Vanity
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Contents
Origin Story
Vanessa Caroline Phair was born in New Haven, Connecticut on August 3, 1988, the only child of an upper middle class family. Daughter of investment banker Regis Phair and housewife Heidi Phair (née Baden). She had a happy, uneventful childhood, and grew up to become a stunningly beautiful teenage girl. She did consistently well in school (her lowest grade ever having been a rather decent B-), but she showed little interest in most things, caring only for fashion, clothes, accessories, jewelry and makeup. Oh, and boys, of course; although she did kind of see boyfriends as a type of fashion accessory. After giving the strictest minimum required attention to her homework, Vanessa would spend most of her time reading fashion magazines, applying makeup, rummaging through her closet - and often her mom's as well - trying on different outfits and basically just spending time looking at herself in the mirror. Going out with friends inevitably meant spending more time window shopping then going to the movies or grabbing a bite. She spent all of her allowance on clothes, fashion accessories and cosmetics. She already was a picture perfect personification of vanity.</p>
In high school she became one of the more popular girls. No, she wasn't a cheerleader, she wasn't in the Glee Club, nor the Drama Club; the only extra-curricular activity she was ever involved in was the Fashion Club which she basically took over. The small group of fashion obsessed girls officially met almost daily after school to talk about clothes and designers, to write up the weekly fashion advice column in the school paper, to plan the occasional shopping trip to New York City and to organize the seasonal fashion shows they would throw for various school fundraising reasons. But the real reason they would do it was to parade down the runway in their best outfits in front of the entire student body, the students' parents and the whole school faculty. Seeing Vanessa strutting down the catwalk, all of the girls envied her, all of the boys lusted after her, and in all likelihood so did several fathers and male teachers too.
This quickly led to a budding professional modeling career, as one of her little fashion shows had been attended by a modeling talent scout. At age 17, Vanessa's most cherished dream was coming true, she got signed to a prestigious New York modeling agency. Juggling her new job and the requirements of her senior year proved hard but she pulled through. She graduated that year with honors and was free to move to NYC to fully pursue her career. Vanessa was barely 18 and international fame was just around the corner, as everyone involved in the fashion industry quickly saw Vanessa's potential and appeal. She was first featured on the cover of Seventeen as the fresh new face of modeling. She soon graced the covers of more fashion magazines: Vogue, Elle, Cosmo, Allure, Harper's Bazaar, all were lining up to feature the beautiful new "it girl" and Vanessa was only too happy to oblige them all. She started appearing along with other models in various television commercials for cosmetic products, exposing herself to a more general public. The very next year Vanessa was chosen to be the new face of Pantheon, the extensive line of hair care products. She was now featured in commercial after commercial, her gorgeous face and long, lustrous, naturally sandy blonde hair seen on national TV by millions and millions of people, which cemented her newfound fame and soon made her a household name. Getting the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition also helped her popularity greatly with the male demographic. She was now making all the various Top Ten lists of Sexiest People Alive and was dating men who topped the Richest People in the World lists.
By age 21, Vanessa had nailed one of the most coveted endorsement deals a model could wish for: she was enlisted to represent the Chanterelle N° 7 fragrance, one of the most appreciated perfumes in the world. Even with her endorsement deals, Vanessa kept doing runway shows and photo shoots, consolidating her status as a supermodel. Everyone in the industry loved her - well, except for the occasional model whose jealousy just ate her up inside. She was very easy to work with, shying away from any drama, and her professionalism completely overshadowed any diva-esque behavior she might occasionally indulge in. On that point Vanessa was very careful not to overdo the diva persona; she was living out her dream and she would not jeopardize it by becoming known as "difficult" or "bitchy" and besides, despite her extreme vanity she had always been a "nice girl" and fame and fortune would not change that. But people did indeed notice just how vain she was; everyone who has ever known her personally or professionally, has commented on two things: her ethereal beauty, and her legendary vanity. But everyone overlooked her character flaws on account of how nice and pleasant she was for such a beautiful girl.
As an established supermodel, Vanessa was now living the high life, the carefree hedonistic lifestyle of celebrities, attending very exclusive parties with the most stylish people in the most exotic places all over the world. The girl who had never even smoked pot once in her whole life was now popping various pills quite regularly. Pills to help her sleep when jet lagged, pills to make sure she was up and ready when she had to work long hours at photo shoots or interminable fashion show rehearsals, pills for the headaches brought on by hours of bright lights shone straight in her eyes, pills to calm her nerves for the big shows like the Victoria's Secret annual televised show, and of course pills to make her feel all fuzzy and warm and light-headed when partying with the jet set crowd. She never thought of it as "drug problem" since a lot of models did the same and she did have prescriptions for most of those pills, and those she didn't were brand new designer drugs that the law had yet to catch up with - all perfectly legal. And fun.
At the big birthday bash thrown for Vanessa's 23rd birthday held in her Beverly Hills mansion in California, she was partying quite hard, and inadvertently overdosed on excessive amounts of the newest designer drug in vogue, a totally synthetic derivative of para-Methoxyamphetamine in the form of a little pink pill colloquially called "Cloud 9". It didn't take long for someone to notice the birthday girl had lost consciousness and to call 911. The paramedics soon arrived on the scene and realized that she was in cardiac arrest, but they managed to ressuscitate her in time. She was stabilized and rushed to the hospital, but she had slipped into a coma. Reports of the tragedy quickly made the news, and was spread rapidly by all media. The twittersphere was especially ablaze with record amounts of tweets about it.
While her body laid almost completely lifeless in her hospital bed, her soul drifted into Limbo, a desolate spiritual plane for lost souls. But all of the thoughts and prayers of her legions of fans and even casual admirers coupled with her own kind of self-idolatry gave her the spiritual momentum to leave the state of Limbo and ascend to the lofty, golden light-bathed Celestial Realms. There she was met with hostility by the resident Celestial beings who deemed her unfit for Heaven based on her vain, materialistic approach to life. They were also concerned with how she had breached their realm, having rose up with the backing of countless prayers, the powerful energy of all the dedicated thoughts of well-intentioned, good people. They feared her apotheosis; that all this cult of personality, this icon worship, could lead to Vanessa becoming actually deified as the next modern "Goddess of Beauty and Love" thus giving her a powerful, undeserved place among them.
So the mighty angel Malakite was charged by all the other Celestials with escorting Vanessa to Purgatory, that prison set up for the purification of souls, from which there is no escape and where she could essentially rot until Judgment Day. But Malakite, while acquitting himself of his task, ended up falling in love with Vanessa - very deeply so - and at the last moment decided to save her instead of condemning her to aeons of dull suffering in Purgatory. He chose to sacrifice most of his own powers to imbue her with his Celestial essence, so she could escape the spiritual dimensions and find her way back to Earth and resurrect herself.
It was a few weeks after her hospitalization - weeks which have felt like mere hours to Vanessa - that she finally awoke from her coma. Disoriented and confused, but in perfect health. She remembered clearly what she had experienced after her brush with death, but was not sure if it had been all a dream or not; it had felt real but it all seemed so fantastic now. She was discharged from the hospital with a clean bill of health and returned to her old life. But not all was the same. She was still the same woman she had been before, with the same likes and dislikes, the same values, the same outlook on life, but she felt a certain emptiness now, a longing for that strange feeling of bliss that her dreamed Heaven had given her.
As she resumed her former existence strange things began to occur: she would suffer a small injury like a minor cut, or getting pricking by a pin when a designer's assistant would dress her up during a show, spraining an ankle while wearing very unsteady but oh-so-stylish stiletto heels, etc., and suddenly the pain and the source of the pain itself would just vanish. She no longer felt pain from standing or walking all day in uncomfortable heels, nor did she require any painkillers for the bright light-induced headaches she used to get. Her pill consumption which she had been told to put on hold for medical reasons following her ordeal, had yet to resume; she simply didn't need them anymore. Other people also seemed to feel better around her. People who complained about aches and pain would cease after spending some time in her close proximity. It was all so peculiar.
One late night when she was in England for London Fashion Week, she felt depressed after she and her on-again, off-again billionaire boyfriend had split up once more - over their respective work schedule, and over the phone as well - she picked up the Bible in the nightstand of her hotel's bedroom and mindlessly started flipping through it. She had been raised Anglican but religion had never been a very important part of Vanessa's life, and the Bible had never quite been a source of wisdom to which she would consider turning. A verse caught her attention, Ecclesiastes 1:2. "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity." Somehow that resonated with her, on more levels than one. She knew others referred to her as being vain, she never really saw that as a bad thing to be honest. It was just the way she was, the way God had made her, if there was one. But she understood the word vanity here meant something else, it meant futility and emptiness, a lot like what she often felt since her Near Death Experience occurred. In that moment she remembered that being in her dream, the angel Malakite. She somehow wished for him to be real, to be there with her. To love her like he had, to comfort her. And there he was.
Somehow, in that hotel room, an angel was standing in front of her. He didn't look quite like she remembered, more like a shadow of his former glorious self. But he was still quite impressive; an angel, a winged Celestial being, right there in the... flesh? She wasn't sure what he was made of, but he seemed to have some level of physicality, at least here he did. He told her she had summoned him from the spiritual planes, he told her of the personal sacrifice he had to make to ensure her return, he told her of the wrath of the other Celestial beings and of his banishment to the lower spiritual realms. He also told her of how she had been transformed by the experience, how she now carried as part of herself most of his former power. How she was now full of Celestial energy brimming just below the surface of her being. She realized it and embraced it fully. The whole room became filled with a mystical golden light, warm and full of love. She lost consciousness again.
The next morning Vanessa awoke, she was different now, she knew it, it had not been all a dream, or at least if it had, then the dream had been real. The glow around her was there, the light was still in her, all golden, warm and fuzzy. In the weeks that followed Vanessa often called on Malakite, he didn't always manage to appear, but when he did they would talk. He could never stay for very long either, the strain of this earthly plane of existence being too harsh on his spiritual nature. But when he came he taught her how to use her new powers, he schooled her in Angelic Magic, which among men is also called Radiant Sorcery. She learned and applied this mystical knowledge. Sparingly, at first, she wasn't sure exactly what to do with these new abilities. She would simply try to consciously heal the minor aches and pain of those around her. One day on her way to the modeling agency, she healed a sickly homeless man who was begging for spare change. She wasn't sure what had been afflicting him, but the burst of radiant energy she sent through him seemed to revitalize and change him. Another day she healed her agent's broken leg after she had been in a silly skiing accident involving a tree over the weekend. One night coming home from a club she heard a scream from an alley, she peered in and saw two men holding a young woman, clearly intent on violating her. She remembered Malakite telling her how to turn her celestial light into a weapon, how to use it offensively, but she had never tried it. She almost turned back when fear crept into her. But she didn't. She called the very wrath of Heaven down on those two men, a pillar of golden light falling fast and hard, smiting them and leaving them on the ground, disoriented and rendered harmless. The young woman stood there motionless for a second, then pulled up her skirt and ran away in fear; not knowing quite what to do next, Vanessa also left in a hurry.
Vanessa would later recall this incident as the moment she decided to become a superheroine. She trained with Malakite some more, learning how to hone her skills as a fighter and a healer; he also pledged to be her guardian angel, to come to her aid when needed. She decided to move to Millennium City, despite her agent's objections, since the city was home to so many superheroes. She realized she had to come up with a super name, to match her heroics. Her first thought, "Angel-Woman", made her laugh out loud at how ridiculous it sounded. Then she remembered the Biblical passage she reflected on that night she first summoned her angelic benefactor. Vanity, she would become Vanity. She asked a designer friend of hers to make her a costume fit for her new heroic persona. But vanity is not an easy concept to render visually. She remembered an image she once saw that had made her smile in a strange way. It was a drawing made by American illustrator Charles Allan Gilbert of a beautiful young lady sitting at a dressing table with a big round mirror and various flasks on it - a piece of furniture some would call "a vanity". If you squinted your eyes ever so much, or just took a step back, the picture became one of a human skull. It was quite cleverly done, and illustrated the inevitability of death and the futility - or vanity - of life. The picture was aptly titled http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Allisvanity.jpg All Is Vanity. It was perfect. Vanessa's superheroic persona would be that of Vanity, she would wear the skull as her emblem. She didn't care most people wouldn't "get it"; hopefully it might scare the bad guys, or at the very least confuse them just long enough for her to take advantage of it.
Thus Vanity was born. Vanessa in her new persona started to patrol the streets of Millennium City, stopping crime where it happened, foiling various nefarious plots, thwarting henchmen, villains and even supervillains; making a new name for herself. She soon met the superhero Metro Moth in Westside, one of the leaders of the Eternals Inc. super team who invited her to join them in their crusade against evil.
Tropes
Superhero Tropes
- Superheroes Wear Tights: Vanity's main superheroine outfit features black and white leather tights with a skull motif. She also has another costume that just features the skull motif and shows a lot more skin.
- Chest Insignia: Vanity's costumes all feature a giant skull insignia on her chest, which ties in with the Biblical theme of vanity.
- Symbol Motif Clothing: It's not just the giant insignia that illustrates the skull motif, Vanity also wears big skull shaped earrings (though her long hair often covers them partially or totally), a big skull belt buckle and skull caps on her boots too. Nothing like overkill to drive the message home.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Some might see Vanity in her costume with all the prominent skulls, the shoulder armor pieces with scythes sticking out of them, the big chains wrapped around her, the black leather tights (or the exposed flesh) and just assume she must be a supervillainess... Well, not so. The "darkness" of her costume simply reflects the thematic meaning of her heroic persona, which in turn reflects the epiphany of sorts that accompanied the acquisition of her powers.
- Superheroes Wear Capes: Vanity wears a kind of cape, composed of 8 long strands of cloth gilded with a reflective material that shimmers in the golden light of her angelic magic.
- Most Common Superpower: Nope, it's not Flight! Vanity is no exception to this rule. (See Appearance Tropes)
- White Magician Girl: In a team setting Vanity is basically the modern equivalent of a "Cleric" in traditional Fantasy MMORPGs. She uses angelic - or "white" - magic to heal and revive.
- Combat Medic: Vanity's function in a super team is not just to heal her teammates, usually her mere presence is enough to keep everyone around her safe and sound, and bar the occasional burst of healing she would mostly just stand there if she couldn't fight as well. Now, she is not the strongest damage dealer, but she can definitely dish it out when no one requires active healing. She can even be a solo heroine and tackle small groups of baddies all by her lonesome self.
- Holy Hand Grenade: Vanity is a healer and a resurrector, but she can also bring down hard the Wrath of Heaven upon her foes.
- Squishy Wizard: Vanity's healing powers help with her own survival quite a lot, but she is still very fragile and one big blow or a series of very rapid successive blows can defeat her quite fast.
- Reed Richards Is Useless: Vanity doesn't tour hospitals and morgues to cure the sick and revive the recently dead, something which she could technically do; but no, she still spends her time modeling professionally, shopping, partying, etc., and basically only uses her powers to fight crime.
Appearance Tropes
- The Beautiful Elite: Vanessa's stunning beauty and consequent modeling career has opened for her the doors to the highest levels of society populated by wealthy, successful people, many of whom also happen to be extremely beautiful people.
- Angelic Beauty: Although not an angel herself, Vanessa's beauty was angelic enough to make a bona fide angel fall for her, and fall hard. And since the angel infused her with his celestial light Vanity has grown even more angelic looking, her aging process stopping to a halt, and often manifesting a halo-esque glow (magical aura).
- Proud Beauty: Being beautiful is how Vanessa got to where she is, it got her a fantastic career and then when she should have been rotting in Purgatory it instead got her a return trip to Earth AND superpowers. So yeah, she's not in denial about her looks, nor does she indulge in any kind of false modesty; she proudly cultivates her appearance and loves the attention she gets from it.
- [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LongHairIsFeminine Long Hair Is Feminine: Vanessa's hair is very long, down to her lower back. She will not even consider cropping it any shorter.
- Everyone Loves Blondes: Vanessa's long, lustrous, natural blonde hair is a big part of her attractiveness and part of her success as an international supermodel.
- Buxom Is Better: Like her hair, Vanessa's ample bosom is a big part of her sex appeal.
- Statuesque Stunner: Vanessa is 5'10", which is tall for a woman, as most models tend to be. (Although in a world where NPC Heroines like Sapphire, Witchcraft and Black Mask are inexplicably at least 6'5" (if not 7' tall) and many players also like to max the Height slider, she may sadly not seem that tall in comparison.)
- Impossible Hourglass Figure: Vanessa is the "heroine chic" and not the "heroin chic" type of model; she is very curvaceous.
- She's Got Legs: Vanessa has nice long legs and she is not afraid to show them, often wearing very short skirts and dresses. As Vanity she sometimes wears a skimpy version of her costume that shows her bare legs.
- Femme Fatalons: Vanessa has long, perfectly manicured nails, usually painted with bright red nail polish. (They are obviously not intended to be quite as long and sharp looking as the "claws" option used ingame, but since the Character Creator/Tailor doesn't have a middle ground it was either that or the short nails.)
- Gold Makes Everything Shiny: Vanity's costume uses big gold chains to represent the vanity, futility and even bondage of material wealth (you don't own your possessions, they own you). She also wears gold-plated armor, which can be seen as symbolic of how money protects the rich. On the other hand, gold has always been considered the purest and noblest of metals - incorruptible, eternal - and alchemists sought to transmute base metal into gold; and there was a spiritual undertone to this transmutation (Vanity's spiritual powers manifest as a golden light). And of course, Vanessa simply loves gold jewelry.
- Everything's Sparkly With Jewelry: Gold, diamonds, gems of all colors, shapes and size... Vanessa does indeed love the bling!
- Pretty In Mink: Vanessa would definitely not "rather go naked than wear fur". She loves the luxury, stylishness, sensuality and warmth of real fur; she is definitely not a member of PeTA, and take pity on whoever would try to throw red paint on her!
Personality Tropes
- Spoiled Sweet: Despite her beauty, fame and social status, Vanessa doesn't really think less of the less fortunate. Probably because she just doesn't think much about them to begin with. She does feel superior to most people, but she is rarely filled with contempt - nor will she display any animosity - towards people she would consider to be her inferiors, unless they would do something to deserve it, such as angering her by being incredibly incompetent or acting very stupidly. She realized long ago that being courteous with people, both socially and professionally, was a good way of making her life much simpler and easier.
- The Fashionista: It was Vanessa's interest in fashion that led her to become a model, a passion that was probably caused by her vanity rather than be the cause of it, although her success as a model most probably did exacerbate it.
- Vanity Is Feminine: Vanessa is hyperfeminine, both in appearance, personality and also in function within a super team (nurturing/healing). Her vanity is intrinsically linked to her sense of femininity and her career choice as a model both reflects it and exacerbates it.
- Conspicuous Consumption: Vanessa is rich and not afraid to gratuitously and ostentatiously display it. Designer clothes, expensive jewelry, sumptuous furs, a very lavish lifestyle, all laid out for the world to see.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Cliché as it sounds, Vanessa does melt a little for the handsome roguish types. Especially if they also have vast amounts of money - though they don't need to in order to interest her, but she'll be less susceptible to fall for poor bad boys than rich ones, and might resist their charm while still indulging in heavy flirtations.
Morality Tropes
- True Neutral: Vanessa could be described as a bit morally bland, she just doesn't care much about anything other than herself. She is definitely not evil per se, but she is not quite good either. And although she likes living in a well regulated civilization, she doesn't care much for laws herself. She is selfish, caring about herself first and foremost, and secondarily anyone whom she would deem a loved one. Her superheroic activities might seem to reflect a recent shift towards good, but that might simply be because of the nature of her powers (support/healing). Had she acquired far more destructive powers, perhaps she might just as well have turned into a villainess much like Gravitar (after all "absolute power corrupts absolutely"). Also, her public image is a major factor in her becoming a superheroine rather than a supervillainess, as people tend generally to admire heroes and loathe villains.
- Default To Good: As stated, Vanessa's new career as a superheroine seems to imply she's on the side of good, but that choice is more of a default setting. She's not nearly bad enough to be truly Evil, and if you have to fight on one side, Good's pretty good.
- Screw The Rules, I'm Beautiful!: Vanessa has long used her looks to "get away with murder" (metaphorically speaking of course). She usually just smiles seductively and bats her eyelashes to make any problem go away.
- Screw The Rules, I Have Money!: Vanessa always felt the rules didn't quite apply to her, and her status as a rich celebrity kind of put her a little bit above the law. Not that she would have indulged in what she considered real criminal activities, but recreational drug consumption? Tax evasion? Somewhat shady investment deals and insider trading? Those weren't real "crimes" and surely any regulations regarding them were meant for other - less wealthy - people. But alhough her core personality hasn't really changed, her new superheroic activities have made her more aware of the need to cultivate at least an appearance of lawfulness.
Trivia
- Vanessa speaks French very well. She learned French in high school, and as a gifted student she got an A+ grade in the subject. She of course knew that many international designers and maisons de couture were French, and so she was motivated to become fluent in the language.
- Vanessa owns a luxurious appartment in Paris' 16th arrondissement; it's her home in France, and serves as her pied-à-terre when she travels in continental Europe.
- Vanessa's primary residence is now in Downtown Millennium City - she owns a luxurious penthouse loft there - but she also kept her Manhattan appartment on the Upper East Side, though she rarely ever stays there long these days. She also owned a house in Beverly Hills, California, but ended up selling it after she nearly died in it from a designer drug overdose.
- After spending much time in Vibora Bay, Vanessa purchased a Victorian brownstone there. She loves the local flavor but feels like the city is way too plagued with supernatural threats, which generally means more work for her to do.
- Vanessa literally abhors sewers and musty old crypts. She loathes the smell and hates having to go patrol in such locations, even when the intel that there is definitely something bad going on there is correct. She is quite convinced that bad guys often take refuge in such God-awful places just to spite her.
- Vanessa has no love for demons or anything infernal. She's not too keen on anything supernatural as a rule either. Any cultural appeal she may have had toward vampires as a teen has left the building upon meeting actual vampires in Vibora Bay. The same goes for werewolves, though she wouldn't mind wearing a cute little werewolf fur jacket or having a werewolf skin rug in her den!
- Vanessa hates "dumb blonde" jokes, seeing as she's naturally blonde. She knows herself to be relatively smart, but still feels more insecure about her intellect than she does about her appearance.
- Although Vanessa doesn't have any particular dislike of Japanese people, she definitely doesn't like modern Japanese popular culture. It just seems too weird and strange to her, to be point where she finds it somewhat repellent. In the same way she is not too keen on sushi either, she is one of the few celebrities who never jumped on the sushi bandwagon. She loves seafood, just not raw fish.
