Your Name: It is I, Ida, king of the Britons! Or not. ^^
Email Addres: IdaMBK@hotmail.com . The spammers love me...
Home Page: The Decree of Randomness. And it more or less sucks. At least it really, REALLY needs a new layout.
Civilian Name: Belladonna Phoebe Cassius, but nicknamed 'Beth' by pretty much anyone knowing her real identity. Sucks to be her. Phoebe Cassius was also her birth name and alias in the first years of demonic life – Belladonna was added much later and has been proceeded by several different first names (one for each new life), all of them followed by her birth name as middle name and suffix.
Name Meaning: Belladonna, though probably not an actual name (hey, these names are meant to be fake aliases!), is nonetheless quite interesting. First, it means plain 'beautiful lady' in various Latin languages, but then it is also the name of a very poisonous herb that was regarded as belonging to the Devil in old superstitions, and tends to KILL BABIES. Well, I though THAT was suitable for meanie LoCD. ^^; In ancient times, the Belladonna plant was also used as a cosmetic for face treatment, aside from the baby-killing. Her middle name, Phoebe, is a Latin form of Greek Phoibe, which means bright, pure, and completely contradicts her last name, Cassius, which – and I kid you not – means empty, vain. That only leaves us the mystery why anyone in their right mind would call their children that, let alone using it as a family name. ^^ Oh, and it is Roman in origin, too.
Read in it's whole, her name is most conveniently (but probably not most correctly) translated as “Beautiful lady – bright and pure, empty and vain”. And it fits her like feet in mittens.
Character Position: Beth-avin, muggleborn Dark Maiden of beauty parlor equipment – er, Vanity - former snobby upperclass, currently lower middle-class hair- and beautycare assistant at The Salon Delilah, London's West End and unwilling ally of the lower demon Gosegas.
Birthdate and Age / Zodiacal Sign: Born April 21, 11 AM in the year 44, making her technically a mere one thousand nine hundred and fifty-five years old. And one of the very youngest dark lords. Yes, this means Beth-avin did not participate in the Holy War, though she took part in plenty of LoCD action up through the last two millennia. She is the New Kid and boy, does it suck once in a while. As she was at the time of that dreadful summoning (Beth: Hey, it was NOT dreadful! I got powers and nifty wings and... well, technically, I lost my Holy And Immortal Soul, but who cares? Being evil rocks!), Beth is still, both physically, mentally and in terms of alter ego-ness, nineteen years old. Having been born in ancient times, her astrology is actually not up-to-date. As you probably know, the position of the stars change a teeny bit for each year, and over nearly two thousand years, the positions of the different signs and planets change. Because of this, Beth is not, as she would be had she been born today, a Taurus, but an Aries with Cancer Moon and Leo Rising. The relevance in this is obvious: Aries being her outer face is the self-confident, aggressive and competitive traits, while emotional Cancer Moon makes her sensitive to the criticisms of others and the 'inner core' Leo Rising contributes with all that pride, vanity and show-offiness. (I can change the birthday if the 'stars move' speech didn't quite work. I just thought it was rather keen to do, since we know her birth year. ^^) Oh, and as a final thought, the year 44 was the last year of the Roman conquest of Britain, which I thought was nifty. ^^; Here she comes, to conquer and enlighten! Okay, just to conquer.
Physical Details:
Build: First off, and I mean this, Beth is evil dark Barbie. Take away the wings and evil-ness, and you are left with Superstar Barbie, A-LIVE! This fact established, let's get on with the real description, shan't we?
Beth, both in demonic and mundane form – to tell the truth, there are almost no differences between these two forms, save wings and cheesy costume – is a very curvy, averagely tall woman, but as she would tell you if she wasn't too busy sending you to hell as an economy package, those are feminine curves that only adds to her beauty. She has the ideal female body of wayback – broad but feminine shoulders, C-cup, Barbie waist, broad hips, and long, curvy legs. No I-live-from-cucumbers-only-and-I-am-by-no-means-anorectic super model ideal body here – evil tongues (well, theoretically, those would be good tongues, because Beth is on the baddie team) have said that she looks like Pamela Anderson – no, no, no, little angels, it is Barbie, not Pamela. ^^; Aside from that, notice please that everything about Beth's body is extremely neat and well-kept. Well, duh, she is maiden of VANITY and works in a beauty parlor, but still... Her skin is nice and very soft, a common British pale hue, her nails are always clean and polished (not to forget that they grow into 1'' long, functional claws in demon form), and she keeps herself shaved pretty much everywhere. Finally, both Belladonna and Beth-avin bears a strong, in some cases disturbingly so, scent of several flowers, among which there is a strange, rotting smell – the smell of crushed belladonna leaves. The dominant smell of this strange perfume, though, is that of roses, so she is not at all bad-smelling, just... a bit odd. And Sahaqiel will love her. XD
Face: Again, look at Barbie, put it here. Or... maybe not. Actually, the face is what saves Beth-avin from the dreary status of Pure Barbie Clone. Despite her other looks, not to forget actual age, Beth has a rather youngish face complete with your standard Wide Open Anime Eyes – hers are medium big, surrounded by thick, dark lashes that are covered in a thick layer of mascara, and build around the shape of a half-circle resting on it's flat side. The irises, as always dominated by black pupils, are light purple with blue edges and streaks of gold. This is all nice and good, anime heroine stuff, but Belladonna is one of the baddies, and she is far from the level of self-control that can keep that from shining out of her eyes. Her eyes also show her age, unlike the rest of her physical appearance, they shine with – well, not wisdom, but lack of naïveté. The rest of her traits are as you could expect – round, sensual lips, surrounding a wide mouth with – thank goodness – normal, fairly healthy teeth (what, you expected fangs?), her nose is long and caucasian, but still elegant in a roman-nosed way, and her ears are small and generally obscured by the hair. Her eyebrows, naturally blonde and thick, are carefully picked and shaped to fit The Ideal, and finally, her face as a whole is long, but with a triangular chin. And then, there is the make-up. Among the inner circles of the LoCD, it is a common joke that only two things are truly unknown to the world: what tomorrow will bring, and how Beth-avin looks without her make-up. No matter what, she is a great consumer of cosmetics, and is never seen without at least foundation, mascara, lipstick, and some sort of eyeshade, though the actual look of the day spans from subtle to transvestite-garish.
Hair: Blond. Very blond and curly, is what best describes the locks of Beth-avin. In contrast to most blondes, her light, golden-blond locks are completely monochrome, something which probably suggests a dye, but she has been a blonde for so long that no one really bothers to remember if she always was. Anyway, the hair is always kept clean and dry (you bet it would be a disaster if it wasn't), so the loose bobs can fall gently to her shoulders and a little below. She has no bangs, but a lock of the blonde mass tends to fall down and obscure her left eye, Jessica Rabbit-style. In Dark Lady form, her hair is per definition loose, but out of it, she can do whatever she wants with it, and often does so. So don't be surprised if the Maiden turns up with a Marie Antoinette-ship-in-the-ocean hair-do. And DON'T laugh.
Carriage: Beth-avin is, as one might probably expect, very elegant. She walks with grace and pride, perhaps a bit too diva-like, but everyone looking would be able to tell that she is obviously a good dancer. And then she pushes stuff down. Beth is among the very few people who manage to be elegant and clumsy at the same time. She can trip in her own dress, drop her glass of red wine on the Persian carpet and pull a vase from the Ming dynasty with her in the fall – and do it with grace. It has to be seen to be believed.
Voice: A soft mezzo-soprano, Beth has a surprisingly pleasant voice for someone with a sphere with such drama queen-potential, but though she can get very squeaky and high-pitched, if the right amounts of frustration is added to the mix, Beth-avin is 'easy listening' most of the time. She is quite a speed-talker, being used to constant hairdresser-gossiping – Beth speaks almost constantly and at a rather fast pace, but it is quite easy to decipher most of the time. Though she never swears, Beth has over time acquired a quite pronounced finer cockney accent – not stuffy noble-tongue, not 'my fair lady', but more like something you would hear in an average Britcom, and she uses some slang, though of course not the vulgar sort. Yuck.
Clothing: Oh... My... Goodness! Or would that be Badness? O_o;
Primarily, Beth LOVES clothes. She lives and breathes clothes – all right, that was a bit over the top, but then there is still some truth about it. She is one lady obsessing about clothes, and can spend several hours searching through cupboards each morning – the else cool magical powers of d00m seems to have no fashion sense at all when used to get dressed. Well, at least the Narcissas can clean up after she's left. So, you ask, what sort of amazing and high-class clothes does she chose? Apparently, the most tasteless ones she can find. ^^; (Beth: Don't you dare saying that!) All right. Beth-avin, who is not tasteless (Beth: That was better.) nonetheless prefers clothes that are rather... outstanding. She likes to style herself as a great movie star, even when just going to the greengrocer's – not that she actually does go to the greengrocer's; that's what Gosegas is for - , wearing high-heeled shoes, feather boas, coats of imitation fur, dresses, jewelry, colored sunglasses, etc. Most of it in pink. She tries to look classy, she really does, it just... doesn't work that well. ^^; When going out in the evening, however, her styling is much more acceptable, though it is an unanswered question whether she actually dresses better or her style just blends into the environment of a night club much easier than that of Marks and Spencer's. ^^ Her favored clothes, especially for evenings, are usually creations by famous designers that cost a lesser fortune, but then once in a while (or perhaps more often than that), she goes out wearing something polyester from the cornerstore that sure cost no more than £1. Yay for variety, I say. ^^
Bloodtype: Red. Isn't that nice? Ah, heck, let's say she's an AB, making her sensitive and unique. I believe being able to deal smackdown with beauty equipment counts as pretty unique. ^^;
Likes:
Oxford Street: AKA shopping, AKA pretty stuff, AKA What Takes Up Her Money. In case you don't know, Oxford Street is one of the major clothes shopping alleys in London, and though not deadly expensive, it's not a fleamarket either. The reason why Beth (or should we say Belladonna?) loses most of her hardly earned money here is simply that she buy too much and too often. Three shopping trips each week is not a all unusual, and neither is her coming home with up to five stuffed bags. Sadly, the Creeping Darkness is not exactly keen on financing these escapades, which is part of the reason she needs a job. That and the Finding People To KILL. Yeah. She likes several other shopping places as well, with Harrod's, the unreasonably expensive department store, as an absolute favorite. Flow the market economy. ^^
Compliments: Not as much likes as is totally and completely dependent on, compliments are truly very essential to Beth's well-being. If you want her to like you and not KILL you, you compliment her, but you also better mean what you says, or else... She has this special gift for knowing just when people go over the top with their compliments, and then it isn't really compliments, now is it? Though Beth is a big badass demon, she is still very sensitive to the opinions of others. Not to say that she will sob and go into a breakdown if you note that you don't like her new dress, because she will not, and you should know that. Beth KILLS people who criticizes. And she does it in very painful, slow ways.
Pink: Much more than just another favorite color. Beth IS pink – evil, mean, dark pink, that is. No Chibi-Usa Crystal-powered Pinkness. ^^ That aside, she is simply a huge fan of the color, preferring almost everything, well, pink. She buys pinks stuff, from couches to toothbrushes, and if you need to give her medicine, for the sake of Creeping Darkness, do it in pink. And with strawberry flavor. Basically, pinkness is an important redeeming quality. Almost everything, nearly even ANGELS, can be accepted as long as it is pink. (Angel in pink voile: So I'll just sneak by and steal this year's soul crop, destroy the flat and stab your Narcissas on the way out... Okay with that? Beth: You in pink? *checks* Sure, go ahead.) Or... not. ^^; It is not that extreme, really... but watch if that pink Angel is spared of damage.
Herself: Well, she is Vanity, right? Beth loves herself, by and large, sees herself as the center of the universe and she's cool with it, man! This is not explained her, but further down in 'Personality', because, damn, her whole character is all about self-obsession, you know.
Dance: Dancing rocks. Looking at other people dance rocks. Looking at other people being worse dancers than yourself especially rocks. Basically, Beth loves dance and dancing – while the latter is a hobby, the former is not, and is thus explained here. Loving dance means pretty much that she finds watching dance very amusing, especially if it makes her feel like it is performed especially for her. She loves the Ballet. ^^ Dance is also one of the only subjects Beth would ever consider buying a book on – she is not someone to be thrilled by theoretics, but if there are pretty pictures of girls in skirts and, most importantly, do-it-yourself charts. Beth loves any form of dance, waltz, break, disco – it's all the same to her, and it rocks as long at is a performance for her and not some form of dancers showing their superiority. Then she'd have to kill them.
Pretty boys, especially Angel boys: Now, you tell me this isn't going to be a weakness in battle. XD Beth is a hopeless flirt, one of those girls who would probably run all ga-ga over any bishonen passing by, had she not been too old and mature for it. Er, what? All right, she does still run ga-ga over cute boys. ^^; This doesn't mean that she's not going to kill them, though – by turning the pretty guys into Narcissuses, she is actually doing them a great favor: They will never age, they will never succumb to their want for unworthy girls (i.e. anyone but herself), and they're going to spend eternity in the best way possible – as her servants. Yup, she is self-obsessed like that. As all her Narcissuses are boys she fancied at some point, you can imagine what happens when one of them is killed off by some @¤%& Angel. Generally, she prefers to send the Narcissas into battle and keep the boys home with her. ^^
Dislikes:
Pretty girls, especially Angel girls: Probably an obvious consequence of the above, I'd think. Just as she loves pretty boys, Beth tends to very extremely villainous to any bishoujo passing by, simply because they are – or in her eyes tries to be – Prettier Than Her, and that is more than enough reason to Steal Their Souls... solidified. Angels in particular annoy her, being both pretty and on Team Boring. Plus they tend to keep their Virtues for themselves. KILL! Now, to stop anyone from thinking I'm stealing Belphegor's cookies *Beth quickly pulls her hand out of a jar labeled 'Belphegor's cookies – hands off'*, I'll just explain why she hates people who are prettier than thou and why it has nothing to do with jealousy. The point is that Beth really couldn't care less if they are actually prettier than her. What bugs her to no end are people who, at least in her opinion, act like they are prettier, better or more worth than she is. Beth-avin is The Center Of The World, and anyone who's forgotten needs to DIE. You see? No envy, just superficiality. Very overplayed superficiality. Really. The Angels are hated because they dare to do cheesy introductions as though she couldn't do it ten times better. Grr. KILL!
Aging: The main reason why she joined the ranks of Evil in the first place. Beth is terribly afraid of aging or any form of decay of the human body. Old people in the park gives her the creeps. ^^; Seriously, though, Beth fears aging very much. This is, of course, the reason why she refuses to go undercover as anyone over 50. She finds aging unnatural, scary, and very disgusting. Old people should be shot. Only not Duriel, because he shoots back. ^^; Aging is also one of the Devil's Accountant's best threats (Him: Deliver the souls the master needs, or we will turn you into a knitting, grey-haired granny at an Old People's Home! Beth: Aaaaarh!!! Anything but THAT!) Yeah.
Computers: Though confident with most other aspects of modern society, Beth can't for the sake of her unholy soul figure out how to use a computer. No matter what she does, they will blow up in a very KABOOM-y and smoky way every time she tries to play Solitaire, leave alone more complicated tasks like Minesweeper. She has no clue about the Internet or what it does, mainly because she never got any further than 'Open Internet Explorer' before it all went KABOOM. Better go find another hacker. Let me tell you a secret: all of this might happen because Beth has the habit of smearing lipstick all over the keyboard. Or it might be Gosegas' fault. Of course it is.
Gosegas: He is a moron. 'Nuff said. See the NPC section for more.
Those little 'reminders': Whenever Beth has trouble collecting enough solidified souls (say, because the bloody Angels give the back to their owners. Grr.), the man known simply as Devil's Accountant (see NPC section) will appear in her flat, waving her contract with Evil, coming with scary threats and generally doing Very Nasty Things until she promises to be a bad girl and get those stones. On her knees. This does not rock. Beth works very hard to avoid these little visits, and when she know she hasn't quite been successful on a mission, she will become very anxious, constantly peeking under rugs, into the chimney and out of the window. I told you it did not rock. These 'reminders' are not actually arranged by Down There, as much as they are magical effects of the contract she signed with her own blood back in the day. You could say that the contract send the Devil's Accountant. And you would be right.
Modesty: Why? Beth sees no reason at all why modesty should be something to appreciate – what good was a Spartan lifestyle ever to anyone? She believes in living life to it's fullest, sinning while you can – modesty is just spoiling the fun. Beth can't stand the Church. Or Nuns. But then again, who expected that from a demon? ^^
Hobbies:
Clubbing: Also known as manmeat-harvesting. Beth goes clubbing almost every weekend to dance, drink, and kill people. And she loves it. Especially the killing people. Generally, she will find some guy she fancies, chat a bit with him over the night, dance a bit, and generally checking out whether or nor she wants him in her 'harem' – it doesn't really matter, though, because if he's not suitable, she will take his soul anyway because she's angry with him. With this done, the boy is gently dragged into some quiet place, and when he thinks the (Censored) is about to begin, he is instead asked to look into this strange mirror... If no boys are really suitable, chances are she'll get into an argument with one or more girls, stalk them on their way home, and reveal herself as the Mean And Nasty lady who takes your SOULS in some dank alleyway. Clubbing is, usually, her most 'beriching' activity.
Shopping: Of course she loves shopping, what did you expect? This got pretty much covered up in 'Likes – Oxford Street' (not my intention, sorry!), so we'll just leave it at this, ne?
Soul-nabbing: This is, of course, her job, but that doesn't make it any less the fun. Beth truly loves thinking up new ways to get someone's solidified soul (though these plans always get so wacko that she ends up using the good old ones instead) and especially does she love the subtle manipulation of someone into a state where their soul can be taken with no problems. Just attacking random people in dank alleyways is fun, too. Look at them run! ^^ Let's conclude that Beth is happy with her line of work.
Dancing: Beth doesn't take any dance courses (were there ever people acting like they were Better Than Thou, that would be teachers), but she sure enjoys dancing. Dance is an important part of her love of clubbing, especially because, at a club, you have all the chance to impress others and be the Dancing Queen – or find those who try to impress her with their dancing and let them die slow and painful deaths.
Gosegas-kicking: Or just being plain mean to him. Because it's so damn funny! Whenever anything goes wrong, Beth fuels her anger by kicking Gosegas around until she's wonderfully relaxed – and he is beaten to a bloody pulp. Lucky that the guy isn't fragile. ^^;
Park-strolling: Strolling around, shoving her stuff, oh baby! The park is: A) A nice place, B) A great place to meet victims (dude, you have any idea how many Angels hangs out in that park? It is a holy-type-chick magnet, I tell you!) and C) An excuse to have Gosegas on a leash, which is very amusing in her eyes. (Gosegas: Yeah right, it is fun getting me almost bit to death by some 'friendly' pitbull! Beth: Fun? More than fun.) In either way, the park rules. ^^
Personality/Alter Ego: There are two things in this world that matter at all to Belladonna Phoebe Cassius: 1.) Herself, and 2.) How to make things the most comfortable for herself. As the villain cliché foretells, Beth is a cold-hearted individual, having loved only a single person in all her inhumanly long life and that person was her daddy.
What most people see in Belladonna Cassius is a hot-headed young lady with very much of an inflated ego, an obsession with beauty-care and a tendency to hate most people she meets. And that is pretty much the truth. Belladonna is not one of those deep characters with meaningful motivations behind everything they do: she behaves like a parody of the cliché she embodies, and everybody seems to know that – except for herself, of course.
What is always present in Belladonna, no matter the situation, is her love for herself. Rather than a Vetis-y pride, thinking that what she's got is the best of all, Belladonna is in love with what she think she's got. No matter that she's horrible at her job and keeps stepping on the toes of her dance partners – in her own little world, Belladonna is the most skilled make-up artist and dancer the world ever saw. If somebody else is obviously better at something than she is, they deserve to die. And yet, she will never admit to herself that said person has to die because he/she is better at something than she is – to Belladonna, it always becomes that the person was acting like he/she was Da Boss, when everyone knows that Da Boss is Belladonna and only Belladonna. It only takes a few seconds of knowing Belladonna to learn that she really loves herself. It is in everything she does and says – in some way or another, all her actions has a single point: ME (that being me as in Belladonna, not me as in Ida – though that would've been nice. ^^) When she talks, it is usually about herself or why somebody isn't quite as awesome as she is, when she takes action, it is always for the benefit of her own interests (though said interests might be 'not being killed by the others') and when she goes into battle, it is always to win something for herself. Of course, vanity is her main trait, but more vanity as in 'I am the best and everything I do or say is genius' than in 'I am the most beautiful person in the world'. Not to say the second isn't there, it just isn't all she's about. I'll address the beauty-obsession later.
With so much self-obsession, one is almost bound to be pretty ignorant of others. With Belladonna, the cliché fits as if it was painted on, just like it does in most other aspects. Belladonna is her own little cliché. As things are with cold-hearted villains, Belladonna has never loved anyone except for daddy, and she probably won't do it in the near future. Do not confuse love with crushes here, though. Belladonna really likes cute boys and has an average score of 3.5 crushes per week, but that doesn't mean that she loves any of them or likes them for more than their manly bodies and cuteish smiles. Belladonna's first thought when presented to a new person is 'what can he/she do for ME?' After that, people are effectively divided into two categories: 'useful' and 'bastard'. When dealing with Beth, it doesn't really make a difference because either you are being 'converted' (a nice word for being killed and turned into her eternal slave) because she really wants you, or you are being 'converted' because she really loathes you, but when facing Belladonna, it actually makes a difference. The people Belladonna likes, she truly likes – but she likes them for what they can do for HER, not for who they are. Thus, most of the people in Belladonna's 'likes' bag are those who praise, or even better, idolize her. Trust me, there are people like that out there. O_o It is easy to tell if Belladonna appreciates you. If she does, you will notice that she does not try to kill you in a fit of rage, that she does not try to sneak a stink-bomb into your purse and that she constantly encourages you to tell her how wonderful she is. If Belladonna does some of these things, then chances are that you're not her favorite person. ^^ Generally, Belladonna tends to be pretty... er... cruel to those she doesn't like. The most obvious example of this is Gosegas, who can tell you anything you ever wanted to, or probably not wanted to know about Belladonna's behavior with not so liked people. Sadly for Belladonna, there are a couple of people she can't just kill even though she wants to – Gosegas, her boss at work and the LoCD are good examples – so with them, she just has to channel her anger in a less devastating fashion. With Gosegas, this means extreme violence, but with more fragile or fighting-potent people, it means going into screaming fights and preparing mean 'surprises' for them. You'd be surprised by how many slime blobs Mrs. Harris have been exorcising from her office over the years.
In most aspects, Belladonna is very immature. If it were not for her looks, you might think she is only around 11 years old. This immaturity may be due to that she is actually quite young compared to other LoCD, but on the other hand, with 1955 years behind you, you ought to be at least a little more mature than the average preteen. Even in her high age, Belladonna preserves as very childlike temperament with a matching short attention-span. To put this simple, Beth loses concentration very easily, and when she doesn't get what she wants, she behaves like a nine-years old, crying, throwing hysterical fits and whining about how nothing's fair. She also plans pretty ridiculous revenges for the 'misdeeds' that have been done to her, see aforementioned slime blobs, at least towards people even she knows that she can't just blow up without bringing herself into major trouble. As if what she does doesn't bring her trouble enough.
To be completely honest with you, Belladonna is not very intelligent. Sure, she might think she's the smartest villain ever, but when it comes to it, Beth acts mostly on impulse. Of course, some impulse action is good, but in Beth's case, her tendency to run mindlessly into action after trashing yet another elaborate battle plan does her more harm than good. More often than not, Beth will find herself in a situation where she's pitted against someone much stronger than herself, forced to reveal her identity, or about to get laid off. Ironically enough, she was originally paired up with Gosegas because he was supposedly able to learn her to avoid exactly those situations, but as you might guess, that strategy didn't work out quite as planned. He does make a great stress relief for a cornered Beth, though, when she lets out her frustration by beating him up. So what does Beth do when she has cornered herself? Well, stick to a simple but great strategy: Beat up the trouble and Run Like Hell. Other signs of Beth's pretty obvious lack of intelligence are her tendency to be extremely easily tricked by the most obvious traps. Practically any pick-up line from a cute guy works on her and even the most lousy last-minute Angel strategy is likely to work on her. (i.e: Random Angel: “I know! We'll put a dress on this shrub and pretend it's Raphael while the real Raphael runs for help!” Beth: *Beats up shrub in a dress and looks satisfied afterwards.*) She is also pretty easy to confuse if you just know enough long words, but that strategy is pretty dangerous, since Beth really doesn't like to feel inferior. And when she's angry, people die.
Obviously, as the demonic incarnation of Vanity itself, Belladonna is very obsessed with looks, beauty and her exterior. Surprisingly, though, she doesn't spend quite as many hours in front of the mirror, doing her looks, as one might expect. (Unless she's working on a disguise, that is.) The reason for this is not that Beth possesses some special Demonic instant-looks cream, which she wouldn't use anyway, but that she is so sure of her good looks that she has no need to peak into a mirror constantly to make sure her hair is great. Her hair is great, period. This doesn't stop Beth from looking into pretty much any reflective surface simply to go “Hey, good looking!” at herself, though. The same thing applies for cosmetics. When Beth adds to her unholy big collection of 'art material', it is not to make herself look good, but to give her already splendid-beyond-comparison looks what they deserve. The idea of giving herself what she deserves (in the positive way, of course) transcends most of Beth's actions and especially her shopping. Belladonna only buys stuff that is absolutely exclusive enough for her, but though it sometimes does, 'exclusive' doesn't have to mean expensive – sometimes a baggy pink dress from a lousy thrift store in some dark alley is deemed 'exclusive' as well.
Now, there's one thing I have been hinting at for a very long time but not really addressed yet: Belladonna's aggressive tendencies. Belladonna is indeed a pretty aggressive and sometimes rather violent person. All right, you might expect that from someone who sold their Holy And Immortal soul to the Ultimate Evil of Dh00m. ^^; Still, Beth, and especially her human alias, Belladonna, has a remarkably shorter fuse than most people. To be honest, it doesn't take much to make Beth angry. And when she's angry, heads will roll. Part of her short fuse comes from the high ideas Beth has about her own abilities and her comparatively lower view of everyone else. When those ideas are disturbed (like if somebody tells her that she actually sucks at dancing, or somebody proves to be remarkably better than her) Beth doesn't for one second think that, hey, maybe her ideas are actually far our, instead reasoning that since her views of the world are unquestionably true, the person disturbing them must either lying or cheating, and thus should die. And then she goes amok. (Surprisingly for a Dark Lady, Beth is actually pretty fond of truth, but we'll address that later.) Other things that can blow Beth up are lack of obedience, lack of recognition of her extreme greatness, and the little annoyances of everyday life that seem to bug her twice as much as the do other people. Belladonna especially hates practical jokes, or any joke made on her account, obviously because they make her, the 8th, 9th, and 10th Wonder of the World, look ridiculous. Not funny.
So, when Beth blows up, what's it like? One word: bad. Gosegas can tell you everything about this. While Beth's burst of aggression are all pretty bad, however, they differ greatly depending on who they are directed at. For simplicity's sake, let's divide them into three types, okay?
Type no. 1: Careful Approach: This division of the legendary martial art form of 'Throwing A Fit' is solely used with people that are either remarkably stronger than Beth or just vital for keeping up her disguise. A good example would be Mrs. Harris or Duriel. The general approach in this division is as follows: First, scream, yell and cry as much as possible, probably hit said person with your purse, continue until you are exhausted. As your target is still very much alive and most likely laughing at you, return grumpily to your base and plan revenge. Said revenge must of course be elaborate and subtle, so after finishing plans, head plans to Gosegas for approval. As he turns them down, beat up the little bugger. (See approach no. 3 for closer instructions) Then go with your original plan, which must contain at least one the following: cheese, slime blobs on chairs, midgets in coffee, your perfume, and a carefully written letter saying 'Ha Ha, got you, idiot!' Then wait for plan to screw up and bitch some more until you give up and swear to take proper care of target when opportunity comes.
Type no. 2a: Subtle Beat 'em up: This type of fit-throwing is by far Beth's most common, since it is the one used on pretty much all 'disposable' people crossing her way. This strategy starts out completely s strategy no. 1, with bitching and whining until you run our of energy, but instead of going home to plan an elaborate revenge scheme, you either drag or lure target A (alternatively, wait for target A somewhere you know they will be passing, then drag or lure them with you) away from general public, preferably into a dark alleyway. Then you transform into your true self, try to ignore their comments about how ridiculous the thought of a PINK demon is to them, and fry them with nifty powers. Job done.
Type no. 2b: Subtle-Without-Beating-'em-up: Exactly the same as 1 and 2a except this is only the screaming and bitching part. Only used for smaller annoyances.
Type no. 3: Kill. And then kill some more: Used solely for the honorable purpose of molesting Gosegas. This strategy is extremely simple: Do your best to kill him, then watch him recover and kill him again. No powers are generally used for this, but heels, fists, purses and bulldozers are frequently used. This is a great stress relief.
Oh – and about the truth thing: Beth is actually pretty concerned with Truth, much more than you would expect a demon to. Her ideas of The Truth may be extremely odd, yes, but she does have a strong concept of true or false and does not tolerate lying easily. Oh, and yes, she does think that Hell are right to do what they do. Not that they're The Good Team, mind you, but that what they do is fair. Stupid Angels should just mind their own business.
Belladonna strangely enough suffers from a mild form of Angel Envy (no, that was not penis envy), probably because, in contrast to most of the other LoCD, she never was one herself. This is not so that Beth wants to be a goody good guy with white wings and heroic motives. Not at all. What Beth envies the angels is actually their cheesiness. Yes, believe or not, but here we have sucker for stock footage, cheesy henshins and even cheesier battle challenges. Don't want to write your challenge? Let Beth do it. She'll love every second of it. To help her own lack of cheese, Beth has developed a tendency to shout her attack names out loud and improvise challenges that can out-cheese any angel by leagues. She's still working on the henshin, though.
One last aspect of Beth's personality is the Evil Queen Syndrome. You've all read Snow White, right? Well, the evil stepmother in that tale happens to be Beth's idol and inspiration. Like the Queen, Beth has a tendency to be extremely cruel to people who are better or more beautiful than herself, but we've already been around that for a million times. Just though I'd mention the parallel.
So, with all those negative qualities that have been presented so far, one might wonder why the bad guys would even keep Beth. There are a few pretty good reasons why she isn't roasting in the deepest corners of hell yet, though:
First and perhaps most importantly, Beth is (or has been up till now) an extremely stable source of souls. Where other LoCD carefully pick victims that they stalk for months before attacking and then perhaps lose the soul, Beth's large quantity of attacks means that she will always produce at least one solidified soul per. month, no matter how many attempts she screws up. In this case, her psycho temper is actually an advance to her.
Another plus point goes to Beth for her simple-mindedness. Not only does this make Beth a simple tool to use for the other LoCD, she is also a nice uncomplicated character able to focus 110% on the present. In contrast to some of her fellow LoCD, Beth has no quest, not many skeletons in her closet, and no deep-winded traumatized relations to anyone who has been alive for the last millennium or so. With no fall behind her, Beth is completely without the relations to the Angel ranks that the Fallen LoCD share, again hating the Angels for simple reasons: They've got the catchphrases.
Beth's role in the very loosely-knit LoCD organization is that of a scout and a soul-collector. Since Beth, being a former human, continues to live a full human life beside her LoCD one, she provides a lookout into the human world for the others. If somethings going on among the humans, Beth is the first to know, and with her every-25-years-change of identity and country, she can even cover most of the world in what must seem like very short time for those eternal beings. Yes, Beth does have her 'good' points.
So, to sum it up:
Pro's: Uhm... Productive, easy to manipulate, pretty much human, concerned about truth, wacky. VERY wacky.
Con's: Aggressive, vain, self-absorbed, violent, bragging, easy to manipulate, stupid, rude, hates almost everyone, wears pink, demonic, super-sensitive, bratty. Yeah, pretty much everything is wrong with this girl. But hey, she's villainry!
History: A long, long, LONG time ago, was the Holy War. A gigantic battle which found the complete forces of Good and Evil, facing each other in an ultimate struggle for victory. It was a war larger and more cruel than anything before it.
And it had absolutely nothing to do with Beth-avin.
Instead, her story starts only a little less than two thousand years ago, more specifically the year 38 AD, in a patrician mansion some miles away from the city of Rome, Italy. On the specific day that Beth's story begins, the mansion was in a state of excitement due to the wedding of Lucius Cassius (light, empty and vain) and Justina Fabus (Justice bean. What, me silly? Noooo. It is an authentic Roman name, after all.) Lucius, 17 years old, was the oldest son of the old and wealthy patrician Seneca Cassius (old, empty and vain. What a positive name.), and the whole large family had been eagerly expecting his wedding ever since the boy was born. The woman who were to be his wife, Justina, age 15, came from another wealthy family that the Cassius family had long been wanting to connect with, preferably through marriage – now this was happening and everyone was more than happy. Only the coming bride and groom were indifferent, mainly due to the fact that they had never met before in their whole life. Bah, details - the young 'uns were married anyway, and then the crowd went WHOO! ^^;
As time passed and the two teenagers who were now wife and husband finally had time to get to know each other, they discovered that they were actually quite fond of one another. No. Very, very, very fond of each other. Probably they were just very lucky. In either way, the pair eventually settled down into their lot of life, the life of the upper class. Aside from the country mansion, they too owned a good deal of the Cassius family home in Rome, several farms run by slaves, a few smaller businesses, fine stables and an army of slaves for any occasion. By and large, everything a Roman patrician family could wish for. Except for children.
Though they had tried for several years (remember the 'very, very fond' part?), went to loads of different healers, and prayed to pretty much any god in the Roman Pantheon, Justina was still completely barren. And so the couple pulled out the big cannons. Let's just say 'not-that-pretty sacrifices to not-so-politically correct deities', shall we? Indeed, the people 'down there' have a lot to offer, and indeed, nine moths later, Justina gave birth to her first and only child, a daughter. Sadly, as it happens when people mess with less politically correct deities, the happy givers wanted a bit more than they had been getting. Specifically, they wanted Justina's soul. For demonic powers, it takes almost nothing to make a childbirth go horribly, horribly wrong – in ancient times, it was probably even easier than that. No matter what, the young Phoebe Cassius lost her mother only a few hours old. Though he was heartbroken over the loss of his wife, Lucius nonetheless got himself together and became focused on doing everything he could to make his tiny daughter happy.
And thus, Phoebe Cassius became a horribly, horribly spoiled kid. She belonged with the group of 'rich kids that makes you want to kick their sensitive butts', getting anything she pointed her tiny finger at – and if she for some instance couldn't get what she wanted, she would throw a fit until she got it anyway. In lack of a mother, the child was cared for by a small army of nurses and servants, leaving her father time to continue his political work without a bad consciousness. When you're rich, you can afford such things. And even so, Lucius would spend as much time with his daughter as his work allowed him, which was pretty much twice the time other patrician fathers bothered to spend with their children. And Phoebe absolutely loved it. From an early age, she adored her father, but she too started to love the wealth, power and luxury that would, in the end, be the reason for her fall. But that is far from yet – a lot more stuff happened along the way that made Phoebe Cassius who and what she is today.
As little girls do, Phoebe eventually matured into a little and, at least in the eyes of her father, very beautiful woman. And as tradition prescribed it, little beautiful women were supposed to be married – preferably as fast as possible. Of course, a lot of rich old men wanted their rich but not old sons to marry Phoebe, who was not only little and beautiful but also very, very rich – luck had it that Lucius wanted his daughter married to a rich young man as well, certain that would be Best for Her. Well, father pays, and in a few months after the first proposals were received, 13 years old Phoebe was all set and ready to marry her Chosen One (that is, chosen by her father), 18 years old Aulus Aurelius (golden palace). The only problem was that Phoebe was definitely NOT going to get married. Heck, she was still in her 'boys stink' phase, and if something stunk, that would be leaving her beloved daddee for good to live with some strange and astronomically old boy.
So Phoebe wailed. And she cried. She threw temper tantrums. She clinged to her father's legs. She refused to move. She held her breath. And nothing helped.
The realization that she had no way to escape the situation was almost apocalyptic to Phoebe. Up to this point, she had been able to get everything she wanted by crying or raging, but now, her father simply refused her pleas with a “It's the best for you”. It fueled a little flame of pure hate that has been burning inside Phoebe ever since then, a flame that later led her on the wrong path like a will-o-wisp.
Then the wedding was held, Phoebe being silent and angry with everyone through the whole thing while the crowd once again went WHOO! over the unification of two families. His legal wife, Phoebe, who now carried the name Aurelius, moved with Aulus to his mansion several Roman miles away. There, she spent several months crying and whining about her misery, her husband and the lack of her father. And when she finally started to show just a little bit of interest in him, Aulus turned out to be a Damn Boring Man, caring not for anything but his businesses here and in Rome. Well, he had been forced into the marriage as well, but to Phoebe, that was no reason to completely ignore her. And ignored she surely was. Though her servants took well care of her, Aulus saw Phoebe as nothing more than an annoyance, or at the very best a birthing device – there was plenty of cold air between them, yes. As the years passed by, Aulus spent more and more time away from home, apparently working (but probably in the 'company' of a few slave girls) and Phoebe had to find something to spend her time doing. That is when she discovered Herself.
Phoebe had always been very concerned with her own well-being, very much into whether or not she got what she deserved, but now as she had to spend more and more time on her own, that old inflated ego suddenly grew to enormous proportions. Having, in her own opinion, lost the love of her father and never received that of Aulus, she concentrated all her energy on herself and her own wishes. Everything she did, she did to make her own life more comfortable. She dwelled in her own luxury, spending all her unknowing husband's earnings on extravagant clothes, foods and luxury items. Phoebe became an important figure in Roman social life, throwing some of the most extravagant parties in the empire, all in celebration of herself. Her 17th birthday party was remembered more than 50 years after Phoebe's presumed death.
But though she did everything she could to make herself happy, Phoebe discovered that she was only growing more unhappy. Obviously, this was due to neither receiving or giving love for most of her youth, but she herself wouldn't accept that fact and instead blamed Aulus and her poor servants. As time passed by, the once (at least sort of) kind lady became cruel and uncaring, treating her servants and slaves like trash and behaving horribly in social situations. (People still came to her parties though, because they were, as said above, darn huge.)
The first big turning point in Phoebe's life came as she was 18 years old. One otherwise perfectly normal day, a messenger arrived at the Maison Aurelius with this message: Lucius Cassius had passed away. That moment, Phoebe discovered that she, too, was a mere mortal.
In a way, this came as a shock to Phoebe. Of course, she had always known that she was human, but as it sometimes happens with the rich and powerful, she had been viewing herself as some sort of demi-god; nothing truly bad could happen to her, especially not something as utterly terrible as death. Losing her father, possibly the only person she ever really cared about, was a shortcoming of her own divinity, a shock that changed her life. From thinking that her wealth could solve any problem, Phoebe went to a state of powerlessness, finally faced with a desire she couldn't satisfy. From that day on, the 19-year-old Phoebe started to stare into a mirror like a woman going on 50, searching each millimeter of her skin for the slightest wrinkle. She became ridiculously obsessed with her own health and beauty, always carrying at least three mirrors on her person and rarely going anywhere without her slave doctor. Aulus, when he was at home, just laughed it off – which he surely shouldn't have done.
As her obsession with mortality grew even more dominant, Phoebe became determined to pursue eternal life at whatever cost. After realizing that the gods of Rome could do nothing to help her achieve her goal, Phoebe went in the footsteps of her mother and digged into the Dark Arts. Reading, learning and practicing, Phoebe suddenly isolated herself in the cellar of the Maison Aurelius, determined to reach her goal. She worked day and night, made bloody sacrifices and other sorts of yucky stuff I won't go into detail with, but finally, after almost a year of isolation, Phoebe Cassius managed to complete a ritual that would change her life. Or rather make sure her life would not change which was what she wanted but not what she got. Er, did anyone get that?
Anyway, Phoebe had finally performed the ritual she had been aiming for so long: within her pentagram of virgin 's blood and cock's feathers (and whatever other evil-ish substances she used) appeared a representative of the LoCD. (I don't know who this was. Was it you? Great, let's work some past-thingies out. ^^) Without much ado, Phoebe signed a contract in her own blood, selling her immortal soul and promising a lifelong service of Evil and stable supply of other peoples' souls for the benefit of eternal life, beauty and wealth, plus demonic powers. The contract was then burned so it would never be changed, and so Phoebe Cassius became the Lady of the Creeping Darkness Beth-avin, Maiden of Vanity.
It would take her several years yet to live up to her new status as demon, though. After 'making the deal', Phoebe, as she still called herself, returned from her isolation, never speaking a word of it again, and continued her old life, only she now seemed genuinely happy and confident. As a bonus, she seemed not to age a day while other patrician ladies her age started to develop their first signs of wrinkles and overweight. (In ancient Rome, most people didn't live to see their 50th birthday). Once again, Phoebe was part of the in crowd of high society Rome, throwing enormous parties that were remembered for years. Of course this couldn't last. Really, you expected her to live happily ever after?
The second great turning point in Phoebe's life came as she was 25 years old. Aulus had not really been around the Maison for a few years at this point, and because Phoebe never cared about him at all, she hardly even remembered that he was her husband anymore. So of course, it was sort of a shock to suddenly have him standing in the hallway again. The real shock to Phoebe, though was what he said. After 12 years of marriage, Aulus explained, he had had enough of a wife he rarely even saw, who had never produced him any heirs, and used up all his hard earned fortunes. On his travels, Aulus had found himself a new wife who would give birth to his son, live in his palace, and take over all of Phoebe's belongings. Phoebe herself was to leave the Maison by the next morning, left to her own destiny which, since both of her parents were dead, would most likely be a life in poverty. Aulus even introduced his new wife to Phoebe, a young, insecure girl, barely out of childhood but already visibly pregnant. As Aulus dragged his new toy to the bedroom, Phoebe felt a rage that was unmatched by any she had felt before. NO ONE should dare to replace her, let alone take her wealth from her, and NO ONE in the whole world should ever, ever dare to think they could make decisions for her again.
By the next morning, all three of them were gone, the Maison Aurelius laid in ruins.
This was the first time Beth used her powers, though she had technically been a Lady of Darkness for over 6 years at that point. Now that Phoebe Cassius was truly dead, Beth-avin installed herself into a new life. And another one. And another one. But they are not significant to her current persona (or maybe I'm just a lazy bastard.)
What is important, though, is the London arrival in Anno Domini 1995 of a beautiful young lady calling herself Belladonna Phoebe Cassius. Belladonna had moved her base to London not only due to the recent gathering of the LoCD in that particular city, but just as much because London was just getting damn hot where she used to live. And Beth wanted to be hot. So without anyone really wondering where she came from or while she was here, Belladonna got herself a flat in City of London, conveniently close to the shopping Mecca of Oxford Street and a job at Delilah's Hair & Beauty Salon, while making her entrance at the clubbing and supervillain scenes of The Queen's City. Wow, and this brings us up till today! Now don't say that wasn't convenient. ^^;
NPCs:
Gosegas: Has his own little profile.
Devil's Accountant: With a name that is so obviously a pun of the term Devil's Lawyer that it's not even funny, this guy is obviously mainly a source of comic relief. Not a real Demon From Hell (TM), he is basically an aspect of Beth's contract brought to life when necessary. Physically (if you can even use this word to describe someone who is mainly an aspect of an official document), he is your average stiff law-man: monochrome suit, monochrome briefcase, monochrome tie, monochrome bowler, monochrome skin, monochrome eyes. And little horns. Comical little horns that sprout from his head just beneath the bowler. His facial expression is unchangeable, and he has the voice of a typewriter. Yup, surely a charming guy. This doesn't stop him from being a constant threat to Beth's life, though. ^^
Mrs. Harris: Belladonna's boss at work, owner of the Salon Delilah and one of the few people on Beth's no-kill listing. Mrs. Harris is a plump, short lady around age 45, but definitely not one of those you would give a hug at any time. She is no cozy grandmother, and that is made clear on the first meeting. Mrs. Harris makes demands, and she expects those demands to be followed. Yes, she is not Beth's dream boss – but she's neccessary.
Special Skills:
Levitation: Well, they all do this, don't they? Levitation might seem pointless when you have wings to fly with, but in this case, it is actually quite the opposite. Beth shuns flying at most costs (unless, say, her targets turns into an Angel and flutters away), so levitation comes in as a nice freebie way to look imposing and taller-than-thou without the clumsiness of her flying. ^^; Basically, when levitating Beth is unable to move. It works like this: Beth stands on ground. Beth is lifted up (to a max height of 5 meters). Beth stands there until she is lifted down. She cannot walk around in midair or walk straight out from a building without falling, though she can possibly slow down a fall. Still, if they push, the wings are needed. Crap.
Camouflage artist: It is truly amazing what this woman can do with plain make-up. Probably, she should consider a career in special effects? (but then again, who needs special effects when you have real demons and angels running around?) Okay, enough with the praise, what can this actually do? Basically, this goes instead of shapeshifting. Though Beth is now a full demon, the human blood in her and the simple fact that she had no real reason to have it, left her with almost no shapeshifting ability, save for the basic 'take the wings away'. Instead, she took pride in a very human way of changing shape: Modern Cosmetics. Now, this is not to say that Beth can do everything with her make-up. After all, they are only mundane tools, though with a little spark of happy fluffy demon magic. She cannot change her gender, height, or the basic shapes of her body (no six-armed little boys), but inside these boundaries, much is possible. Hair colors, eyes and basic aging are easily done – theoretically, she can look from about 12 to ancient, but her pride gets in the way here: there is NO WAY to get her looking about 50. The end. Still, it is quite a handy skill to have around, even though it can't be utilized on the spot (a basic camouflage treatment can take up to five hours) and it is the main reason she's managed to keep her job. ^^
Dance, Beth, dance: Dance. Yay dance. This is not good for anything, but is is still a skill, and I am proud to announce that Beth holds the place in Guinness Book of Records as the dancer who pushed down most stuff in one program – and still finished it. ^^ Uhm, probably it could be useful at an LoCD's night out or similar?
Frustration: Uhm, yes, frustration as a skill. Allow me to explain. The woman who now calls herself by the name of Beth-avin is not among the luckiest on this planet. Sure, as some would say, she is lucky to simply be alive, but still, she is by no means a child of luck. So, when all these little annoyances that happens over a day (Getting from home too late, hairdryer malfunction, cornflakes being sold out, angels saving your victim and kicking your butt, yadda, yadda.) are summed up, frustration builds up. When the frustration gets too much, chaos ensures. All right, not really chaos (that's Orfiel's job), but still, She Is Not Nice To Be Near when she gets too much. Beth's abilities doesn't technically grow stronger when she's frustrated, but because she is so determined on, well, killing you, they raise in effectiveness by around 10% - i.e. She is more likely to hit. And then she will bonk harder. Fearsome...
Item-bonking: Sure, with all these items, the least you can expect is a good Bonk, right? When really frustrated, Beth will most likely start to throw her stuff at Angels, but in most cases she will simply swing the Purse of D00m like Mad Old Granny. And with all that stuff in it, that is bound to hurt. Not to mention that most of her tools will break if used this way.
Item-based abilities: Explained down in 'Weapons'. This is just a reminder to look there for the continuation of Nifty Things Beth Can Do. ^^
Henshin Item: Alas, no. Though henshin items are sparkly and nice, the Do Not Belong on this team, and Beth will instead give life to her frustration through the utter scoffing of it.
Transformation: Same as above, except henshin is, if possible, even shinier than henshin item. Bah. Scoff, scoff, scoff!!!
Colors: Bubble gum pink, gold and whiteish violet. And sparklies. LOTS of sparklies. Ah, I just found out that Violet is actually the color associated with vanity. Too bad Pink is the main one, but we are allowed to be slightly original, ne? ^^
Symbol: Scoff! Sadly we scoff on yet another nifty item of cheesiness.
Costume: Oh YES. COSTUME! The ability to summon an übernatural dress out of nowhere is, according to Beth, one of the very best things about evil. That and the cookies. Yay cookies.
Compared to that of other evil-doers, Beth-avin's costume is pretty simple and very modern. It has a fifties-slash-eighties feel to it and, well, she is slightly seductively dressed. Don't take away my cookies. On a side note, Beth is known to change her outfits several times each century to keep up with what's in fashion – this particular outfit has been in use since nineteen-eighty-something, during her former 'life'. She can revert to formerly used costumes if absolutely necessary, but it is highly unlikely. What, you want her to wear something that has been out of fashion for centuries?!? I think not.
Anyway. The basis of Beth-avin's everyday LoCD regalia is a tight evening dress, made from some smooth, glittery and VERY PINK fabric. The dress is backless, very conveniently allowing her wings to sprout directly from her naked back, and with very minimal strings as an excuse for sleeves. The dress would be sitting very tight around her legs, had it not been for the very long Slit of Increased Mobility that cuts the dress open in the right side all the way from feet to hips. Thanks to the magic of the Magical Girl Costumes and Hairstyles Department, her dress still falls close to her skin, avoiding the embarrassment of strong winds. ^^ About 1' from her feet, the dress grows wider and ends a little below her feet with a nice chance of trip-overs.
There is more to a lady than the dress, though, even if the lady is an evil one, so now we will play with the accessories. Her shoes are very high-heeled sandals with criss-crossing, about 1 cm wide golden bands wrapped around her legs, all the way to her knees, and while she has nothing in the way of gloves, her wrists are adorned with a variety of golden, sparkly armbands. Mysterious forces keeps a long, silky lavender shawl glued to her arms even in situations where it would be completely acceptable to drop it. Her jewelry varies a lot, but you can count that she is at least wearing some form of armbands and earrings, and necklaces plus rings are common too. And except for jewels and other details, they are always in gold. Don't expect to see silver on this lady. Finally, she is always wearing her beauty purse over her shoulder – or she is in great trouble... (see Weapon section)
And before I forget... the physical changes! Compared to some dark lords, Beth-avin changes very little from human to Dark Lord, probably due to the fact that she is not naturally a demon, leave alone supernatural. Of course, one of the little changes is that she now sprout WINGS, but at least there are no horns... ^^ The wings themselves are bony, gargoyle-like flying equipment, looking rather like skeleton wings just barely covered in leathery, lavender-grey skin. They are rather short, reaching only barely to her knees, but strong in contrast to their bony look. Like bat wings, they are five-fingered with the thumb reduced to a small claw at the wing-top and each additional finger ended with a tiny claw. Her style of flying is strangely inelegant; due to the size of her wings, Beth needs to flap them at an unholy frequency to stay in the air, thus generating a strange fluttering movement that is far from impressive. I think it goes without saying that Beth shuns flying. ^^; Other than growing wings, the only other change from human to Lady form is that her nails grow an extra inch long and very, very sharp. It is wonder how she keeps her own dress intact. Lucky for the angels, these pseudo-claws are rather fragile, and she is very concerned about keeping them intact. Rather break a leg than flick a nail. ^^
There is a winking doll of
Beth-avin above, because I felt like doing something else than my
standard badly colored drawing. ^^
The base belongs to Feliah
Powers/Attacks: You know, though Beth would probably secretly like it, there are no stock footages of crazy dances in bright pink henshinspaces proceeding these attacks. Though she does something to use an attack, visuals are sparse here, as they always are with Magical Girl baddies. The names, however, are shouted out to begin an attack, not because it is necessary, but because Beth thinks it rocks. Even though they are very corny. XD
Narcissus Reflection:
How do you do your stuff: Holding up the Mirror of Doom, Beth catches the attention of her victim (usually by grapping said victim's neck) and, as she is sure they are looking into the Mirror, says the phrase. A garishly bright light shines from the surface of the mirror, freezing the victim and allowing Beth to simply stick her hand into their chest and drag out their solidified soul. Hey, I told you these things weren't flashy!
Does it have any consequences: This, being her soul-grapping move, is Beth's most used attack. All it practically does is to weaken any target so much that their soul is free to take, but that is really enough to make it damn useful. The way that is done is this: When the victim looks into the mirror, they see their own reflection in a very attractive form that almost begs to be looked at. Just like Narcissus in the myth, they are enchanted by their own reflection, getting more and more absorbed in vain love, their concentration on themselves more and more intense. When Beth decides that they are absorbed enough to not be brought out of concentration, she utilizes the garish light, which weakens their souls enough for them to be taken. The waiting is necessary to avoid anyone suddenly objecting when bright light is flashed at them, or worse yet, fight back while she's got her hand inside them. We can't have that, no. Of course, this attack has several shortcomings and ways to be stopped, because else it just wouldn't be fair. First off, she can not perform this if the Mirror goes poof. Simply can't. (Angels need at tip? Steal that purse while she's not looking) Also, it takes up a good deal of time; 'readying' a victim can take up to five minutes, and that's without counting the effort put into actually making them peek into the mirror. Doing it at more than one target is impossible, too, and if somebody attacks her while doing it, she has the option of either take the blow or strike back, breaking her victim's concentration. She can do it at more than one person each battle, but that takes a good while. And she'll most likely have to leave the second body laying around, ready for a soul reunion. If this is thrown at you, there are several things to do about it. The simplest one, really, is plain not looking. If you don't look, there is absolutely nothing she can do about it (er, actually, there is. Look below) and you're safe... For now. Were you so stupid as to look, however, you'll have to rely on someone else to pull you out of concentration – for example by throwing an attack at you (would YOU do that to save your friends?) or her (much more angelic). Finally, those who already had their soul taken can be saved if they are reunited with it. Oh, and there is another shortcoming (Beth: How weak are you making me look?) - to be affected by the Narcissus Reflection, you'll have to stand no more than 2 meters away from Beth-avin.
King of the world:
How do you do your stuff: Actually done without the mirror! Oh, the horror.
Doing her best to look cool and imposing, Beth stretches her right arm into the air, pointing at a spot a good deal above her victim. She snaps her fingers once, creating a tiny spark of violet energy, then lowers her arm to point directly at Whatever-iel, and shoots off a tiny (10x10 cm) sphere of violet energy. If aimed correctly, the sphere is simply absorbed by the target's body with no feeling of actually being hit.
Does it have any consequences: Though not imposing-looking, this attack is probably Beth's best chance at actually doing some real damage to the victim. So what does it do? Vanity, as said above, is the belief that you are better, stronger and wiser than anyone else, and especially than you really are. That is the fact that this power is based on. When the sphere hits the target's body, no pain is felt at all. Hell, some targets might not even notice that they are now targets. Instead of inflicting damage, the attack makes said person completely self-absorbed, but in the extroverted way. What I'm trying to say is that it makes you believe you can do stuff you really can't, just because you are the absolute BEST at everything. People under the influence of this attack might jump tall buildings in the belief they can fly (okay, with Angels, they actually can), charge head-first into a whole convention of Dark Lords, armed only with a puny little power, or refuse the help of others when Duriel is about to stab them. Oh yes, it is definitely a nice power to have. So of course, they have to avoid it. The best way to miss the effects of this attack is, quite simply, to dodge it. It is a very small sphere, you know, and it only takes so much moving to get out of it's range. The reason it actually hits somebody once in a while is that is is both damn fast and, quite frankly, so non-imposing looking that people tend to forget it is even being fired. Blocking and redirecting are options too, as long as you're not blocking it with anything physical. It zooms right through those things. Shield or mirror spells do the job, though. In terms of energy-draining, this is not very straining on Beth; up to five uses each battle doesn't even tire her. The reason for this, obviously, is that the damage comes not from her, but from the victim's own actions.
Dwell on ME:
How do you do your stuff: Standing up, Beth widens her arms and raises slightly from the ground, her body glowing with a weak violet aura. As the glow intensifies, so does her garish flowergarden-smell, and people begin to gather around her like moths to a flame, dropping any weapons they might hold.
Does it have any consequences: Again, this one of things you just gotta have when you're Vanity. Using this ability, Beth forcefully draws the positive attention of anyone standing within a radius of 15 meters from where she stands. This is good for several things, with the most obvious being that while the Angels are busy staring at her, they won't kick her butt. Also, it gives any Dark Lords she's cooperating with (like they ever do THAT) the ability to go from person to person and kill them in nasty ways to which they won't object, at least not if Beth is doing her job properly. Sadly, she herself has to be completely concentrated to keep this attack up, so as long as she is alone, all this does is give her a moment of breath. To be honest, the spell is probably based more on Idolizing than on Vanity – but then, what good is being vain if you don't have anyone to praise her. When I say praise, I don't mean do her bidding – that is what she's got the Narcissas for – but simply quiet adoration of her perfection, which suddenly becomes obvious to those affected by the spell. If you're not in the mood to praise Beth-avin, you best shot would be either to run off, or to shoot something at her that can break her concentration. In any way, the effects of the attack wear off the second she stops holding up her aura, which can maximally be done for about 15 minutes – and even after 15 minutes, she is completely drained. The main problem about this attack is quite frankly that when the attack ceases to work, she is completely surrounded by Angels, girl and boys (not really that bad with the boys, though...^^), ready for battle except for a slight dizziness that lasts about a minute, and the loss of any attacks that were ready to be fired when Dwell on ME was put into effect. Her best shot is to get away – and that in a hurry.(To the Bethmobile, Bethman Awaaay! [Quote stolen in the meaniest ways possible from Kayli]) Er, she'll use teleport, I think. ^^;
Weapons: One weapon? I think not. To be honest, Beth has no weapon in terms of Sharp Pointy Edge of Killing, but she wields a whole truckload of accessories, contained within a very non-fearsome purse, as well as one actual weapon-slash-item.
Purse of D00M: All right, maybe not really D00M; this is really just an ordinary pink purse with a golden chain as strap, though being filled with heavy beauty items of D00M makes it perhaps a slight bit more D00M-like. In a bonking way. ^^; This thing is cool because it contains all of Beth's more-cool acessories, listed below in order of fearsomeness:
Make-up from Below: A whole bunch of various cosmetics from well-renomed firms such as DolOr, Calvin Pain and L'OreHell, these are basically high-quality human cosmetics with only a slight spark of Cool Demonic Magic added. Their use is described up in 'Special Skills' and the reason that is there and not here is that Beth could do her Camouflage trick with pretty much any cosmetics, not just the hellish ones.
Powder Puff: A soft pink powder puff, this is Beth-avin's teleportation device. Yes, that is right, she disappears in a mist of powder. Corny, in'it? But it is Tha TRUTH! To teleport, Beth only needs to pat this thing a few times, creating a mist of nice smelling powder that obscures her completely and makes everyone else cough away. When the smoke clears, she is gone. When appearing somewhere via this skill, a cloud of powder proceeds her a well, though this time it truly emerges out of nowhere. Come on, it is at least unique. ^^;
Perfume of Seduction (and Hurting Your Nose): The smell described all the way up in 'Description' comes from this perfume. You knew it was Hell-powered, didn't you? The scent, as we will politely call it, originates from a old-fashioned pink glass perfume bottle stored inside the Purse of D00M, but has been applied to Beth's skin every single morning for around two millennia now. Not a wonder it smells a bit... er. XD Aside from smelling rather... weird, it also has an effect that most members of the cast will never experience: it attracts males! Obviously, men have taste too, and will most likely not really appreciate the smell of the perfume, but they will still be dragged unconsciously towards the she-devil wearing it. Pretty much like a very watered down and sexist version of Dwell on ME.
Evil Queen's Combs: You might not have noticed it by now (but damn, it's in the PERSONALITY and all. o_O), but Beth-avin takes quite a bit after Snow White's eeevil step mother in several areas. Yes? This power/item is snipped directly off Snow White. In the original story collected by the Brothers Grimm (not the Disney version), a poisoned comb is the Evil Queen's second way of killing Snow White: as soon as she tries to comb her hair, the poison is activated, almost killing her. Now, because Beth is not at all about poisoning people to death, the effect of the combs have been twinked. But first, the Strategy Involved. When the combs are put into effect, it is usually because some client at the Salon either really, really annoyed her, or simply looks like damn good target. Said person is, upon leaving the salon, given a pretty golden comb by Belladonna, as a 'special gift' for being a good customer. When they get home, said good customer will want to use said special gift, and that is where the fun begins. Only a few hours after combing their hair with one of these combs, the victim's looks pretty much falls apart. Acne appears, hair gets coarse, eyes red and skin wrinkling. Everything practically screams for a beauty treatment right now. And thus, through the Magic of Evil, a small note saying something like 'In need of immediate care? Call us right now and arrange a special treatment session. The Salon Delilah' followed by Belladonna's phone number. You see where I'm going with this? Obviously, the poor victim calls and arranges a session at some obscure time, turns up at the clinic only to find not an army of caring beauty assistants waiting to help, but a very evil Lady of Darkness waiting to STEAL THEIR SOUL.
Mirror of D00M (remind me not to let her name her own stuff again): And thus, we reach the above promised Real Weapon. Or whatever you would call a mirror. Regarding the name, it actually had a more cool and less corny name at one point in history, but that name is long forgotten. Thus, we see the Mirror of D00M.
In terms of look, this is rather heavy gold mirror about the size of an average hand mirror. The front of it is decorated with three gargoyles to the right and a dragon to the left climbing the sides of the smooth mirror surface, their tails twisted together to form it's handle. The mirror is very sturdy and quite heavy – the ultimate bonking tool! ^^;
Aside from it's uses in Beth's various attacks, the mirror has a few nifty powers of it's own. The main power, of course, is bonking people on the head. Wait, I didn't say that!.. though she actually uses it in that way more than often. o_O When not used for that, however, the Mirror is a wonderful spy-toy. Like the Evil Queen in Snow White (you see, there she is again), Beth can command the mirror to show her any person by looking into it and saying their name loud and clear. Usually, she puts up some corny 'Mirror, Mirror' speech to use it, but that is actually not at all necessary. She just is corny like that. There are other restrictions, though: to view somebody, she has to utter their full and correct name – if you only gave her your first name, she's not got a chance. With Angels, too, she can only see, for example, Samael, if that Angel is currently in his/her henshined form. If she is not, all Beth will receive is a 404 from Hell. It is the same thing the other way; if she is spying on Eden Ardith, the mirror will actually go black if that boy is about to henshin. So, to really spy on anyone, she needs to know both of their identities. And if the LoCD knows that, said Angel is doomed anyway. She can also not spy on other LoCD – technically, she could, but they are all far too experienced with demonic magic to not discover that they're being shadowed.
The other cool thing this mirror can do (aside from bonking) is teleportation. Not of herself, obviously – that is what she's got the Powder Puff for – but of items, Narcissas, and smaller creatures (i.e. Gosegas). To do this, she basically has to stuff whatever it is into the mirror and tell it where to put it. Narcissas, however, are self-sufficient enough to go without the tell. They are mirrors, after all. Using this skill, Beth can also pull out a bodyguard of Narcissas in battle, though usually no more than five at a time. These thing aren't strong! However, they serve as good Angel-distraction, giving her just enough time to get her butt out of here. And with this, we end the (overly long and twinkish) weapons section.
Angel Bait Monsters: Beth-avin's Monsters-of-the-day are called Narcissas (or Narcissuses, happens they to be male), obviously named after Narcissus, the Greek myth-boy everyone knows. Or ought to know. Hell, all right, I'll tell the story. But it will be fast. Narcissus – boy – Greece – reflection – love – obsessed – starved – dead – flower. You satisfied? (For those who truly has no clue what that was about, the myth is told at a slower pace here: http://www.pantheon.org/articles/n/narcissus.html)
Beth's Narcissuses, though not Greek, came to life in similar way. Rather than manifested monsters, they are the twisted remains of her previous victims, all of which had their soul stolen a long time ago, and now are completely under her control. To 'twist' somebody into a Narcissa, Beth needs first of all to weaken them to the point of immobility, using the Narcissus Reflection. After that, removing their soul is a piece of cake, but to 'convert', there is still work to do – after losing their soul, her victim falls unconscious and is usually sucked into the Mirror of Absolute D00m, which can carry only one person – additional victims need to be carried. x_X The next thing for Beth to do is to take her soul-derived victim to the HQ (all right, that is just her flat) and install them in one of her gazillion mirrors. The time they need to spend there depends on both age, level of goodiness and strength of will, but it usually takes somewhere between two hours and a whole month before the former human can emerge as a full-fledged Narcissa. The reason why she can't just control victims immediately after taking their soul lies in the way she attacks. Narcissus Reflection is an attack that focuses all the victim's energy on themselves, getting them completely separated from the real world – essentially, all their focus is on their soul, so when it is taken, what is left of the person is suddenly absorbed in nothing and collapses from the impossibility of it all. By placing that poor person in a mirror, she can slowly bend its focus from the soul that isn't there to herself, thus earning a loyal minion. Isn't it clever? The only way to 'free' a Narcissa is to reunite it with it's solidified soul but sadly for those looking to do a good deed, it is not necessarily a heroic act. As humans-turned-demon, the Narcissas do not age, so what looks like a twenty-year-old could easily be older than Methuselah, meaning that when returning it to human, it is also returned to it's natural life stage: dead. This won't happen with newly generated Narcissas, though.
So, what are these things anyway? In terms of looks, your average Narcissa or Narcissus is a beautiful, usually young, boy or girl with long, silky hair and a well-shaped body. In their true form, however, they are well-shaped, beautiful boys and girls made of glass. Their bodies are like mirrors, and their faces are completely flat and feature-less. It is a mystery how the see. ^^ The hair is, as said before, soft, long and silky, and the only part of them not made of glass. Now, being made of glass doesn't actually mean they are fragile; this is their battle form. The glass, you see, is highly reflective, and bounces back any light or beam-style attack sent at them, though fireballs and psychic charms are just as devastating as to other LoCD cannonfodder. They are much stronger than average humans, and especially more flexible, making them somewhat good fighters despite their utter lack of offensive spells. The only 'spell' they can actually do is Mirror-face, a much watered down version of Beth's Narcissus Reflection with a much lower success rate. Also, they cannot take the bodies of victims with them, except for actually running all the way to the HQ, carrying them. And I don't think Beth would be too fond of that. ^^; They have teleport, but only just enough to take themselves home. Of course, looking like a photo model-turned-mirror is not the best way to get around unnoticed, so each Narcissa has the ability to slip back into his or her old form for a short period of time. Only the hair remains the same. ^^
RP Experience: In order of acceptance, I play:
Hanadokino Otome/Sailor Ceres in CMF
Kenpei Toukai/Sailor Venus in Sailormoon Flash!
Pazime Nezina Nakotne/Sailor Karta in Reflection
All of them are good goody goodies, but this app will end that record. BWAHAHAHA! Er, uhm, yeah. ^^;
Frequent Hangouts:
Salon Delilah: This is where Beth works. The Salon Delilah is basically a medium-sized combined hair- and beautysalon located in London's theater district, the West End. The salon is owned by Mrs. Harris, a strict lady described in the NPC section and holds around 12 employees, one of them Belladonna. The prices are in the higher end of the scale but still reasonable enough that ordinary people come here – just not the dirt poor. Belladonna works as an assistant in both hair and beauty Tuesday-Friday from 9 am to 3 pm with the rest of the week off. The salon is closed on Mondays.
Tha Flat: This is where Beth lives. Her flat in Central London has a fashionable address, but officially, it is quite a tiny place. Officially, I say, because Beth has her very own hellish and magical ways of expanding the inside of the flat without actually making it any bigger on the outside. It is furnished in a strange mix of Victorian dollhouse- and Barbie's 3-in-1 house-style, with pink and gold being the absolutely dominant colors. The most obvious thing about the flat, however, is that mirrors are practically everywhere. On every wall they hang, on every flat surface they stand, and in every drawer, they are piled. Most of these mirrors are the homes of various Narcissas and Narcissuses, or were at some point. And of course, the flat has every form of modern luxury available: TV, bubble bath, stereo – but no computer. She blew those up.
Club Purgatory: This is where Beth dances. A pretty fashionable club in the West end, this one is Beth's most frequent hangout and soul-stealing-bait-finding place. The music played ranges from everyday pop to older pop, and people who come here are generally no older than 25, and of average educational level. This is not where the punks go clubbing. Generally the club is 18+ (though a lot of younger people cheat their way inside), but twice each month, there is a kids' night with a 16+ border and less alcohol. The club closes at 5 am, but Belladonna usually leaves a few hours before that (to kill somebody).
The Park: This needs no description.
Why me: Because I worked almost nine months on this thing, and because it's longer than an alchemist's recipe for gold. That's why. ^^
Miscellaneous: Being evil rocks, man. And Vanity is an ice-cream. Really, look at this picture! And then another BWAHAHAHA! Just for the record.
Part V: The Writing Sample
“Ring-a-ding”
Belladonna absolutely loathed the sound of the Salon Delilah's doorbell. Not only was the obnoxiously happy sound a nuisance to a tired head, worse yet, the sound of the door bell was the sure sign that work was about to enter the salon. And Belladonna was not too fond of work.
This time, however, the other beauty-and-hair-assistants who usually got all lived up by the promise of a customer to please were behaving very strangely. At the sound of the doorbell, the common, high-pitched chitter-chatter about fashion had suddenly stopped and everybody had turned around to look at the door. Belladonna was the last to finally put down her issue of Cosmopolitan to see what had caught the attention of her peers.
And what a sight it was. In the doorway stood a tall, ridiculously skinny woman dressed in a mink coat that was far too big and fluffy for her. Her head was adorned with an enormous blue bonnet that featured what seemed to be the full stock of the local florist. Underneath it, garishly red curls framed her skinny crane face and tried to steal the focus from her absurdly long nose and deep wrinkles. Carefully hidden in wrinkles and tasteless blue eyeshade, her black eyes stared out at them. There could be no doubt in Belladonna's heart. This was Hannah Nightingale, the 60 years-old former primadonna and currently most feared beauty-parlor-visitor in all of London. The Customer From Hell had arrived.
It was during the same moment that Belladonna discovered that her faithful colleagues had all mysteriously vanished. Belladonna was left completely alone to fight this old dragon.
“Hell-oooo, little one,” the dragon whistled at Belladonna as she shed her enormous mink coat, revealing an even more ridiculously looking bright blue dress underneath. “It is time to preserve my undying beauty!” Undying, bah, Belladonna though as she tried to avoid the feeling of nausea that was erupting inside her at the sight of the customer's wrinkled neck. With a clumsy gesture that might have been supposed to impress Belladonna, Hannah winked her 'servant' over and helplessly tried to climb one of the fancy salon chairs. With a feeling that this encounter would not end happily, at least not for both of them, Belladonna slowly moved over to the side of the customer's chair.
“So. What does the lady want?” Belladonna managed to say while trying to forget just how close she currently was to those wrinkles. “Oh, you know, just the average. The full treatment.” the dragon sang. Belladonna sank. The full treatment! It was no wonder why this customer was feared by everyone in the salon. With a loud sigh, she went to the remedy cupboard and started to pull out shampoo, creme and cosmetics. “Oh, and you know, I'd prefer it if you gave me what I deserve. I won't be satisfied with the stuff you use on the normal customers, little one,” the dragon hissed from the other side of the room. Belladonna felt a sudden urge to strangle the bottle of conditioner she held in her hand. “Of course I won't give you the second best,” Belladonna managed to say without it sounding like too much of a threat as she stuffed the remedies back into the cupboard, only to take the same things out a few seconds later.
The full treatment consisted of shampooing, occasional coloring, conditioning, face mask, creme treatment, and make-up. At least, it usually did. “Oh, won't you give me a foot massage as well, little one?” the dragon chirped and “I'd prefer it if you curled my hair as well, little one,” the dragon snapped. One hour became two became three and a half before it was time for the final make-up. Belladonna, who was now very, very close to the edge of Absolute Destructive Anger bowed over the customer's still heavily wrinkled but at least now properly foundationed face and pulled out the mascara brush. “Oh, and please take note that you cover all of my leashes, won't you little one?” the dragon whined and pulled her hand over her face, presumably to point to her lashes. Unfortunately for her, old people have clumsy movements. Unfortunately for her, her movements were very clumsy. Unfortunately for her, her movement managed to smear out the eyeshade surrounding her eyes, mixing it with her own mascara, while, at the same time, showing the mascara brush into Belladonna's eyes, knocking said Belladonna over, and landing her into the dust bin.
“Uh... are you hurt, little one?”
Belladonna jumped to her feet. “WHATDOYOUMEAN'AREYOUHURTLITTLEONE'YOUOLDSTINKIN'FARTOFANOLDWITCH GETTHEHELLOUTOFHEREORI'LLROASTYOULIKEABARBECUECHICKENYOU....”
Smack.
Mrs. Harris had rushed in and bitch-slapped Belladonna like no one ever bitch-slapped Belladonna before. “OUT! OUT RIGHT NOW!” Grumpily, Belladonna moved into the back of the shop as Mrs. Harris rushed to her customer, excusing for her employee's extremely bad behavior and assuring her that, no, her employees did not grow claws, not even if they tried to strangle someone, which they surely didn't do – at least not any of the others.
A few minutes later, a much more relaxed Hannah Nightingale left the Salon Delilah. Mrs. Harris had succeeded in her attempt to calm down the customer, and even made sure that she would come back again. “It was nothing.” she said to herself as she walked down the avenue. “I was just imagining, and the little one sure did her very best.” Still, her heart skipped a beat as Belladonna was suddenly right in front of her. “I'm very sorry for my behavior,” Belladonna said before Nightingale had any chance to get away. “And because we at the Salon Delilah are all very sorry if you had a bad experience, let me at least give you this little gift.” Carefully, Belladonna handed her former customer a bright golden comb. The dragon stared at the comb. “But isn't this..?”
“Oh don't worry, we can afford it. And if you visit us again, that will be my pay-back.”
You really made it down here? Wow, you deserve a cookie.
This application was written specifically for SMF and jacked and altered with permission by the Sailor Angels RPG. This means you MAY NOT USE IT in whole or in part without specific permission from and credit to the RPGs of seiryuu.org, or Gabi will come and kill you into little bits and then Luci will have you with her tea, on warm scones.