Maureen O'Leery
- Chicago -ChiTown- Malkavian -ChiTown- Chicago-Read Mental Health Center
Sobriquet: Maureen
Appearance: A sixty year old Caucasian lady, with silver-white hair and eyes of the palest green. Maureen seems so small, all bent over in her wheelchair, a wisp of a woman with skin like parchment paper. Her angular face bears wrinkles of wisdom and hardship, far more of the latter than anyone living knows, in truth. Maureen's mouth bears the distinct pucker of one who has lost all of her teeth prematurely, although she often wears dentures to fill out her face and interact better with mortals. However, don't be fooled, she is Kindred and has a beautiful pair of fangs in an otherwise toothless maw.
Those who look upon Maureen, often overlook the feverish glitter in the back of her jade colored eyes and live to regret it...
Being a whithered flower of the Victorian period, she wears dresses with petticoats, lace and ribbons, and a hem that reveals nothing but the ankles. Maureen wears good stout leather shoes and hand knitted stockings beneath her hand-me-down antebellum dresses, with garters and a good tight corset to remind others that she is a lady. She wears her silver-white hair up in a good tight bun and perfumes herself with attar-of-roses. Around her wrinkled throat she wears a locket of antique silver strung on either dainty fresh water pearls or green Aventurine beads that match her eyes.
Behavior: Maureen comes on sweet, the sad little-old-lady from down the street, someone's ancient spinster aunt looking for just an ounce of attention and a pitch of affection. But there is more of arsenic and old lace to Maureen, than sugar and spice. Like a spider she crouches in her wheelchair, leading others on in thinking she is just a crippled old lady, drawing them in closer and closer, until its too late. Maureen further disarms her victims with intelligent, witty repartee and silken compliments, but as the conversation continues her dementia begins to surface. After several minutes of pleasant chit-chat she starts to look over her shoulder and make paranoid statements. Once her paranoia fully manifests, her speech becomes slurred and even her most intelligible dialogue begins to meander, filled with steadily darker implications. At this stage, if the other conversationalists haven't ended the discussion and excused themselves, she abruptly ceases to speak and wheels herself away.
History: Everything about Boston in the early 1800s terrified Maureen as she grew up in the shadow of its colonial monuments. The looming buildings peered down on her as she walked, the streets talked about her as she passed and the strangers, oh the strangers, were all vile devils seeking to ripe her soul from her body. Even her rich family despised her and shut her away in terrifying mental institutions created for the sole purpose of tormenting her. Only death offered her a way out, and she first tried to kill herself when she was twenty-seven.
Thirteen years and fifteen attempts later, she believed she had finally succeeded. It had required a leap from the steeple of the old North Church, and as she collided with the earth, she could feel the cursed life fleeing from her broken shell. She actually sensed "Death" approaching, and in those moments she thought more clearly than she had before. There was a sharp pain in her neck, and then, blessed peace. Oblivion welcomed her.
Sometime later, she woke in pain, searing pain. As she screamed, she heard cruel laughter fading into the surrounding darkness. She was found moments later by the rector, who summoned help. A carriage rushed Maureen to a hospital; the doctors were amazed to find her still alive, and were mystified by their inability to find her heartbeat. Ever so slowly, she began to feel the thirst growing within her. When an old nurse bent over to check her pulse, Maureen sank her teeth into the matron's neck and drank. Within seconds, she felt her body growing stronger and the paralysis leaving her legs. Realizing freedom was at hand, she got out of bed and ran off into the night.
Maureen's constant hunger (see the notes) and a feud with Lasker (her sire), forced her to leave her home in Boston. She has lived in Chicago longer than any other Malkavian, and has long seen herself as the matriarch of an extended family. She is still suicidal, however; indeed, with the aid of several other Malkavians who all died in the flames, she set a fire in 1871 that she hoped would kill her.
Ironically, her then haven, the infamous O'Leary House, was one of the few buildings left standing in Chicago. While only a few mortals died, the fire wiped out most of the vampiric power structure and gave Lodin his chance to seize power from Maxwell. Lodin used to joke about how much he owed Maureen and he always treated her with an exaggerated respect, going so far as to call her "my Queen."
Maureen's paranoia with respect to the other Kindred has long been legendary. She sees the Jyhad in everything, and has often tried to limit the involvement of her brood and other Malkavians in the intrigues of the city. Since the destruction of her first brood, that seems to have changed. In the destruction of her youngest, Paula and Ben Smith, she saw the twisted designs of the Black Hand; and wherever she finds its minions, she tortures and squeezes from them every useful bit of information so that she can turn those same secrets against the evil sect. The death of her eldest, her boy, her...Son, Jason Newberry, has filled her with a hunger stronger than that of the thirst or her need for death, a lust for revenge. After all, it was she who sensed his danger from afar and felt along with him, his final moments of fear and agony, at the hands of that sadistic butcher Tremen Hall.
Since that time, Maureen has become extremely active in the social life of Chicago's Kindred, often meeting with newcomers before anyone else has a change. Its almost a mark of acceptance to be able to say one was surprised by a grandmother in a wheelchair. At the time, many believed she sought a seat upon the council of primogen, or even the position of prince of Chicago. But even after Maxwell's return and ascension to the throne, she remains almost frenetic in her interactions with the Kindred of Chicago, in and out of Elysium, and more so with vampiric newcomers.
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