Rose
From OSWIKI
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| Height: | 4'11 |
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| Weight: | 92lb |
| Title: | Lady Advocate Clara Moore |
| Clan: | Daeva |
| Covenant: | Invictus |
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| Clan: | 1 |
| City: | 1 |
| Covenant: | 2 |
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| Sire: | Ada Klein |
| Childer: | none |
| Lover: | Jasper |
| Client: | Amanda |
| Student: | Mia |
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--------------------------
You'll know just how it felt, to be
There like me, to be left and forgotten
You'll see just how I lived, to be
Tortured blind, and then thrown away
My Turn - Diva Destruction
Contents |
Character Description
A 4'11, 92lb slip of a girl in her early twenties, Rose has deep dark eyes which peer out from the bangs of a sleek blue-black bob sharply cut to the middle of her cheek. Her lips are painted dark, eyes rimmed with kohl and dark shadow. She speaks with a soft but husky American accent.
Character Background
Childhood
Born Clara Moore on November 14, 1907 in Cherryvale, Kansas, she was the daughter of a lawyer too busy to discipline his children,and an artistic mother determined to pass on that creativity. Clara grew up with much more freedom than most girls of her time, and grew to adore books and music, often listening to her mother play the latest Debussy for her on the piano.
At the age of four, she had her first stage role playing Tom Thumb's bride at a church benefit. After this, her mother encouraged her to dance at men's and women's clubs, fairs, and various other gatherings in southeastern Kansas, acting as her costume-maker and pianist. She loved the attention this brought, lapping it up like milk.
When she was thirteen, her family moved to Wichita, where Clara studied dance at the Horace Mann intermediate school, and two years later the girl arrived in New York to study with the Denishawn school, before going on tour with the Denishawn troupe, the leading modern dance troupe of the time, as their youngest girl. Although she loved dancing, it made her feel alive and adored, she had a rather stubborn attitude, and indeed was dismissed eventually because of it - moving back to New York City where she eventually landed a job as a chorus girl with the George White's Scandals before sailing with a friend to Europe.
Clara spent the better part of a year away, mostly in London, where she and her friend enjoyed all the pleasures of being a modern girl, spending their time dancing drinking and carousing in the foreign country. At seventeen, Louise became a dancer at the Cafe de Paris in London, where she was a stunning success, gaining world wide recognition as the first person in the city to dance the Charleston.
Follies
In 1925, the two young women moved back to New York, feeling they'd seen most of what London had to offer them, and somewhat homesick for the States. Clara joined the Ziegfield Follies as a chorus girl, and met the man with whom she'd have the longest relationship of her brief mortal life. One business man, and future NFL tycoon, by the name of George. The relationship was certainly tumultuous and the two regularly had spectacular arguments where they would split for a time, she saying she never wanted to see him again - then a while later they'd be passionately together again.
After performing in 'Louie the 14th', she was elevated from the chorus of the Follies, to one of the 'Glorified Girls', and her career really began to grow wings and take off. During one of her and George's 'off' periods, she had an affair with Charlie Chaplin when he noticed her during a visit for the premiere of one of his movies, the affair lasting most of a summer. Through him and other aquaintances, she managed to become part of Manhattan's 'smart set, becomming friends or at least aquantances with some of New York's wealthiest and artistic people of the time. She relished the attention bestowed on her, lapping up the praise. Although she felt like she could never fall in love, she certainly wasn't opposed to spending time with wealthy handsome men who wanted to take her out for meals and dancing, and lavish her with furs and hats in an effort to win her over.
After a time, as with a lot of the Follies girls, she was approached by scouts from both Paramount and MGM and although she at first demurred, dancing another season with the Follies while struggling to come to a decision as to who to sign with if anybody - as it would mean being seperated from her dreams of being a great dancer, she after a while signed a 5 year contract with Paramount - eventually being persuaded by a conversation with a friend who was an executive of the studio. He told her that if she signed with Paramount that everyone would assume he'd got her the contract, and that she would be treated accordingly, that signing with MGM would mean she'd be starting fresh, completely independant. She completely misconstrued his advice, thinking he'd said it just because he thought she was a bad actress and didn't want to be associated.
Silver Screen
Wanting to prove him wrong, she signed with Paramount, and appeared in her first movie, using the name 'Cleo', a nickname she'd had since childhood due in part to her hair and dark features, and part to her fascination with Egypt. It was a bit part, but it helped pay for her hedonistic lifestyle. In November of the same year, 'Art and Beauty magazine' did a feature on the Ziegfield Follies, and she was chosen to be on the cover.
1926 came round, and the 19 year old appeared in six movies, mostly comedies and flapper films, sometimes playing the female lead. She was noted for her beauty, and the undercurrent of sexuality that was just part of who she was, as well as her naturalistic acting style. Her black bob haircut was talked about all over, with scores of women trying to recreate it for themselves She was on another magazine cover, this time 'Motion Picture Classic', and her life as a chorus girl became the inspiration for a comic called Dixie Dugan.
On the set of her fourth movie, she found she had captured the heart of the director, who'd fallen head over heels for the young flapper - he began courting her, and she married him in July of that year. Was it for love? Lust? Something more superficial? Even she herself wasn't sure, though she did like him a great deal. The marriage lasted 2 years, divorcing him in April '28, with whatever it was that she felt for him having passed leaving her merely feeling tied down. She was a bird who didn't want to be caged, and she never would be.
In the same year as her divorce, amidst being photographed by several of the period's well known photographers, the young actress appeared in a Howard Hawks film, which was popular in Europe, bein called 'the first appearance of contemporary drama'. A german director by the name of G.W. Pabst saw it, and decided to cast her for an upcoming film of his. She appeared in three other films that year until Paramount denied her a raise that she had been promised.
Weimar Berlin
She quit, and in her near trademark fashion, stormed out of the office, leaving for Europe to film with Pabst the movie that she would be remembered for, 'Pandora's Box', wherein she played the central character of Lulu who met her fate at the hands of Jack the Ripper. It was ahead of it's time in many ways, notorious for it's frank treatment of sexuality.
Returning in December to New York, Paramount offered Clara $10,000 to do the voice over for a detective film she had appeared in earlier that year, the studio fearing the film wouldn't sell with the advent of the talkie. Clara refused, and most say this would have trashed her career, as (untrue) rumours were sent around claiming the reason they had cast someone else was that her voice was unsuitable for sound, effectively blacklisting her. However, after a brief romance with one William Paley, she left the country never to return alive, leaving people able only to speculate as to what would have happened had she tried to continue a movie career in Hollywood.
In 1929 and the last year of her life, Clara journeyed to France to film Prix de Beaute by Augusto Genina, spending time in the French Riviera before then journeying to Germany once more where she began filming one more film with Pabst, Diary of a Lost Girl.
Embrace
Lost, Clara soon would be. While filming and enjoying the sights and sounds of Weimar Berlin, she met an associate of Pabst's called Ada Klein. A striking blonde whom the director claimed to be his muse. In fact, he introduced d her as the woman who showed him Clara's film and persuaded him to hire her. The two women spent many nights drinking and dancing, getting closer, and for the first time in her life, Clara found herself to be the besotted one. Filming finished, and Ada invited the leading lady over to celebrate with a night on the town.
Clara arrived at Ada's home and soon found herself very shocked. The German woman invited her to sit and talk a while, and swiftly moved the conversation to a dark subject. She told her that vampires, Kindred as she called them, the stuff of Bram Stoker's novel - they were real. Ada wanted to give Clara the power to make all her heart's desires a reality, she claimed, to make her forever young and beautiful, part of the ultimate elite society, her companion. It would be the ultimate thrill, the utmost in hedonism.
Clara had no choice but to agree, and the way it was presented, she bared her neck willingly.
The next day, supposed to meet with Pabst for lunch, she didn't show. She simply disappeared. She wasn't seen again by anybody who knew her. After a very short while, thanks to Ada's connections, it was 'discovered' that Cleo had died of a drug overdose, leaving rumours to fly around madly as to what had caused it to happen. In her recently created will, she left almost everything to a girl called Ruth Davis (Clara's new identity), with a little going to her family back in Kansas. After a while, and certainly with the advent of the war, people almost forgot completely about the silent starlet.
Clara spent the next few nights at Ada's home learning about her new life. She was a Daeva now, and a part of the Kindred elite, a blooded Invictus. She would be under Ada's wing until ready to spread her own and show that she could survive alone.
Ada encouraged the girl to create an entire new identity for herself, helping her to invent an entire history with family, job, husband, the whole 9 yards. Initially upset at learning she'd never see any of her friends again, she soon realised that it was what had to be done. Better this than watching them grow old before her while she herself remained unchanging, seeing them frow frail and die.
For the next decade, Clara remained at her sire's side, remaining unusually passive as she soaked up all she could.
Return to New York
In 1938, with the rise of Nazism as Hitler became Fuhrer in 1934, and having seen the Jews and Roma gradually lose all rights as people, Ada and Clara made the long journey back to America, it being obvious that things were not just going to blow over, and in fact were likely to get a hell of a lot worse very quickly if that were even possible. The two once again created new identities for themselves, and journeyed slowly by ship.
Once arrived in America, Ada took Clara back to her old home in New York, and they rented a small apartment where they kept their heads down, trying to avoid any attention until all this nasty business blew over. Ada tried to keep track of some of her friends and mortal allies, but it grew increasingly difficult, and she later discovered that most who hadn't fled the country would die there during the short period. They were initially mistrusted by Kindred society, but as word filtered through slowly of the attrocities back in Germany, they came to accept the couple along with the few others who came before or after them. Clara continued to stay at her sire's side, but started to itch for something to stop that tied down feeling. She understood why, espescially as venturing out increased chance of her being recognised, even with disguise - but she wanted adventure, not to hide away. She filled her time with books and movies, devouring Raymond Chandler and his contemporaries.
New Beginnings
1945 drew on, and the war ended. All across the Western world, people celebrated, and very slowly normal life resumed. Tentatively, Ada gave her childe a bit more free reign, allowing her to go out and start to build mortal alliances, as after all, the Invictus preached that mortals were power. The only catch was that she had to wear a disguise, which Clara found rather enjoyable, using her acting skills to their limits. Going to the clubs of the city, she met a young boxer by the name of Jasper. Although she did't tell Ada about attending the small dives, knowing she wouldn't approve, something about watching the fights gave her a rush. It was so undignified, so primal, so utterly against everything she'd been spoonfed these past few years - and she welcomed the reprieve. She began to hang out with the young boxer at the bars in town, staying well away from her old mortal haunts, and became pretty well aquainted.
On nights other than Fridays, which she spent watching the fights, Clara became intrigued with the new Bebop and Jazz, and began socialising with the musicians, having a brief affair with the then relatively unknown Miles Davis and helping to fund his art, through him getting to know Charlie Parker and the other core artists. The 1950s began, and in 1954 a friend of her sire, one Allister Montigue, sired the young boxer she had been friends with. Having stopped their association a short while ago due to worried he'd notice the lack of aging, though still covertly watching the fights - she was glad to see him join the ranks of the Kindred, and to be able to talk to him once again. They grew closer now he knew the truth and she didn't have to hide it, the friendship of their sires meaning they often crossed paths. After time, they became allies, and although there was mutual attraction, their friendship remained platonic.
Manumission
In 1958, Clara had her Manumission ceremony, being officially released from her sire. Shortly after with strong encouragement, she petitioned one of the Guilds, which specialised in expressive artistry, for admission - and was accepted. The schooling took up most of her time thereafter, which she didn't like so much, but that the Meister was the best teacher she had ever had, she couldn't deny. In the tiny amount of spare time she had - which wasn't at all much, the Guild Meister frowned on all activity not directly relating to her craft - Clara began hanging out at the latest hip hangout for artists, The Factory in Manhatten. She was allowed this small recreation only because it was art related.
As time passed into the 1970s, Clara finished her Apprenticeship with the Guild, and threw herself into the arts circles of New York more fully. She became the patron of a young dancer attending Juilliard, and was friends with most of the movers and shakers of the blues/soul and modern dance communities. Hearing her name crop up often in conversation, she drew the interest of the Cherubim, being invited to one of their salons, then another. Impressing them with her sharp wit and social skills, as well as her knowledge of the arts, she was invited to their social gatherings several times until Kindred simply assumed she was one of them, and so she became one of them. Later in the decade, she became the student of one of the city's elder Advocates, learning from her, studying to become one herself - of all the duties she could undertake in the Covenant, the challenge of converting others seemed the most exciting.
In the 1980s, she watched as her old friend Jasper left the city for Japan of all places, and the two promised to keep in contact. Clara stayed in New York, though temptation was strong to go on an adventure to the Orient with him. Ada, worried over the gains of the Carthians, and struggling with her rising blood potency, slipped into the Eclipse in 1981, leaving her childe to take care of her affairs.
Through the 1990s, Clara enjoyed another of her brief romances, this time with a young female dancer called Naomi. Enraptured with the girl, and feeling lonely with the absense of her companion for so many years, Clara ghouled Naomi, and the dancer willingly became a sort of plaything, someone to pass the lonely nights with. She started to grow bored with New York, but travel wasn't so easy as it had been when she was young and mortal, and she had responsibilities. She wanted adventure, as old as she was, that desire to feel everything the world had to offer hadn't left her soul.
Journey to Tokyo
In the new millenium, the perfect excuse would arise. Her sire awoke from Torpor in 2006, 25 years after she has slipped away, releasing Clara from that responsibility. Early the next year, she heard through the grapevine that a film was being made about her own mortal life, and her supposed death. Not believing it, thinking she had been forgotten about, she chased it up with little imperitive, only to discover in the Summer that the rumours were true. Although her movies, bar her two German and one French film, which were studied in Film classes at universities on occasion, had been indeed forgotten and for the most part lost - her life remained intriguing to quite a few people. The release was timed to coincide with her 100th birthday, on the 14th November, and the image of the actress portraying her was about to be plastered on billboards all over. Despite Hollywood having cast a woman with little real resemblance - being tall with very different features, and not even a similar body shape - Clara was still worried by it, and used the miniscule risk as an excuse to scratch her itch.
Having kept sometime correspondance with her old friend Jasper, and having heard about his becomming Primogen, she thought she might pay that visit to the Orient. Calling him, he offered to let her stay with him, glad of the opportunity to see each other again.
She left Naomi in New York to settle up the remainder of her affairs, promising to call her over once things were sorted - she then made the long way over to Japan, the first time she'd been outside the country since the 1930s.
