(﹙˓ 🎧 ˒﹚) whoa, did you just hear that voice? it's so recognizable that i have no doubt it's victoria jennings. i don't really know much about them, but i heard they're a twenty one year old musical theatre major in their first year. people say that they're confident and tenacious, but rumor has it that they're actually vindictive and impatient, so i guess we'll never know the truth unless you live with them in berry house. if you ask me, i think i'd describe them as the alpha bitch, but their spotify wrapped should say more about them, in which boyfriend by dove cameron, look what you made me do by taylor swift, and god is a woman by ariana grande are amongst their most played. but whatever, i wish them luck on their endeavors in new directions. i don't know how they have time for all of that, but i can't wait to see how this new school year treats them! ( renee rapp, cis woman and she/her/hers, lesbian ) 𝄞ˎˊ˗
basics.
full name: victoria eloise jennings. age: twenty one. birthday: august 15. zodiac sign: leo with a capricorn moon and scorpio rising. gender: cis woman. pronouns: she/her/hers. sexuality: lesbian.
father: harold jennings ( former investment advisor/wealth manager, currently incarcerated ). mother: emily jennings ( former art dealer who had to quit due to her husband's crimes, nee hunter ). siblings: two older siblings. ethnicity: white. languages spoken: english. religion: raised christian. hometown: new york city.
season: fall. music genres: pop, musical theatre. musicians: ariana grande, whitney houston. tv shows: pretty little liars, schmigadoon, nashville. films: john tucker must die, do revenge. foods: shrimp scampi, lobster bisque. drinks: whiskey sour, iced caramel macchiato.
biography.
victoria grew up in new york city to very wealthy and successful parents. she was the youngest of three so she was spoiled her entire life and given way more freedom than her older siblings.
her father was a wall street worker who worked with wealthy clients, many of whom were victoria's classmates. due to his connections and reputation, victoria's mother was able to pursue a career as an art dealer.
victoria got involved in theater at a very early age and always had a gifted voice. of course, her being in new york city, she wasn't the only one but in her school and neighborhood, she was definitely one of the best which led to her ego being a little more inflated than it needed to be.
when she was in high school, rumors started circulating about her father that she denied but she couldn't deny them when her father was in handcuffs being charged with multiple counts of fraud and embezzlement.
the worst part was a lot of the victims of his crimes were victoria's classmates' parents which led to her being a social pariah. for something she didn't even do. and she even got kicked out of the theater club because of it.
after having enough of the ostracization, victoria decided to fight back by starting a gossip blog about all of her fellow high school students. almost as if to say, "you wanna ruin my life over something i didn't even do? let me ruin your life over something you did do"
she was always good at floating under the radar and pointing the finger at someone else so it was pretty easy for her to not get caught. to this day, no one at her high school is aware that she was the one behind the blog.
after high school, victoria had to wait a few years to go to college due to her mother's financial issues and her father's incarceration. much to her chagrin. she loved new york city, but her neighborhood and everything made her feel so suffocated because people still viewed her as the daughter of a criminal.
when applying for colleges, she tried to stay reasonable and still on the east coast. although, she did secretly want to go to a college like nyu, there were too many old classmates going there too. so she decided on saint rivera especially because she got a great scholarship from there due to her good grades.
college should've been a fresh start for victoria. it should've been the time in her life when she felt like no one would know about her past and she could put the gossip blog behind her because she wasn't trying to get revenge on these people anymore. but then a month or two into her first year, she realized that she actually liked it and having all this power. so she started a small gossip anonymous instagram at the college and has been running it since.
personality wise: she's very self-assured, due to the fact that she was one of the best singers at her old private school in new york city. she can be disciplined about certain things like her singing but other things, not so much because her parents probably gave her too much freedom as the youngest. she can be mean, partly because she has a biting personality by nature but also because she's still harboring a lot of anger and resentment towards her father and her classmates from high school.
i would say her closest parallels from glee would be rachel berry because she's overly ambitious and can be self centered, and a little bit of santana lopez because she can be scathing and internally is working through anger (mean lesbians for the win).
wanted connections.
someone from her high school who still doesn't know it was her behind the blog, former hookup, rival in new directions, secret relationship, tinder date gone wrong, study friends, roommates and/or suitemates in the berry house, friend who tries to reel her in when she's being too much, friend who encourages and enables her when she's being too much, honestly anything else my mind is just coming up blank right now!
closed starter for aidan walsh ( @hcngover )
location: berry house common room
when victoria thought about college as a kid, she never would've thought she would have to live in a dorm. she thought she would've had an off campus house with a sorority by the second month. but here she was in the fucking common room. trying to read her book for class, she slams it shut, turning to the other person on the couch. "could you fucking breathe any louder?!" she asks aidan exasperatedly. "it's one thing to have pipes when you sing but pipes like that when you breath is just plain irritating. stop breathing."
closed starter for savannah grady ( @whimsyhcrts )
location: pillsbury
victoria was committing the cardinal sin of going to the grocery store while she was hungry, but she probably wouldn't even be going to the grocery store if she weren't. it wasn't her idea of fun but damn, why was she craving seafood so bad and why didn't any of the restaurants make any good shrimp scampi which forced herself to make it herself? her shopping cart was full of all of the ingredients she needed, plus extra because she was ravenous. she was so hungry that her cart bumped with another shopper's. she nodded in acknowledgement when she heard the sound. but when she looked up to see it was savannah and the outfit the girl was wearing, she couldn't help but snicker a bit. "i thought halloween was over but judging by the outfit, my calendar might be a bit off."
victoria loved being in new directions but some of the people were hard for her to adjust to. not the stronger personalities but more so the opposite. she got frustrated with people who were good singers and not giving it their all. and especially with good singers whose voice didn't translate into being a good performer. it was a shame because they were bringing the rest of the group down with them, she thought. and while she wasn't a team player by any means but she wanted to look good and she thought these people were making her look bad. as they were getting ready to leave for the rehearsal, she stopped emery. "you have a nice voice. shame you're wasting it." probably one of the nicer things victoria has said during one of these rehearsals. "you do realize that being a good singer is more than just being on key and hitting the right note, right? you have to sell it. you have to have a personality and, well..."
standing in line was one of victoria's least favorite things. as a kid, she never had to wait in line because her father would've just bought a vip pass so that they could cut the line. and most things victoria was stuck waiting in line for as a kid anyway were fun. standing in line for a subpar cup of coffee and watching all of these idiots think it's adequate made her roll her eyes. almost as much as what they were ordering. when she heard the person in front of her ordering a drink that was mostly milk with a dash of coffee, she scoffed and said, "oh my god, just get a fucking milkshake so the fucking adults can order!"
victoria was nothing if not a shameless flirt and that was evident in the way she had been texting mckenna. especially ever since they went on that random tinder date. victoria loved a challenge and she not easily deterred. someone as seemingly as innocent as mckenna was exactly the kind of person that victoria would be interested in. sure, a lot of girls (and her dismay, sometimes men) threw themselves at her. but what was the fun in that? she couldn't really make them squirm or hide their face when she made a double entendre, given that mckenna would actually understand it. when she saw her checking out some clothes, she made a beeline towards her. the old victoria would've never normally been caught dead in a thrift store, but with her father in prison and a lot of their money and income being gone since then, she had become a bit more accustomed to living somewhat frugally. looking at the clothes mckenna was sifting through, she leaned her arm on the rack with a smirk. "why are you shopping for clothes? something tells me you look better without them."
Indira pointed at herself with one perfectly manicured finger, thoroughly delighted that Victoria had apparently been talking about her. "Oh my gosh, me?" Her pointed finger turned into a touched hand against her heart. "Thank you," she beamed. While it was more than likely not a compliment, Indira took most comments to heart and could spin just about any of them in a positive light.
She turned her body just a little to show Victoria her wings. "Wouldn't it be so cute? Like, right here," she tapped in between her wings to the small of her back. "And you could just," she mimed flicking a switch off, "Boop! Off!" Indira turned her body back around to face Victoria again. "I've actually been told I have, like, a really expressive personality."
Without another thought, she shoved the cup into Victoria's hand with the enthusiasm of someone presenting the Nobel Peace Prize. "See? You already look happier!" She exclaimed. Everyone looked better with a drink in their hand. At least, in Indira's opinion. "I think the trick is pretending it tastes good." To demonstrate, she took another ambitious swig from the rum bottle. Her entire face instantly folded in on itself. "Eugh. Still pirate juice." A violent shiver traveled from her shoulders all the way down to her toes.
She coughed delicately into her hand as she finally noticed the blonde's costume. "Oh my bejesus!" Her eyes widened into perfect circles as she pointed between the two of them. "We match. Do you think people are gonna think we're sisters? Or maybe cute angel coworkers? I'm not sure how angels organize themselves. Like, do you think they have an HR department in heaven?"
Victoria is not used to people letting her comments roll of their backs or take her jabs as compliments. It's a little jarring for her and honestly, annoying. Which was funny because she was already a bit annoyed about the similarities between their costumes and Indira's almost sitcom-like energy.
Why can't Indira just be a little bit insulted by what Victoria said? Instead, the other angel has to pretend to have an off button. It really grinds Victoria's gears that she doesn't seem fazed by anything. "God, someone could call you a piece of shit and you would say thank you for saying that I was good enough to once be food or something like that." She shakes her head. She doesn't really need to get under Indira's skin because the girl has done nothing to deserve it but it just bothers her that she didn't get under her skin. "An expressive personality? That's one way to put it. I would go more with...hammy. Like you look like you'd poke your head around a wall to spy on someone and then giggle like a Disney Channel show."
The blonde is a bit taken aback by the drink being shoved in her hand. Most people are too intimidated by her and she liked it that way for the most part. It gave her power, something she had always craved. But with the drink shoved in her hand, it felt like Indira had the power. Nodding, Victoria took a sip of the drink. Not as bad as she was thinking. "Gonna need a lot of whatever this stuff is for all of this." She motions towards Indira.
She takes a swig of her drink, before raising an eyebrow at the fact that the brunette only just noticed that they were matching. "Nothing gets past you, huh?" Victoria asks. "I don't know about Heaven Resources. But maybe when the angels are bad they have to do a stint in hell? Like...uh, this one time, my mom made me go to public school for like a week after I was complaining about my school." She shudders thinking of the experience. "Worst week of my life. These bitches wore the tackiest shit I had ever seen."
the first instinct was to laugh . and it was not because it was funny . it was because laughter had always been cheaper than explaining yourself . except nothing came out . something cinched tight beneath his sternum instead , pulling inward with enough force that the next breath caught halfway down . it wasn't unfamiliar . his body had always been quicker than his mind to recognize moments like these . the sinking feeling arrived first , settling somewhere between his ribs and his stomach like a stone dropped into deep water . then the heat ⸻ slow and humiliating ⸻ climbed the back of his neck until even the inside of the squid's hood felt too warm . the cheap polyester suddenly clung to him in all the wrong places . every stuffed tentacle brushing against his arm became something impossible to ignore . there was a faint ringing somewhere behind his ears . not loud enough to drown out the music , only enough to blur the edges of it . of her voice . of the laughter elsewhere in the room . it all seemed to recede at once until the only thing left with any clarity was the certainty that he was being looked at . the worst part was how familiar it felt .
his fingers found one of the squid's tentacles again , smoothing the crooked seam with his thumb until the cheap stuffing shifted beneath the fabric . there wasn't anything wrong with the seam . there hadn't been thirty seconds ago , either . he needed somewhere to put the nervous energy before it settled somewhere visible . " yeah . " the answer left automatically , before he'd decided whether it was true enough to count . " i've been to parties . " not many . not ones where he'd stayed very long . not ones where he'd ever figured out what everybody else seemed to know without asking . his mouth twitched into something that wanted to become a smile and never quite made it there . " i know i'm not very good at them . " there was no bitterness behind it . no attempt to make her feel guilty . if anything , it sounded almost apologetic , like he'd been meaning to improve and simply hadn't gotten around to it yet . her words settled somewhere beneath his ribs with the familiar certainty of something he'd already believed long before she'd said it . maybe that was why they hurt . they weren't new enough to argue with . they simply found the places already hollowed out for them .
" i thought the squid was kind of funny . " his eyes dropped to one of the limp tentacles hanging from his body . it looked smaller now . sillier . he'd somehow become acutely aware that he was an adult standing in the middle of a room dressed like a squid while someone explained to him how to exist . his stomach twisted once , hard enough that he almost mistook it for nausea . " maybe only to me . " another quiet laugh escaped through his nose , this one carrying more embarrassment than amusement . " personality's probably harder to exchange , though . " he swallowed against the sudden thickness in his throat . it took more effort than it should have . somewhere in the back of his mind , another voice had already started suggesting the easiest solution : leave . say you forgot something . pretend you're tired . disappear before anybody else notices what she already had . instead he rolled his shoulders into something he hoped resembled relaxed . " i'll ... try harder to look like i'm having fun . " try harder to look normal . a pause , considering . " i like your costume . "
victoria couldn't help but think is this guy for real or am i in some sort of educational skit on how not to handle someone with the most anxiety ever known to man? because there was no way she could treat him with the tact that he deserved but she really didn't do that with anyone. especially with someone who was essentially a stranger at a party. when victoria feels uneasy, she usually channels it into something she can control, hence why she started the gossip blog at her high school when it felt like everything was out of her control. she couldn't wrap her head around someone like gabriel, feeling anxious or unsettled, and just letting it completely take over.
sometimes, she feels the urge to help people who are floundering like he is right now. not in a nice way, of course. but more in a here's what you do, now get out of my way way. but it was a party, what else could say besides try to have fun? she shook her head with a dubious smile on her face as she listened to gabriel talk. at least he's aware that he's not the best party-goer. "it doesn't take much to be good at parties." maybe that was true for victoria. always the extrovert, brought up in the upper echelon of new york city where she was taught from a young age to interact with her peers and her parent's friends.
"well, halloween is not about being funny. it's about looking hot, obviously." she motions to her costume as an example. she looks at him, her head cocked to the side. "you know, you're not my type in like any way but i've been around straight girls enough to know you're attractive behind the tentacles. maybe you just need to...wear something that shows that. this whole thing..." she gestures to his costume, with a little bit of a sour expression and a grimace on her face. "kind of drowns you. you could kill it as something that is funny but also hot. the squid is neither of those." that's about as nice as victoria can get, giving advice while also telling him his costume was shit. "also, if you have to try to have fun, you're not doing it right. just...do it."
the costume had seemed like a better idea in theory . there had been a brief , merciful window somewhere between ordering it online and putting it on where it had existed only as an idea ⸻ something funny , something detached enough from himself that he could hide inside of it . people liked costumes . costumes gave strangers permission to look at one another . costumes started conversations without demanding that anybody have anything meaningful to say . that had been the hope . the reality was considerably warmer . the hood kept slipping over one eye . one of the stuffed tentacles kept brushing against his elbow whenever he moved . every step produced the faint , humiliating rustle of cheap polyester , as though his own nervous system had finally become audible . the room breathed around him . laughter ricocheted against the ceiling . voices tumbling together until they became something warm and indistinguishable , like listening to rain from inside a house .
music pulsed beneath it all , steady enough that it reached his ribs before it reached his ears . gabe had always liked observing crowds more than participating in them . they behaved like ecosystems . self - sustaining . people orbiting people . laughter finding laughter . extroverts collecting strangers the way burrs collected fabric . conversations dividing themselves , merging again , growing branches before he ever found somewhere to stand . he wondered , not for the first time , whether everybody else had received instructions for existing that he'd somehow missed . he'd shown up . that counted for something . it had to . his fingers worried absentmindedly at one of the squid's crappily sewn - on tentacles , smoothing the fabric flat before immediately wrinkling it again . a pointless cycle . comforting precisely because it accomplished nothing .
someone drifted close enough to interrupt the careful geometry he'd established between himself and the nearest wall . gabe's head lifted almost immediately . " oh ⸻ hi . " the word escaped a little too quickly , as though he'd been waiting for permission to use it . his eyes darted toward them , then somewhere over their shoulder , then back again . " i wasn't standing here because i wanted to leave . " a beat . " that's ... probably what it looked like . " he glanced down at one of the dangling tentacles , pinching it between two fingers . " i just needed somewhere the squid would fit . " another pause . " sorry . " the apology arrived out of habit , carrying all the unnecessary weight of someone apologizing for occupying measurable space . he looked back up , offering the smallest , most uncertain smile . " i can move , if i'm in your squid's way . no ⸻ fuck . um , i meant … " there’s a shake of his head , an internal huff of breath at his own fucking stupidity . " if the squid’s in your way . " much better .
even when she was at her lowest, victoria had always been self-assured so to see someone so uncertain of anything made her slightly annoyed. most people would've felt sad seeing gabriel stumble over his words and look like a sore thumb at the party. but to victoria? it just seemed pathetic and not in the good way. "listen, squidward, as much as i would love to hear you not be able to form a sentence even more, it's a fucking party. act like you're at one. have you been to one of these before? the whole point is to have fun, not do...whatever the fuck you were doing." she makes a motion with her hand to show her disapproval and annoyance. she knew this school wouldn't be as fancy as her private school back in new york but they were wearing polyester halloween costumes and they couldn't even have fun. "god, people at this school are so lucky to have me to tell them when they need a makeover. and squidward, you need a new costume and a personality that can be fun at parties."
God, Indira loved Halloween. The one day you could totally get away with dressing like a slut? Color her sold. It took her approximately three seconds to find the cutest little lost soul she had ever seen, her wings nearly knocking over one of the five Patrick Batemans at this party. "Oops, sorry! Totes didn't mean it!" She had the mind to call out as she sauntered over.
"Babe, where's your drink?" She cooed, a little pout accompanying her face. "You can't not have a drink. I'm bummed; you're bumming me out. I've never been this bummed in my entire life." The pout never left her face. In fact, it became far more pronounced as she kept speaking. "We have to got to change that. Here. It's something called... uh...." Words never did come easy to her unless there was a like or totally in front of them.
"Jumping Juice. No! Jolly Juice. Wait! It'll come back to me. Here," she placed the cup in their hand, already scooting past to reach for the clearest bottle of liquid she could get her paws on. She popped it open and took a giant swig, her face wincing immediately. "Ooh, rum! I feel like a pirate!"
Victoria loved Halloween as a kid, dressing up as someone else, getting into character. But once she reached high school and everything happened with her father, she was too old to trick or treat and her former friends were all throwing Halloween parties without her. Of course, she still managed to sneak in with a disguise so that no one would know it was her. The best part about Halloween is that no one questions when you're wearing a mask. But she wasn't there to mingle back in high school, she was there to get dirt. And maybe she was here to get the same thing too.
She decided to don an angel costume, maybe a little basic but she looked hot so who cares, really? She was looking around the room, scanning for any drama when she felt the brush of someone else's wing. She was a little peeved that she wasn't the only one dressed as an angel at the party, but at least Indira was a Victoria's Secret angel so Victoria wouldn't have to demand her to change.
"Has anyone ever told you that you should come with an off button? Geez." Victoria asks, shaking her head. She was used to being around people with a lot of energy, she was in a glee club but even she thought Indira was doing too much. Maybe she did need that drink after all. "I'll take a drink though. Couldn't hurt to make these men slightly more tolerable."
