Marley Moore
From DevilshireWiki
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 Alona Tal as Marley Moore | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Marley is a graduate of Devilshire University and is not inclined to share her past with anyone. Or a cup of coffee, for that matter.
Contents |
History
When Martin Cameron and Veronica Leis met while trying to dodge rattlesnakes outside of a South Carolina military facility, no one would have said it was love at first sight. First of all they barely saw each other since they were both sneaking back onto base with a number of their friends after a night on the town when everyone mistook the strange sound at first to be the wind rustling through the grass. Slightly intoxicated, this seemed like a good explanation until someone pointed out the wind wasn't blowing. In the mad, fearful dash towards the safety of the asphalt in the dark, Veronica and Martin collided. With a badly sprained ankle, Veronica angrily pushed Martin off of her and onto one of the angry snakes. His 'girlish screams' as Veronica would later recount, summoned the officials and punishments were severely doled out in the form of demerits and what appeared to be a lifetime of KP duty.
As both of them blamed the other for getting caught, the mundane tasks they were assigned became more and more unbearable. They fought, they sabotaged each other, and generally made life a living hell for anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby for months on end. At a loss for what to do with two talented individuals who were nonetheless driving each other mad, their superiors decided to grant an old transfer request of Veronica's asking to be moved to the Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts. It surprised none of their friends when, within two weeks of Veronica being moved, Martin request the exact same thing.
It took less than three months for them to be married--married couples got better housing and ensured that every effort would be made for them to remain on the same base. Knowing the thought would horrify her Beacon Hill family, Veronica and Martin kept their original marriage a secret, throwing a lavish mock-wedding for friends and family so as to avoid scandal. But seven months later on November 1st 1987, Victoria Isabelle Cameron made her 'early' appearance into the world.
Childhood
Her childhood was as idyllic as they come: two loving parents who doted on her, a plethora of other military children on the base to play with, and a grandmother who treated her like the little Boston Socialite Princess she had every intent for her to be. As a result Vicky (though her
Truth be told, Vicky never felt anything was missing in her young life. All the other children had parents just as busy and often away as she did, so it was nothing out of the ordinary in her mind. She spent her time creating vast scenarios and games to run around playing with the other children--especially Mary, her 'baby friend'. Born only a month apart, the girls were inseparable until Mary's father, at age 8, enrolled her in an elite class a private company was offering to children of (usually poor) military families. Quite a few of her friends were talking about going and Vicky begged her father to take her out of normal school and allow her to attend. There were many tearful nights of arguing: Martin was absolutely adamant that Vicky would not participate, explaining she didn't know what the program was for and that it would require her to be away from the family--all students who passed the entrance exam would be enrolled and required to live at the school--the location of which was not advertised.
For the first time in her life, Vicky was denied what she wanted and to her it felt as if the world would fall apart. Certainly her heart was crushed into a million pieces and the thought of day after day without Mary and some of her other friends around was devastating. Turning sullen and unresponsive to her father, she pouted for weeks until she finally found a loophole: her grandmother. Acting every part the spoiled princess, she cried and cried on her grandmother's lap that her parents wouldn't allow her to enroll in the prestigious boarding school. She had the form and everything and her father wouldn't sign it and her mother was away and her best friend was going and it was just the end of everything and her life was over! Her grandmother, always convinced Vicky's parents were going to allow opportunity to pass the girl by, consented to sign the form with Veronica's name provided that Vicky agree to spend the summers and her school breaks in the city with her. More than happy to agree to those terms, Vicky hid the forged consent form and waited anxiously for the day of the test.
No one asked any questions, to Vicky's delight, and she sat squirming and squealing in a seat next to Mary as the tests were handed out. The questions ranged from regular math and English problems to the bizarre: had Vicky ever seen a ghost or how did she feel about death? There were long, complicated ethical scenarios and terrible pictures that required an essay about feelings. The majority of children in the room didn't seem to mind but a few looked up and about when turning to certain pages--one of them Vicky. As the test went on and on, a knot in her stomach began to form. She explained it away as guilt for having tricked her father to get there, but still couldn't shake the feeling that she really, really shouldn't be there for reasons other than guilt.
After an exhausting four hours, the children were ushered into another room for a physical exam. By the time that was over, everyone just wanted to go home--especially Vicky. Tired and anxious, she received her final marks and was instructed to go through the blue door at the end of the hallway.
The next eleven years would be pure hell.
Waking up in a locked room with no windows and only a bed, the first few months were spent in abject horror. She was stripped of her name and only referred to as Agent 453, assured that she would be let out and into regular classes once she learned to behave. There were drugs when she didn't and a battery of conditioning therapies that were at best trying to brain wash her and were, at worst, torture. It didn't take long for an eight year old to learn what she needed to do to be 'good' and the people in charge didn't seem to care if they broke her in the process--so long as she did what she was told. Which was something Vicky became very, very good at.
The Company
True to their word, there were regular classes after the period of terror: there were literature classes, art classes, math classes, coding classes, weapons classes, fighting classes and killing classes. After awhile, it did become second nature. Vicky and the other children played a stressful and tiring game of pretending their lives were normal at first. They talked, they laughed, they learned how to snap the necks of reptilian looking creatures, they played tag, they had exams, they learned how to fire a rocket launcher. They were trained to be an elite form of soldier: given drugs to keep them compliant, to make them better than the average man or woman. After awhile, the laughter stopped and achieving a normal life wasn't an issue. They were wiped of their emotions and left with only a shell of their previous personalities. It wasn't until five years later they learned what they were apart of and by then they were all nearly so far gone they couldn't remember a time when a day -didn't- consist of killing demons and tracking the occult. The school was run by a private mercenary company and this class was their third attempt at getting right something that seemed to keep going wrong.
It took her two years to realize that Chase wasn't real, only a hallucination caused by the drugs. Distressingly, this realization did not make Chase go away nor did it make him appear any less real. It did, however, make her wonder how many of the people she'd met and talked to on a day to day basis were real. To keep herself from undergoing more painful tests, she kept this new development to herself, not informing her superiors of the issue.
The Company was busy forcing her to study all sorts of confusing and mind-numbingly horrible things: a girl called the Slayer infused with demonic powers that would someday end the world, who had tipped the scales of evil to her side by tainting others with her power. Vicky was being trained to become their own sort of Slayer: a Demon Hunter with enhanced skills to make her more than a match for the demonic forces she'd have to face. By her seventeenth birthday, Vicky barely existed. Only the fighting tool the Company created was left. And except for Chase, that's all that would have ever remained.
She was trusted and a prized soldier for them. She led missions, she did what she was told, and she never ever questioned it. She never questioned anything. Until one day she met a boy that did. His name was Francis and he knew how to play the game. His questions seemed innocent enough at first. Who was she, where did she come from? Vicky gave him her agent number and the standard answer that she'd been told to give. They made her who she was today. But he wouldn't drop it. He pressed for more information, awakened memories that she wasn't supposed to keep. He rose through the ranks and only seemed to bother Vicky, who found herself flustered when he walked by. He asked about her family. She punched him in the face and was punished for being aggressive towards a team member. She was warned to keep her emotions in check--this was unbecoming for their purposes. She did her best. Threw herself into her studies with a detachment they approved of. And then one day Francis dropped a file into her lap and leaned close to brush his lips across her ear. "Everything they've told you is a lie." he whispered. So she did the only thing she could do. She reported him.
His arrest was a huge scandal within the compound and Vicky received praise from the highest of high for her diligence in reporting him. She was the perfect soldier, their training of her had clearly worked to report a spy within their network who had tried to turn her. Chase asked her how she felt about it all and she told him she felt nothing. He challenged her and she insisted she felt nothing, she did was she was obligated to do. Then why, he wondered, hadn't she
"I don't plan on dying, but if it comes down to it I would, ok? That doesn't make me a martyr, it doesn't mean I'm trying to kill myself. It just means I think you're worth it you terrible, horrible man!"
- Wentworth and Marley
Vicky couldn't really answer him. She hadn't even opened it, hidden it away in her room instead of turning it back in. She was more afraid of what was in that file than anything in the world. More curious, too. She asked Chase what was inside and he admitted he didn't know. He didn't know anything -she- didn't know, Chase explained, because after all--he was only in her head. It was that sickening realization that prompted Vicky to read the file. Something was wrong. Something had always been wrong. Maybe it was this place, maybe it was her. She had to know.
The file contained her whole life. From birth until death at the age of 8 in a warehouse collapse on the base where she had grown up. It contained records of her parents divorce and her father's dishonorable discharge from the military after that. Her grandmother's death just a year later. Her mother's rise through the ranks. And on the last few pages, all stamped CLASSIFIED, a detailed analysis of her progress through Project Praetorian. She felt sick. The Company had trained the best mercenaries for hire throughout the world for generations--the best not only on the battlefield of human warfare but demonic as well. Vicky was part of a small, elite project determined to forcibly create their own versions of super enhanced warriors able to hunt demons with the best of them. Able to, with enough training, perhaps take down the Slayer and her entourage--who in their mind was amassing her own army to compete with them. Attached at the back was a note from Francis detailing a way to help her out of here. And she had reported him. Distraught, she collapsed on the floor of her room in pure mental and emotional anguish.
But dealing with mental and emotional anguish wasn't what she was trained to do. And right now the training was what she needed to keep her from falling into an unending depression. Vicky pushed it all back, against the warnings of Chase, and rose to the occasion as she was trained to do. Francis was being moved from his cell to one for interrogation--something she knew he wouldn't survive. She had to act quickly and she had to be convincing. The only thing she took with her from the room was the file, tucking it into her jacket as she made her way to the holding facility.
The Escape
It wasn't hard to convince the guards why she was there. She'd reported him after all. This was probably a test by the
Except that ingrained training is awfully hard to forget. Within a few weeks the mortality rate of the town had dropped sharply and the bodies of strange creatures were showing up ravaged on the outskirts of town. This sort of thing attracted more attention than just that of the Initiative, so Vicky was quickly taken in by the agency again and angrily lectured on 'plying so noticeable a trade'. She was handed a new identity: Marley Malloy, Devilshire University student, and shipped out that way. With the strange occurrences that happened in that town, Francis' hope was that she wouldn't be as noticeable to the Company. But he left Vicky--now Marley--with the warning that this was the last time they'd step in to help. That was payback for her saving his life. If she screwed up this time? She was on her own.
Personality
Marley has been trained for most of her adult life to not display or even have an emotional response to anything. As a result, she comes across as cold to most people. While she might one day struggle internally with the return of these feelings, she finds solace in sarcasm which usually diffuses any situation and has the added benefit of making people no longer want to associate with her. She feels more comfortable on her own than in social situations since she suspects that not everyone she sees and talks to is real--some are probably just in her head. The whole not really being who she says she is also plays into this.
However, she is driven to 'protect and serve' although in this instance that means taking out anything demonic in nature. She has a deep distrust of anything supernatural as for years it was drilled into her that such things were the basis of evil and how dark forces creep into this world.
Powers and Abilities
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Thanks to a combination of chemicals, electronics, psychological conditioning and extensive physical training, Marley is the Captain America of demon slaughter. Not the strongest, not the fastest, but still capable of putting the hurt on the enemies of America. Especially the demonic ones.
Friends & Family...Or Something Like That
Marley has a family now, however small:
Wentworth: Pretty much Marley's best friend and all around go-to guy, which is kind of startling sometimes what with his heritage. He helped her understand that there were shades of gray in her black and white world, even though she refused for the better part of two years to see it, and became the first person Marley couldn't bring herself to kill. Even though she tried numerous times. It probably wasn't surprising to most people when they ended up in love. In all likelihood, they entirely deserve each other. They're both horrible killers trying to get back to being real people and while they make a terrible mess of it most of the time, they seem to work well together. While it quietly concerns her sometimes that her morals seem to have slipped these
Sarah Moore: A baby that doesn't do a whole hell of a lot except cry, eat, and poo. She's started being a little bit more of a little person these days with a personality and all of two words in her vocabulary. This makes nap time difficult but also makes her a little more endearing.
And she certainly has no friends. But here are some people she's talked to:
Amria: A little girl who should run when she's told to and not go out after dark!
Amy: One of those people who thinks taking walks through the graveyard at night is a good idea. She's sunny, cheerful, friendly and willing to be your best friend. SHE IS TO BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS. Also, she's apparently a robot. This explains a lot. She's recently, at Tim's request, been made a member of Para Bellum. She is perhaps the member Marley trusts the least. With good reason, since Amy is a murderous fucking robot! They have interesting shouting matches about morality. If Amy knew Marley had given her mom's money away, she'd probably be mad.
Artie: She gives blondes a bad name! Kind of. With the pink, not with the doctor thing. But she knows about dresses and girly things and is probably the only reason Marley wore a nice dress to her wedding and curled her hair. And had something that was NOT A TIARA on her head.
Colin: He tried to bring a rat into the Amber Rose once, so she threatened him with a knife until he left. Also, he apparently does magic and wants to get himself shot. She does not like him at all, but will totally shoot him in the face if he's that anxious to die horribly!
Dmitriy: He answered her ad for chemistry helped and proved to be a valuable and discreet resource. She's keeping his information on file in case she needs his scientific services again.
Judith: Judith doesn't like to talk, is extremely efficient with words when she does and doesn't panic when things get crazy--as they often do in Devilshire. Add to that an Ice Queen demeanor and Marley doesn't at all mind hanging around Judith. Which is good because she's been hired as Judith's bodyguard. She doesn't even mind being treated as the hired help--since basically that's what she is. It's nice to not have someone trying to be your best friend all the time. Except when that person is into MAGIC and MAGIC ARTIFACTS that the Moores want no part of. What up, Judith? D:
Kelly: Kelly had the bad luck to try to get through to the wrong girl by showing her what a freak he was. While Wentworth has confirmed that Kelly is some kind of science project, Marley remains wary. In Devilshire, you kind of have to be.
Quartus: Wentworth's father and now god of the Quick Demons, Quartus absolutely terrifies Marley and did even before he killed her during their confrontation at his Ascension. He's faster and stronger than anything she's ever come up against and the fact that he's still out there is one of the reasons her nightmares are so bad these days. She refuses to actually say his name for fear he might hear it and show up. If she knew how to kill a god, she'd start with him.
Rabbit: It turns out he knows magic. Real magic. Marley's desperation drove her to buy a spell from him that she hopes will help take down Wentworth's father. He makes her uneasy and has tried (and failed) to convince him that magic is evil. He was pretty useful for someone who is horribly tainted though. She has sworn him to secrecy about how she's pretty much damning her own soul here.
Saint: He's a smart-ass with an unfortunate name. Despite the fact that they're both sociopaths, they're strangely comfortable with each other. Moreso than with other people. She works for him at the Amber Rose so she has to do what he says. All the time! (She ignores this fact regularly.) She accepted his proposal to be his bodyguard and got some sweet guns and a car out of the deal, then accompanied him on a Secret Mission to Far Off Lands. She returned alone. Who knows what happened! Perhaps he was eaten by a yeti, or was her first kiss! Anything is possible. Though the yeti thing is more likely. He is the only person in the world that Marley trusts--or at least, he was--and she actually misses having him around. With Beige's new intelligence, she feels utterly betrayed and devastated that he may have been lying to her the whole time. He's gone but since Marley holds out hope he'll come back he stays here. Bitches. Except maybe she wants to shoot him in the face now for perhaps having an evil agenda!
Scout: Marley never got her name but she was in the magic shop one day being all weird, as people in the magic shop are wont to do.
"You begged."
"It's been a slow week."
- Marley and Wentworth
Springfield: Springfield helped Marley and Wentworth when they needed to go see the Oracles, but she didn't really appreciate it, what with him staying in a demon hotel and being all kinds of magical and punched him in the face. He's now showed up in Devilshire and worse, is staying at the Lancaster. She's punched him in the face for the second time and tried to kill him once, but due to Wentworth liking him as promised to try to tolerate him at least so that he doesn't get strangled again. She finds him unsettling and annoying. Sometimes--very, very rarely--nice.
Timmy: He was the first person to ever actually love her for who she was and the first person she really allowed to get close. And then she went and screwed it all up, so he dumped her. It hurt a lot more than she thought it would and she feels terrible that she unintentionally hurt him so badly. She once thought she might have to kill him but since he's a human working for a demon under duress, that just means she has to kill his boss and end the contract on his soul. Cause going up against Satan is always a good idea. If you don't want to survive. Just ask Schwarzenegger. They have recently mended their friendship what with Marley watching over his family for most of October and her realizing she does still care a lot about him and what happens to him. Timmy is damn confusing is what he is! No one can make Marley shame-spiral like Tim can.
Tom: An extremely helpful guy who gave Marley a reason not to have to go back to the magic shop. He appears to hate everyone as much as she does, which has led to some wonderfully insightful conversations on how terrible people in general are. She has no idea he's of a Mexican persuasion, but she does know how he likes his drinks.
Watermelon Ale Guy: (NPC) A guy who comes to the bar all the time and asks for watermelon ale, even when it's out of season. He refuses to be served by Maggie. He is portrayed by Hans Moleman.
Recent and Not So Recent Events
Many things have happened since Marley arrived in Devilshire. She's killed a couple demons, insulted just about everyone she's ever met, shot Wolfe, and managed to get Phillip disqualified early in a dance competition she didn't
Saint Devlin has hired Marley as a bartender at the Amber Rose. He seems to like that she is utterly uninterested in people liking her. Which totally defeats the purpose of her acting the way she does. Bastard.
When Saint was punched by Zuma and left at night on the Boardwalk, Marley found herself ridiculously enraged that she'd allowed this to happen. Unable to control or even name the sudden overwhelming emotion, Melise Saur had to physically jolt her back to reality but not before she made a number of rash decisions including running off to punch Zuma in the face, punching a tree, and having a fight with imaginary Chase in the middle of the road. So everyone should thank Melise that Rose 2.0 was not unleashed upon the world. Especially since there still would have been no sleeping with anyone. And what fun is that?
She happened to help make the world a better place by killing a SAG director, which stopped the King in Yellow from ending everything. If she had known that the ride home would mean she had to talk to Wentworth and Maya the whole time though, maybe she wouldn't have been so quick to pull that trigger.
The Company knows where she is and has sent the most annoying redhead in the world to lure her back and then the most annoying know-it-all half-breed to look in on him. While this is bad, very bad, what makes it worse is finding out that her second-in-command Logan McGann was kidnapped on an assignment with current whereabouts unknown--and no one is looking for him.
"No."
- Wentworth and Marley
A road trip with Tim Truman to kill one of his demons turned out to be more than they both bargained for, with Marley suddenly having prophetic dreams that turned out to be a connection between her and...another her. An older woman who claimed to be the real Victoria Cameron while Marley herself was just a bad copy. While they escaped the death traps set up for them and killed the demon Tim had been after, Marley was deeply shaken by the whole experience and as a result, Chase has stopped talking and appearing to her, leaving the girl without much direction or a conscience, subject to the whims of new imaginary friends. Which is a dangerous combination in an unstable killer. Everyone should be glad the Red Sox won, cause Marley in a bad mood would be lethal to the wrong person right now. I'm looking at you, Beatrice.
She has gathered together the Best of the Best into Para Bellum a team which isn't known for getting along but can be counted on to do crazy things like save the world. Taking the odd job to assassinate certain demons then killing the creatures that hired her, Marley is earning herself a fearsome reputation with the supernatural community in Devilshire.
And it keeps getting better! Turns out that Marley died at the hands of Quartus, Wentworth's father, up on Promontory Summit during his Ascension. Also for the past six months it seems she was working for The Company again as Paladin--who was not in fact a soldier sent to try and bring her back into the fold, but was like Chase only stronger--the part of Marley that still longed to be an uncaring super soldier, willing to do all the things feelings make complicated. After betraying Beatrice, Paladin tried to eliminate Marley in order to create a bigger, badder Agent 453. Ultimately, she decided she'd rather be Marley than a weapon and Paladin faded away to nothing. Probably. She tries not to think about it. Also, Logan is dead. But on the plus side, Wentworth is in love with her! And that balances everything else out. Kind of. Almost. Maybe sometimes.
Getting married was kind of spur of the moment, but so far, so good. Sarah was kind of a surprise. And she's all right so far.
Sexytimez Chart
Not Trivia
http://swarlesthegreat.livejournal.com - Yes, Marley has a livejournal. No, you probably don't know about it, but you can read it anyway!
