Shawna Bishop

Concept: Dead Hooker

AKA: On the Street, she used to be known as “Desiree”

Desc: She’s still high and perky like she was in life. Still able to pull off those ridiculous heels. But that little black dress of hers is torn and ragged. and no matter what she tries, she can’t get rid of the make-up fucked up all over her face from the night she begged for her life. It makes her look horrifying to anyone who can actually see her in Twilight.

She has track marks all over her Corpus.

History: When you’re writing about someone who’s met a bad end as the result of fucking strangers for money, it’s so very EASY to get down and wallow in the prurient details of it. I mean, You can see how a person might make an actual decision like, “Hmm. I have a really nice body and a decent computer and not much in the way of marketable skills, why don’t I make my living from rubbing it out on the Internet?”  And, of course, this is a far cry from someone who is saying to themselves, “I have no choice really but to sell my ass on the street.”

   So, I’m going to elide some of the details here rather than lean into the “shocking nature” of it all. Suffice it to say, Dad wasn’t around. Mom wasn’t all that great. Shawna met a guy who came on like a boyfriend, gave her a taste of Heroin, and then the next you know, you’re downtown and climbing into the cars of strange men. There is a certain swiftness to how it all unfolded that caught Shawna by surprise and by the time any sort of pride reared its head, it was already too late.

Tino was the guy’s name. But by the time Tino met HIS bad end, Shawna was sadly dead inside already. She took to the streets herself because by this point she had to have the Horse to keep going at all. The other girls went into business for themselves, but because Shawna couldn’t get clean and stay that way, they didn’t want her along.

and then, of course, She met Lewis Flowers. Lewis enticed her into his car one cold winter night and then he stuck her with some needle full of curare derivative. By the time they made it to his apartment, she couldn’t move or scream. He took his own sweet time cutting her, inch by bloody inch out of this life.  Shawna is philosophical about this to some degree. It wasn’t much of a life to lose.

Now she roams the streets. She’s got enough anchors that she can move around quite a bit. Sometimes, she doesn’t mind using her Emotional Aura and her Rapture Numina to give a girl a break, or even make a some deserving John have a good night. But that’s not often. Her better nature doesn’t really come out all that much. She’s much more likely to use Dement or Drain to fuck up somebody’s night. She’s begged a couple of the other ghost she knows, but not many of them can materialize and they aren’t necessarily inclined to share. Frankly, Shawna makes even the other ghosts nervous. Shawna’s fairly sure that if she can just get her own murder solved, she can move on.

Maybe that’s even true, unlike so many of the things she’s told herself.

Attitude: “See me you fucking bag of puke. See me!”

Skills: In addition to the aforementioned Numina above. Shawna is no great shakes mentally and socially she has some barriers to overcome with anyone, other ghosts included, who can see her. She does have a friend or two among the dead and her Rapture and Dement Numina are rare enough around these parts that she parleys them into small favors. Physically, she’s more likely to run than to stand and fight. And she can't exactly run very fast, if someone can see her and they are particularly observant, they can notice that those ridiculous heels of her are actually chained to her with tiny slender chains. She couldn’t take them off even if she wanted to.

Gear: it might not be a bad idea to talk about her anchors here. Her elderly mother is one. The little razor sharp shiv that was in her purse is another. It sits in an evidence box in the local precinct. (They did find her body before Lewis got more clever about hiding them.) She was in love with one of the other girls in Tino’s stable. A girl named Syrita. Syria has a locket with a picture of Shawna inside, taken during slightly happier times. Each misses the other. If she’s been keeping an eye on Syrita, she’s much more likely to be in a positive mood, although Syrita went with those other girls to start her own business and that unfortunately also makes Shawna super jealous.  

And of course, there’s always Lewis.

Home: She haunts the apartment complex where Lewis hangs his hat. She can’t attack him directly. He’s got some kind of barrier around him and Dement doesn’t actually work on people who already insane. But she can watch his comings and goings and stalk him from a distance.  Other than Lewis, she doesn’t really have any feeling towards anybody else in the complex except for the couple who do nothing but fight. He’s never raised a hand to her, but if he ever does...It’s going to be ON.

Circle: Shawna has trouble making friends on the Twilight side. She’s a bit horrifying to look at, not that that isn’t somewhat common among the dead, but she’s also paranoid and cynical which makes it hard to trust. She might have a couple of friends on this side of the veil but that’s about it.

Story Uses: “Oh you want to play, do you?  See how you do when I turn you inside out.”

Shawna, as hauntings go, is somewhat subtle. She can’t materialize yet and most of her abilities don’t really resemble anything like a haunting.  It might take a while for someone to get onto her unless they have senses that can pick her up. Shawna has heard that there is this group called “Sin Eaters” that can do this. But she is terrified of actually meeting one. Apparently, they can reach across and harm ghosts, even going so far as to COME across and attack ghosts HERE.  So, she keeps a low profile on the Haunting scene unless someone calls in a favor from her and she has to Dement someone in an overt manner.

“C’mon Bela. I need you to notice. He’s going to do it again until someone stops him.”

Naturally, all of that subtlety is going out the window once Shawna figures out a Numina like Sign or Materialize or anything like that. Trying to stick a spoke in Lewis’s wheels is her top priority and she doesn’t give a FUCK if all the sin eaters come after her for it.

Connections:

* Stefan Janofski Her relationship with Stefan is complicated. There are times when she'll go to him looking only for a little comfort in his arms. He, for his part, DOES have feelings for her. But then her paranoia and cynicism rear their ugly heads and she'll stay away for weeks at a time. After all, how could anybody really love a "Filthy whore"?

* Detective Marty Bennetti "If there was anybody I'd want to get an eyeful of me, it's THIS asshole.

* The Witness Lowell and I have traded favors a time or two. I always like when I'm able to visit. If there's anything I miss about being dead, it's the music.

* Grace Cook  Cookie is lonely like I am. If I had a best girlfriend like her before I met Tino...I never would have gone near him I think. She's tried to teach me how to Materialize but for some reason, it doesn't work and neither of us knows why.

* Bryson Import/Export  "There WILL be a reckoning for you Esme. I'm gonna fuck you up.

* Detective Bela Janofski "I have so much hope that I can eventually talk to him directly one day. But when that day comes, will I be just another dead whore to him?"