better life... whether they realize that is what they are dreaming or not?
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She'd grown up with her brother and her foster parents, John and Eileen Smith, in a small surburbia called Hartland. Child Protective Services had seen fit, thankfully, to keep the children together, noting that young Anton appeared to have bonded with Jasamine as a child would bond with its mother. The two were inseperable. If one was in trouble, the other was quick to jump to the defense. Even through high school, the two were unbelievably close.
Jasamine was not an overly good student, her little brother being the brains of their operation, but she possessed an outstanding ability when it came to writing and playing music. Upon graduating high school, she began to perform in various clubs and bars locally, eventually catching the eye of a promoter and securing an agent, Marcus Venillis. Her career took off like a rocket, her mixture of folk-sounds and rock n roll appealing to people of all generations. She also appealed to one who watched silently from the shadows.
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She'd tried to keep it secret but it had been discovered that she was dying. Her music became third in her life... Her brother being first and the desperate fight for her life being the second. Meanwhile, her agent sucked her dry with loopholes and fine print. Combined with rising medical bills, Jas' opulent lifestyle became too much for her bank account... She was almost completely broke.
Even though she was in constant pain and would sink into the pits of her depression, she would not submit to something as alluring as suicide. Her body wasted away. Her soul dimmed. The bright flame of courage in her eyes dwindled.
It was then that Vespera made her move. Such talent HAD to be preserved. Such beauty should not be marred. This was a rose that would not be allowed to wilt.
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When Jasmaine's brother was killed in a bizarre knife attack at the local high school, Jasmaine fell into a deep depression and it was Vespera who gave the girl new hope, taking her under her wing and teaching her of miraculous things that Jasmaine had never dared believe in. Unfortunately, the young woman was stubborn and rebellious. She was not content to remain a ghoul, her life a tenacious thread that could be severed at the whim of the vampires she now held court with. Oh no, Jasmaine wanted the embrace and Vespera was not willing to give the girl this.
The two battled ferociously at times until Vespera finally had had enough. She sent Jasmaine away... the ghoul of a Brujah Prince, she WOULD learn her place or perish...and the blood would not be on Vespera's hands.
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