Lavinia Whateley

User Name/Nick: Becca
AIM/IM: doctressamnesia
E-mail: freakyberkeley@gmail.com

Character Name: Lavinia Whateley
Series: Originally "The Dunwich Horror" by H. P. Lovecraft. AU per a Lovecraftean novel in progress.
Age: 135 as of 2013; looks late 30s

Canon AU History: In Lavinia's universe, the events of "The Dunwich Horror" went on exactly as portrayed in the original story. Lavinia grew up under the heel of her insane wizard father, who murdered her Innsmouth-blooded mother when she was twelve, terrorized her into obedience, and eventually offered her as consort to the Outer God Yog-Sothoth. She survived the impregnation, pregnancy, and birth, feeding her resulting offspring on her own blood before weaning them off onto cattle. Her father's death heralded changes: her son Wilbur took over dominating her and forced her to remain in the house with her other son at all times. She vanished eventually, presumed killed by the ever-ravenous Horror.

But this was not the case. Lavinia fled the house during Wilbur's travels in search of the Necronomicon, faking her death even as she plotted his. It was rage: the vengeful bloodlust of a woman pushed too far by her own abusive family. She feared her son, but she had advantages: he had always underestimated her, he now thought her dead, and she knew his greatest fear and weakness: dogs. Knowing that only Miskatonic University had a proper version of the Necronomicon and that Wilbur would eventually seek it out there, she lay in wait for him. It was she who took the guard dog off its chain, and she who used a bit of magic to make sure Wilbur's pistol would jam. She felt no regret for that; instead, she focused on returning to the Whateley farm before Armitage and the occultists could, bent on retrieving the Whateley occult library and her father's stash of gold from the shack Wilbur had built on the property. She knew that the ritual would never be performed now; Yog-Sothoth would have to wait until the appointed time to let the others in. The world was doomed...but not yet. She used the chaos caused by her second-born son to cover her tracks as she seized her inheritance. Then she did the smart thing and got the Hell out of the entire region, leaving the humans to take care of her rampaging offspring.

Innsmouth was her first stopover. She received a warm reception from her mother's people (well, as warm as those with Deep One blood can manage), and spent the next several years there, recovering from her ordeals. A good pair of glasses and suddenly she could properly read; she devoured every line of her father's books, avoiding being social except when the villagers needed her assistance or requested her attendance at one of their rituals. Unlike her father, the people of Innsmouth kept their worship out of loyalty and acceptance of their fate instead of hatred or misguided power-lust. Compared to what she had left behind they seemed positively sane and pragmatic. Lavinia continued her studies as she tried to settle in and resign herself to life in Innsmouth and her eventual transformation into a Deep One.

But after a decade the change actually started, and she found herself hiding her new features instead of revealing them proudly to her kin. She also grew more and more frightened--and angry. She couldn't simply accept the change and take her place in timeless ecstasy in the deeps. She had spent her entire life in submission--to her father, to Yog-Sothoth, and her sons. This felt too much like giving in again, and she wanted--needed--time to live free. In desperation, she turned to her books, eventually working out a solution. She could "buy" more time in her current form, and exist agelessly, in return for regular human sacrifices. Yet she knew that if she did so, her kin would not understand--for who would choose to live in the troubled, and ultimately endangered, surface world for any longer than they had to?

To spare them confusion and conflict, she left Innsmouth, traveling for a few decades in search of occult lore. Her travels took her as far abroad as the Poles, and into encounters with races as diverse as the Serpent People and and the Mi-Go. She has met Nyarlathotep a few times; the being is curious about her, which it expresses in ways that run from extremely creepy to simply annoying. She settled in London during the 1970s, running a rare book shop as a front for her very strange purchases. Her relationships with people were transient and rare; she maintained several correspondences with occultists around the world, but rarely met with them in person.

Strengths/Abilities/Powers

• Unusually strong, but hobbled by her twisted back and overlong arms.
• Fairly extensive knowledge of the Cthulhu, Hastur, Nyalathotep and Yog-Sothoth mythos.
• Has the Innsmouth Look, including albinism, gills and slightly webbed fingers, and as a result can swim quickly, breathe under water and survive significant pressure changes without getting the Bends. Deep Ones, hybrids and their allies will recognize the Look and be reluctant to attack her.
• Fluent in Aklo, Latin, Greek, an antiquated dialect of Arabic and Creole.
• Knows how to use a knife really well.
• Is somehow tough enough to survive sex with Yog-Sothoth and birthing two eldritch horror hybrids.
• Because she is already technically insane, her mind is not easily damaged by experience or psychic attack.
• She cannot be squicked and is very difficult to intimidate or frighten.
• Lavinia is effectively immortal unless killed, although one day she will become a (white) Deep One. She has thus far staved off the transformation with magic, making her an anomaly among Innsmouth descendants.
• Lavinia "inherited" (read: stole) her father's magical library after his death, and it became the basis for her own, which is now fairly extensive. She is a master of Mythos style magic, which is usually pretty horrible, and involves a lot of summonings, curses, blood magic and pacts. She occasionally uses some creatures as servants, messengers or guards--usually Rat-Things or Nightgaunts.
• During her long life of collecting occult books and scrolls, she has also branched out into other magical disciplines, focusing largely on potions and herb-witchery to treat her various health problems, and for trade.
• She also knows a few small glamours, which she uses to make herself appear a bit more normal. However, they are of limited use, leaving her looking at best like an unusual-looking human.

Weaknesses

• Lavinia has a lot of health issues. Her scoliosis slows her down and gives her distracting backaches, forcing her to walk with a cane or staff and giving her a slightly bent look, like an old woman.
• Her albinism makes her very light sensitive, and forces the use of concealing clothing and dark glasses; in addition she is very nearsighted and needs both contact lenses and fairly thick reading glasses.
• Although she has kept her Deep One transformation at bay with powerful spells, she has transformed somewhat, resulting in gills, tiny sharp teeth, a carnivorous diet, and twice the water needs of a normal human.
• She is homely and awkward, with overlong arms, spindly and slightly webbed fingers and toes, a slightly bent and loping gait, fish-belly-white skin, overlarge garnet-colored eyes, dark and slightly sharp-looking fingernails, and no body hair, including eyebrows. Even Glamoured and dressed in her usual severe clothing, she looks decidedly odd.
• This is exacerbated by her eccentric behavior: she is extremely introverted, shy, highly intelligent but poorly socialized, blunt, creepy, and has a tendency to wander around daydreaming and muttering to herself, sometimes in Aklo.
• Lavinia has resigned herself to the eventual (horrible) death of the world, though she does not aid cultists who seek to bring it about early and in fact has quietly put a stop to their efforts on more than one occasion. (No reason to hasten the inevitable). It does however make her very depressed at times.
• She is conflicted over her relationship with the Great Old Ones and their masters the Outer Gods, and tends to drink a lot as a result. Her Deep One heritage allows her to down large quantities of her secret-recipe moonshine without ill effect, but she is essentially a functional alcoholic, and hates to dry out completely.
• Though very high-functioning, she is insane in the way of all those who have been overexposed to the truths of the Mythos universe. She accepts horrifying situations as completely normal, has limited empathy for humans, and is obsessed with gaining more occult lore and power.
• Finally, in order to maintain the spells that keep her from becoming a Deep One, she must pay Cthulhu off now and again with a human sacrifice. She soothes her shred of a conscience by deliberately picking out the most horrible people she can find, having a particular hatred of violent religious fundamentalists.

Versions: Lavinia comes in two continuities for your creepy gaming enjoyment.
Version 1 is the Addams Family version, who originally showed up in Nexus games four-odd years ago on Livejournal. This is a more user-friendly Lavinia who tends to keep her dark side at bay, and is played more for creepy humor than cosmic/existential horror. She has less issues (alcohol and murder are indulged in far less often) and maintains a shred of sanity by keeping her sense of humor. She has a Shoggoth budling named Squishy with the personality of an octopus (smart, curious, playful) and a basketball-sized, shapeshifting body made of pure WTF. Lavinia runs a small rare-books shop, and restores old books as a hobby and a side job along with selling potions.

Version 2 is the straight novelverse version. She is secretive, isolated, bitterly critical of humanity, suffers from nightmares, compulsively hides her body behind concealing clothing and magic, and in many ways relates better to monsters like the Deep Ones than she does to humanity. She lives, and keeps her magical laboratory, on a big old houseboat currently moored somewhere in the Louisiana Bayou. This boat is guarded by something in the water that is a lot more substantial (and dangerous) than Squishy. (The locals don't know what the Hell it is, but it is eating the local alligators). There is still a touch of humor in her matter-of-fact relationship with the creature, which is as loyal as a dog and sometimes the only living thing she feels she can talk to. She left behind keeping a book shop after the Second World War, and is now independently wealthy, occasionally doing restoration or potions work for...special clients.