Claire Edmonton
From Edge of Darkness Wiki
May I introduce...
Ms. Claire Adelaide Tunt was born to the New American Aristocracy in New York – not that they'd admit to such a label – and she enjoyed the unusual privelege of being the offspring of a merger between political influence and monetary power. Because politics in a 'democracy' was unstable compared to the relative safety of owning industry – railroads, print, the cartels that only insignificant liberal activists whined about controlling the country. The general public knew, in theory, that there was a 1% or some such. But they were weak and easily swayed by fashions and the like – another business that padded the coffers of family, friends and associates. Quite the elaborate maze, it was, and she was born to a Minotaur.
She never really was the perfect child, but that was o.k. Her older sister provided the matriarch-in-training the family wanted, and her brother provided the balls. That's really what they cared about, the “establishment” - that their dynasty continue another generation. And daughter #2 being a lesbian suited them fine. She hadn't told them yet when they payed for Princeton (which she would have earned anyway, because the importance of looking good they'd imbued her with extended to grades and things extra curricular, but there was no room for error in the family's reputation), but they knew. If she didn't continue the dynasty, so be it. That's what multiple children were had for, anyway, and it made her father oddly satisfied that he only needed to worry about two sets of genetic grandchildren. No need to worry about bastards from one of the children made it easier to police the other two. And policed they were, not that they resisted. This was a family of pedigree, after all. One did not simply do as one wished; The elders followed the rules established for them by the dead as though these guidelines were genetic.
She dabbled in punk rock, fencing, and witchcraft when she wasn't pursuing her 4.0 degree with honors. And every one of them was done with the same decorum. Introducing her parents to a girlfriend for the first time was met with polite nods that said, “of course, whatever you like, dear,” but she was made to understand out of earshot that this one was of insufficient pedigree, not that they'd ever put it that bluntly. And that was that.
And so, after a bachelors and masters of appropriate prestige were earned, she set about making the proper connections of her own – though it wasn't as if proper birds simply threw the young out the nest and wished them luck. Rather, she was tasked to set about proving that she was smart, ambitious, charming, and upstanding enough to be worthy of the name, as enforced by stipulations as to what would grant her continued access to her trust fund. She proved more than capable of growing what finances she had access to, as well as serving clients interests quite well as a Wall Street Financial Planner – one of the 'evil' ones that profited even if the economy was falling out from under a few random nobodies.
All the while, occult interest grew. And just because she couldn't date a 'low class' punk witch didn't stop her from discretely going to clubs or reading LaVay. But there was someone who took interest in this pretty young thing's forbidden interests. It was fascinating to see such a wonderful example – rich, arrogant, tall, voluptuous wannabe-witches were hard to come by, and it was a rarer prize still to to find one that might just be clever enough to go all the way. And so, a woman many years her Elder (and far more than she realized) hunted her down, brilliantly playing the part of a wealthy old mystic looking for a disciple. And she'd watched long enough to know every button to push, and when to do so, to suddenly have Claire in her orbit. She sculpted this new disciple to her every whim – her fashions, her makeup, her diet, and every other little detail about her was steered toward the fascination of the old Crone who seemed to be crafting a servant.
Her memories were always cleared of any notion of being bitten, her skin in perfect condition to not even have the thought cross her mind that the older woman she'd only seen at night was more than just eccentric. And then she saw her twist the head right off of a loudmouth at some kitschy Wicca meeting at an independent bookstore after closing. She'd screamed, but before she had the chance to run (reaction time, sadly, just wasn't something she was blessed with a surplus of) those eyes locked into hers and the whole night vanished. Until her Mistress deemed her “ripe” - in one evening, all of those tied up memories were unraveled at once, and she received the last kiss that could ever take her breath away.
The next time she woke up was incredibly odd. All of her social contacts were still preserved, but it seems someone had sent an email to her parents from her account informing them she'd been diagnosed with a rare skin disease. And there were more she hadn't known about. It seems she'd been cultivated with extreme care to be the eternal plaything of a lifeless witch. That would've seemed far more interesting to her in a movie when she was still pretending to be rebellious at Brearley than it did now. And how did one continue to conduct business while in a coma whenever the sun was shining? Well, she received a wonderful handwritten note about why she'd been selected, and what she was expected to do, as New York's newest Ventrue. So she went with it. She did everything exactly as instructed, because years of being expected to know what her parents wanted before it was said had been much more challenging than playing by a clearly annotated briefing.
And then it turned out she was supposed to go to California and 'make something of herself' or the like. "Go west young lady." Honestly, she was simply glad to be out of there. And it seemed they'd prepared a briefing of precisely where she was headed with enough time for her to secure somewhere to stay and move the mortals she'd been taught to keep in orbit into position. Sacramento, it seemed, had a dearth of Witches. And it was supposed to be a Capital, so it couldn't be all bad.
Her Sire (which is apparently as feminine as it is masculine in the eyes of ancient Vampires) also did her the favor of introducing her to others who might be showing up in the area as well – they were introduced at gatherings to assure that they knew each other's faces, set up like blind dates with no option to disapprove of one another. And so long as she wasn't expected to date these ugly things, she was more than happy to be a faithful ally if allegiance were offered in return.
A Resumé of Sorts
Apart from being an heiress, a genius, and a head-turner, she is a financial mastermind with a BA and MA in Economics. She is also fluent in Mandarin, having spent a good deal of time in Beijing before her embrace.
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