bowen, l.

LUCILLE OLIVIA BOWEN

The street's a liar I'm gonna lure you into the dark My cold desire To hear the boom, boom, boom of your heart

PERSONALITY

calculating. this is a trait picked up in her later years as an adult when she realized that precision planning was necessary at to ensure her success. She considers every step she takes very carefully and views her interactions with other people as a combination of chess and poker, a woman that is found to almost always have a plan a, b, c, d, and e.

fickle. lucy is loyal to herself and no one else. there are some that might experience a brief flash of loyalty from the woman but once you have worn out your usefulness she will dispose of your relationship as if it never existed in the first place. the best way to think of her is to picture a cat, the feline enjoys attention when it so desires and usually by the person with treats in hand. this is not to say that true loyalty may not be inspired in her by an individual or group of individuals but things like that take time as it is against her parents' conditioning.

freedom-loving. she believes in having complete and utter freedom to do as one pleases. does not try to impose her beliefs on others and expects the same courtesy be shown to her. she values independence and free thought above all else and will fight to the death to defend it. she enjoys her free rein and certainly was not a creature created to answer to any sort of master. anyone trying to inflict marshal law on her life will be subject to the full scope of her arsenal. much like a coyote she would rather chew off an appendage than remain shackled.

cynical. her parents taught her that to trust was to invite disaster. she believes that anyone (given the right motive) is born to be a turncoat and finds herself constantly questioning the actions of others. lucy has seen enough of humanity to know that they are fundamentally a self-serving race (hell, she is herself.) she also holds societal norms in great contempt and has done so for most of her life. the more 'moral' you present yourself the more she will mock you and perhaps given her upbringing you wouldn't really blame her for doing so.

kleptomaniac. practically raised from birth to be a con artist lucy hordes things that she considers valuable. some of these items do not actually retain any true worth such as precious stones but much like a magpie if it is shiny and attracts her attention she will take it. lucy has been stealing for so long she hardly notices when she does it anymore and i feel it necessary to warn you that she is quite the pick-pocket.

persuasive. she is not a humble woman and knows full well what she looks like and uses it to her advantage. pair that with her way with words and she is certainly a force to be reckoned with; she has a high success rate in getting things from people or getting them to do things for her in this respect.

HISTORY

My name is Leah O'Fallon.
My name is Sarah Knox.
My name is Casey Freeman.
My name is Elizabeth Allman.

I. LEAH O'FALLON

Leah is a mousy girl in manner if not looks, a demure church-goer that sits prim and proper in the hard wood pew and stares directly at the priest with a practiced look of rapture. Beside her is her wealthy husband, who abandoned God to worship her instead and you can see it written clearly on his face. They have only been married a year and their courtship was an even shorter affair, Leah claims that it was love at first sight but for Caleb she was a possession. A beautiful specimen of wild game that he liked to gaze at, marveling at his sportsmanship. So blinded by her beauty that he did not notice the cruel way her mouth curved in his direction; the dispassionate way she said his name while he made love to her. He sees their relationship as he wants to see it and not for what it is.

They are leaving the church, she is pulling her white jacket over her shoulders and belting it tight against the winter wind. In the frigid air her breath hangs in the air and she shares a significant look with a gracefully aging woman walking in as they make their exit. Caleb does not know it yet, won't know it until he wakes up in the morning and she's gone with the contents of his personal safe, but he is just another name added to the long list of men that had fallen victim to the clever magpie. He will scramble to try and find her but he will fail, she's two states away with Elvis Presley blaring out of the speakers of her mother's car. "Took you a bit long on this one, don't you think?" The older woman looks to her partner, frowning prettily. She has had so many aliases, lied so many times that she is not even sure what her first name really is. But she is the finest con that Luce has ever seen and not even advancing age has slowed her down.

"Wait for the opportune moment, isn't that what you have always said, Mother?"

II. SARAH KNOX

Her first alias. Given to her by the Feds so that mommy and daddy couldn't find her again after they escaped custody. Sarah Knox was well-liked in high school once she put forth the effort to actually try. For a brief, shining moment Lu thought that maybe this was it, that she could become this Sarah Knox character and leave behind Lucille Bowen and spotty past. Her adoptive parents were actually kind to her treated her as if she was child born of their blood. She wanted for nothing and she did not have to run, she was never used as bait for some wicked scheme.

The Knoxes are good people, good enough to where they had been able to weather her initial rebellion and all the hateful, hurtful comments that had come along with it. A year passes without word from either one of her parents and she believes that she is finally free and that she can finally experience how the other half lives. Sure, she still has moments where the old life comes back to her when she shows her adopted mother Rachel how to pick a lock, how to break into her car when she locks the keys inside. They always regard her with this look of awe and she likes that no matter what they never look at her with disappointment.

But no matter how much she wishes it had lasted it doesn't. She is out shopping with Rachel when her mother corners her in the dressing room, unrecognizable with her beachy blonde hair and uncharacteristically pastel wardrobe. The only way she knows it is her mother for certain is the empty smile that pulls the muscles in her face taut. Such a pretty fake, a copy of a copy. "Baby you gotta come back with me. You don't belong with them! What the hell have they done to your hair?! You know I like it long!"

At first she thinks of screaming for help, getting Rachel's attention because she so desperately wants to be saved from this woman. Her mother senses her wavering and her manicured nails turn into talons, digging into her arm. Her tongue might as well be forked because she hisses her next words like a snake: "You come with me or your daddy and I are gonna kill them in their sleep. We're family, we stick together!"

For the rest of the day she has to keep herself contained but the second that her and Rachel get home she lopes into her room and locks the door. Shrieking into her pillow she cannot recall ever crying so hard before that night and has not cried genuine tears since.

III. CASEY FREEMAN

The first time she's ever met a man that reminds her of her own father. Alexander Freeman is a brilliant man but there is something wrong with him. She targets him after she witnesses him with his hands around another woman's throat in an alley behind a five star restaurant. She feels white hot hatred knot in her stomach and she knows that if she cannot exact revenge on her mother and father she will do it to this man. She stalks him in stilettos, makes their first meeting an orchestrated accident as she 'stumbles' into him at his favorite restaurant. His shark eyes give her shivers but she smiles demurely and pretends to be charmed by his egotism.

She paints her lips red, piles her hair into a high knot and tries not to gag when his clammy hands run up her shoulders and fasten the diamond necklace that holds tight like a noose. This is all men are good for. Take 'em for all they have and then some. The years have seen her turning selfish, tainted by her bitter roots and splitting spoils with Mother. Father has other schemes to run, left them to their own devices with orders to return when they were done. But Luce knows she's not going to return this time.

When she ends Alexander's life she's straddling him, almost nude save for her stockings and garters. The knife had done its job and had silenced his heartbeat and she watches in grim fascination as blood wells around the spot. A hand reaches up and her finger tips skate across the bruises on her neck, a souvenir from the corpse beneath her. The expression on his face is a mix of anger and surprise and she sneers as she dismounts and pulls the knife from his chest with a sharp tug. Dropping it in a plastic bag she bends down to fix her stockings and slips her dress back on, donning her fur coat and slinging her purse over her shoulder she picks up her heels as an after thought as she slips out of his penthouse apartment.

When she hits the highway her hands close around the diamond necklace, wrenching it from her throat and tossing it at the passenger seat.

IV. ELIZABETH ALLMAN

Liz Allman gets picked up like a stray dog off a back road in Oregon by a man that means well. She'd been staying in some podunk town trying to keep a low profile since she'd broken from her mother. They had found her once before and she would not doubt them catching up with her. Maybe a drastic change is what she needs and even as she's plotting to escape the country she somehow involves herself with that same man that had found her. Jacob Allman was actually a good and decent man, worked hard taking care of his father's farm. His wife had passed on a few years back from cancer so it was just him and the old man.

They all knew there was something different about her but they never talked about it. Not until she was ready at least. She found that she cared deeply for Jacob and Charlie and although they never married she introduced herself as Elizabeth Allman. Just when things were starting to get better it all slid out of her grasp again when she walked into the local coffee shop and found her father sitting in an overstuffed chair, peering at her over his newspaper. They are never going to let me go. She remembers the desperation, the rage that explodes inside her and the mushroom cloud hangs over her head for days afterward before she finally breaks down and tells Jacob and Charlie that she has to leave again.

Dressed for a funeral in her favorite pair of knee boots she smiles as she meets her father at the bus station. Smiles as she pulls a revolver given to her by Jacob out of her black leather jacket and blows a baseball-sized hole in her father's chest. His blood splashes on her skin and she feels...exuberant. Vindicated. She doesn't hear the screams or flurry of panicked running limbs and she seats herself on a bench, crossing her legs and setting the gun down next to her.

She doesn't resist when they heave her to her feet.

She escapes from custody a mere two hours later en route to the processing center and that's when they loose the dogs after her in the form of a bounty hunter.

V. LUCILLE BOWEN

He catches up to her two months later after an interesting game of cat and mouse and he can't help but feel like maybe she let him catch her.

Lucille is reborn in the apocalypse, held at the jail she bats her lashes and doesn't speak a word. They threaten her, they try to reason with her, all the usual tricks but she is a brick wall. It's when the calls start coming in and she sees the panic on the faces of the officers that she knows something is happening but she's too far away to be reached...too far away to care.

Until one of the deputies is fumbling with the locks, muttering under his breath about how it's unfair to let such a pretty thing die in a cage. He gives her a gun and tells her and the other prisoners to get out but unlike the rest she takes the time to collect her things from evidence. The day is bright and full of terror, splashes of red with explosions and screaming. Lucille Bowen finally swims out of herself when she levels the Glock at something running toward her with half a face. Her third kill is a zombie and she's dressed for death, her knee boots splashed with gore.

She goes to find Jacob and Charlie but they are gone, vanished into the fields and maybe into the hordes of the undead. Lucille feels oddly unaffected by the death that rises up like a black tide around her and although she drifts from haven to haven she decides to make her way to San Fran. Carrying a bag of riches that wouldn't mean jackshit now she hordes her precious jewels, her clothes, and anything that catches her eye. The factions don't scare her, she toys with them but is always so careful to stay a step ahead. Most of the men are predictable anyway, they salivate over the switch in her hips and the 'come and get it' stare. She takes what she needs, does what is necessary and has no qualms about opening your throat if you don't roll over nicely enough for her.

INVENTORY

Cold Steel OSS Subhilt Fighter: Taken from a mark while his pants were down. She finds that she prefers blades to guns. In fact, the quieter the better to serve her purpose as she only engages in physical altercations when completely necessary.

Sig Sauer Nightmare 1911: Spoils of war. She only uses this gem when completely necessary and always has it on her person.

Lock Pick Set: Any thief worth their salt won't leave home without it.

OTHER

she likes cats. a lot. and the feeling is mutual. she's like a post apocalyptic selina kyle. i wish i was kidding.

OUT OF CHARACTER