Full Name: Joanna Vane
Face Claim: Maddie Ziegler
Pronouns: she/her
Birthday: May 30th 2004
Current Status: Closed
Character Information: TW: abuse, addiction, and police
Life was never really easy. Then again it wouldn’t be when you are born into a life like Joannas. For as long as she could remember she felt like a prisoner. The prison was her life. Something she felt was impossible to escape until now. Things were about to change for her but thats only if she didn’t get caught. Lucky for her she rarely got caught…rarely.
Most people would say her life was something movies were written about; and its not the lavish life of an it girl with cute boys and cute clothes. Her life was like a tragic drama where you were not sure if she was going to survive in the end.
Her first real memory was sitting outside a small one bedroom apartment on the outskirts of her small Australian town. Covered in dirt, clothes soiled and dirty, hair in tangles, and belly aching. The broken screen door slammed open and the sound of combat boots crunching rocks under pressure barreling towards her. The smell of cigarettes and stale beer lingered as this large man in cut off jean shorts and a wife beater wound up and kicked her across the dirt.
Screaming at her for being in the way… only way he took out his aggression. This was a core memory because as her father went to kick her again she changed. From little girl to a monitor lizard; small but still a lizard. Scaring her father and scared herself she scurried off under the fence to hide…and she hid there until she was herself again and her father was passed out in a lawn chair. Joanna was 5.
There was a long history of shifters throughout the outback; but it was always wives tales and stories. Her father was originally disgusted with this inherited trait - blaming it on her dead beat mother. As she grew older she learned to control the shifting. It only became a true issue when she was scared; and unfortunately for her she lived in fear. Fathers fist was raised, voice at top volume, covered in stale beer, and dragging her through their small apartment by her hair Joanna would shift. Thrown in a cage until she would turn back… her father made sure she could never run and hide again.
As she grew older she found herself spending more time at school, finding hobbies, and making friends with other troubled teens who were also running from bullshit at home. The ability to change into a monitor made it extremely easy to cause more mischief than as a girl. Joanna and her group of friends typically found themselves in places they shouldn’t be. Sneak in as a lizard and unlock a gate, a door, or a window and wreak havoc inside. Joanna found herself to naturally just have sticky fingers…break into the right homes you can steal just about anything and sell it. Steal one wrong ring from the wrong person and a mark is on your head though. Joanna and her friends took a single diamond ring to a jeweler to pawn it and in seconds flashing blue and red was outside the shop. Dragged away to holding in cuffs Joanna was released to her father.
Head bashed into the passenger side window Joanna took the brutal berating from her father. $1000 dollars down the drain for her bail.
Her father was smart though; most addicts were in their own right. If Joanna was so good at stealing and was untraceable in her monitor form - he would use her to foot their bill.
An abusive life of servitude - wake up scared… her father would use his anger to force her to shift. Their route started small; stealing from neighbors and then suddenly grew to political figures in Melbourne. The twisted reality was Joanna wanted to prove to her father that she could do a good job; maybe if she did as he asked he would give her a little bit of praise. A vicious cycle. Most nights Joanna was locked away in their dirty apartment; if she picked the locks to sneak out with friends it was only a matter of time before her father would track her down and lock her in her cage.
This life was killing her and it was only a matter of time before someone fired on her as she slithered out of some estate; nobody would think twice about shooting a monitor lizard - they are a predator after all.
She had to find a way out - she needed to leave the country. Her friends may miss her but her father was going to get her killed or worse kill her himself.
With money stashed from her heists she slowly saved up $50,000. She had one final job and her plan was to not hand any over to her father - she would take the money and a bag of her things and run.
PrideU in Swynlake; a town hidden away in the UK was her goal. A university with a magik history program…maybe she could find others like her. A new life where nobody knew her and her father couldn't find her. If anything she could fall back on sticky fingers to keep her bank full…anything to survive. That was the goal now…to survive.
✓ intuitive, cunning, talented
✖ vile, selfish, impressionable
Character Suggestions:
Argus monitor lizard shifter - can turn into a monitor lizard whenever; yet loses control when scared or senses fear. Senses heightened and has all the abilities of a monitor when shifted.
