Marie Rochfield

There is something to be said about how Marie has managed to present herself to others, in spite of the delusion that she is otherwise consumed by. She has taken obsessive pains at ensuring that no one would assume her to be Malkavian if they didn't already know. Through fine clothing and makeup, along with natural beauty, she maintains the image of a subtly sophisticated woman.

She usually has her black hair cut short, usually chin-length, only by stylists she trusts. She then spends a great deal of care at the dusk of every night to restore it to that original form. If anything happens to make a mess of it after that...

Her clothing displays the wealth that she has accumulated over the long years, though some of it was taken from the bodies of human victims. That said, she prefers understated attire and never anything colorful. Her preference for black jackets may have been a contributing factor to her nickname. Her outfits are, as usual, tended to obsessively. She allows not even a drop of blood to touch anything she wears.

Indeed, all of this would be more than efficient at keeping her mental state off of her appearance... if it weren't for the eyes. Many kindred have strange eyes, but hers are a window to everything wrong inside. They, irises eerily consumed by the black void of her pupils, unfocus with every mental shift and distraction. To look long enough into her eyes is to sense that something about her is off, even while she is acting normally. Shades and reflective glasses are incorporated into her outfits to combat this issue.

Despite the forced image she portrays, there is enough about her that tends to unnerve those around her. She has of late been having more difficulty at hiding these physical displays. Her hands are sometimes seen shaking, face seen twitching, and she has more often allowed her internal struggle to construct her expression.

Marie has changed unrecognizably from what she was all of those years ago before her embrace and even from whatever she was before the death of her sire. She has formed herself mainly around struggling, with both kindred society and the state of her mind.

From the beginning of her transformation, the curse of her Malkavian lineage has filled her mind with horrors. She accepts all of these dark visions and whisperings as esoteric truth about the reality of kindred for the sake of convincing herself that she is not insane. Her mind is filled with mad horrors that speak to her of the tragedy that will eventually befall her kind. From the beginning, she has privately explored writings related to the hallucinations in an attempt to make the warped visions make sense. Such an insurmountable task leads to a good deal of suffering. She is not immune to the violently sporadic episodes of the rest of her kind. She has been thus far successful in keeping them entirely private, and they disgust her so much so that she forces them out of her memory. As a result, she is convinced that she does not have them at all.

She has always been unnerved by the others of her clan and other kindred with 'primal' inclinations. This is because she has come to hold her image dear and is aware of what kindred high society thinks of unrestrained Malkavian and the visions of madness that they share. She has always endeavored to present herself as more a Tremere or Toreador and has managed to stay lucid enough under the public eye to do so. Obsessiveness being one of the derangements her embrace brought with it, she has worked hard on both her work and image. She quickly became very skilled at building reputation and at being seen well.

Still, only the degree to her madness is obscured and not the fact that she is Malkavian after all. This proved useful, as some find her unique in a positive way because of this. However, her involvement in politics has been scorned by other Malkavian and less vain kindred. She has used her status to hypocritically promote herself as a 'Dominate' Malkavian, more fit for kindred society than those who display obvious signs of 'madness'. And she has rejected most of the others of her clan, convincing herself that they are weaker for being unable to keep their mental situation under control. Needless to say, she has made some enemies through her work. She has also acted discriminatorily toward Nosferatu, simply because she dislikes the reminder of the ugly nature within all kindred.

Though skilled at 'befriending' those she wants to, it is not through kindness that Marie became a harpy or respected member of the Camarilla. Delusion and obsession are not the only derangements that have taken her. Hate and fear permeate her thoughts and actions. She has climbed the ladder through advancements sometimes led by spite and sometimes by paranoia. She judges other kindred harshly for trivialities and sometimes for nothing at all. She is convinced that everyone else does the same. She has become a harpy through good style and connections, but a successful politician through the slander and removal of those she dislikes. She forms paranoid suspicions, sometimes at random, that certain members silently judge her and then hates them for it. Her paranoia has led to a great deal of social anxiety that she has had to force into hiding. In times of mental turmoil, her hands can be seen shaking and her mannerisms may turn darkly eerie. Though, she is usually seen as calmly confident.

Her behavior around others varies. As pleasant as she can force herself to be, she is rotten. Self-absorbed to the point of seeing everyone else as empty shells that either please or displease her, she has no problem with her deceiving. To those whose opinions matter to her, and usually to those who don't (just in case), she does her best to appease them. She acts as the epitome of social grace toward most kindred, though quieter and more reserved than most players of the game. She usually wears an expression of placid neutrality, despite whatever nasty thoughts are raging behind. Rarely does another kindred get to experience what she wants to do to them. Ordinarily, she acts subservient before her superiors and forces herself to treat peers kindly.

When she feels safe enough to treat a member of the society however she wants, they find her unkind at best and wrathful at worst. She certainly isn't difficult to anger. Though she rarely snaps under the eye of other kindred, she has done so with meticulous calculation. In confrontations between herself and other creatures of darkness, she relies on her mastery over the discipline of dementation. She makes their minds twist by filling it with whatever she calls the 'truth', taking satisfaction in it.

Worse, however, is her treatment of human victims when feeding alone. Free to toy with the powerless vessels, she spins their minds through hell before often killing them and dragging out their death. To share her suffering with them fills her with pleasure. As far as feeding goes, she has come to a habit of drinking from victims at bars or clubs. She has found that drinking intoxicating blood from the intoxicated can ease her madness and steady her nerves, depending on how much she imbibes. This is a habit she keeps private. She usually wastes as little time in the establishments as possible, using dementation to fill her chosen victim with enough fear to draw them out of the building.

True friendship, not superficial, with other kindred has so far been limited to her fellow harpy Rosalie. Her personality has not been conducive to making any friend who would be comfortable with her true self, with the one exception. Many of those who she has befriended superficially, she has remorselessly backstabbed and thrown to the bottom of Camarilla society or worse.

As mentioned before, things for her have been changing gradually. Her derangements have started to become ever more consuming of her. She has experienced more difficulty in keeping composure under the public eye. The violent mad episodes that occur within the privacy of her estate have also grown more damaging. It is beginning to draw attention and she has found the stress overwhelming. The cause seems to stem from new visions that speak of the past and future, more potent and vile than before. And with them, scattered memories of her life among the clan in Europe are returning and they're dire. Will the old madness take her once again?

• I see you, always... - The Harpies know much. Marie can more accurately summon knowledge about anyone known by the Camarilla. (+1 modifier when using subterfuge or intelligence to recall useful information about an individual.)
  
• Secret Lush - Intoxicating blood calms her frayed nerves... (+1 mod to charisma or appearance for one day after drinking from an intoxicated human.)
  
• My Reality - Marie takes great pleasure in showing anyone the truth. She can make it hurt them the same way it does her.
  (+2 modifier to dementation)