#vanessa|headcanon

[manynarrators]

Dead Languages

Neither Kevin or Vanessa know what radio requirements are like in other places, but for them, one of the requirements for public radio was fluency in at least one dead language, preferably more, though most people pick them up during their internships. It came with the territory, survival tips, and general advice that had been passed through. The coffee tasted better with Sumerian compliments whispered at it, the doors liked to unlock unless placated in Greek, and the switches in the sound booth often decided to be in ancient Celtic or old English so it was just worth it to learn both.

Vanessa can speak Latin, and Greek, and had been in the process of learning Sumerian when she died. She hadn’t known she was going to go into radio as long as Kevin, and her natural talent for languages wasn’t nearly as innate. But she was picking them up, and between the ones she was taking because they were part of her degree, and as extra, online courses, sh was getting better. She still thinks faster in English though.

Kevin can speak a decent handful of them. Latin, Greek, and Sumerian of course, but also Akkadian (it had been offered with Sumerian because the two languages had eventually rather much phased into some amalgamation of the two), Aramaic (which shares enough with old Hebrew that if given some time, he’s not terrible at puzzling it out, though the translation does tend to have syntax and grammar errors, and more than a few missing words), and then old English. He can write in Linear-B, though he has no idea how to audibly speak it. Kevin has a natural gift for languages, and considering they had been mandatory classes, it had seemed worth it to learn and to excel at them. He’d known he was going to be the Voice since he was very young, so he started learning them young. He’s fluent in them, and has long since passed the point where he thinks ‘English translation’ before he thinks ‘meaning’.

[manynarrators]

Nearly, Almost | Vanessa and the girl she was going to marry

Vanessa wasn’t engaged when she died, but she’s also pretty certain it wasn’t far off. 

Vanessa was pretty certain that either she would have eventually proposed (she even had a ring that she’d spent months saving every spare penny for. Between rent, and school, and the paltry radio intern salary, there was never much to spare). Though, it was just as likely that Zadie (her full name was Zsofica, though aside from legal paperwork, she rarely used it).

 Vanessa had been together with Zadie since their fist year in college. Vanessa was there for communications and radio, Zadie had started a semester early for psychology and criminology. They had a few of the basic first year courses together, and their best friends were roommates, and they clicked. 

They two of them had been living together for a year and a half, and while Vanessa doubted there was any doubt about what would happen (the apartment was small,a nd even something as small as a ring box was eventually discovered. Vanessa had certainly seen the one Zadie bought her, and she has no doubt that the one that Vanessa had bought had also been discovered). 

 It was just a matter of having enough courage to propose, but she never got the chance. Neither of them did.

 Strex took the station, and she was nothing but a disposable intern that got in their way (she wasn’t important, she was a nothing. The only one they couldn’t actually kill was Kevin. And Vanessa was, for all she loved radio, not the Voice of a city). She died, and never found out what happened to Zadie. 

Vanessa can assume she didn’t get a severance package because she never heard about it, or saw it on any reports that ended up on Lauren’s desk (and that Lauren didn’t realize Vanessa knew about, and read). But that was about all she knew. 

Maybe she had fled the city, or finished her degree, died in the takeover... the options were endless, and Vanessa was station-bound. The reports never came, and Vanessa likes to hope that Zadie got out, and finished her degree, and got to be happy (even if it breaks her heart that it didn’t get to be with her).

[manynarrators]

♩ Vanessa

Hail to the King - Avenged Sevenfold

Watch your tongue or have it cut from your head Save your life by keeping whispers unsaid Children roam the streets, now orphans of war Bodies hanging in the streets to adore

Royal flames will carve a path in chaos Bringing daylight to the night (night) Death is riding into town with armor They've come to take all your rights

Vanessa hates that she didn’t see StrexCorp for what it was before, and after, there’s nothing she could do, even if she wanted to. If Kevin had still had his third eye, she knows that he would be horrified by it all. The reports come in, and she overhears Lauren talking to others about how to phrase it for Kevin. And it’s always tales of monstrous acts against the citizens of Desert Bluffs. 

The woman that had babysat her when she was young received a severance package, the first boy she ever had a crush on overdosed from the ‘medication’, and her first girlfriend lost her mind to the Smiling God. She can’t change anything, and even if she did tell Kevin the truth, if he believed her and said it, it would only end badly for him, so she keeps it all unsaid.

There is a timeline, she thinks, where they defeat StrexCorp, or a world in which they never come at all. But this was not that timeline, and instead the streets are filled with blood, and the people she cared about were living in a world that had been denied the swings of night and day, tossed into an eternal day, lit by the cold warmth of the Smiling God.

Vanessa can’t leave the radio station, but she can still see out the windows and hear what’s happening. Lauren usually ignores her, and she knows that one day, Strex will be defeated, and when that day comes, she will make certain that their crimes are not forgotten or forgiven (it’s the only thing she can do).

[manynarrators]

Vanessa, bed, wed, behead: Dana, John Peters, Abigail Palmer-Carlsburg

Bed: “Abigail. I would never marry into that family, err, Kevin’s-Cecil’s family! She looks just like Maddy, and well... she’s already married, and i’m sure she’s very nice, but well, I- yeah, bed Abigail.”

Wed: “Mayor Cardinal. She’s smart, and was a radio intern, and it would be nice to marry someone who understood, y’know? Dan and I-- her double, were interns at DBCR at the same time, and he had a good head on his shoulders, bright ideas about what sort of place Desert Bluffs should be, could be.”

Behead: “John Peters, you know, the farmer? It’s not that he isn’t... nice, but I’m not interested.”

[manynarrators]

AESTHETIC     HEADCANON     MUSIC     CHARACTER

• QUICK STATS •

NAME :: Vanessa NICKNAME :: Nessa FANDOM :: Welcome to Night Vale GENDER :: female ORIENTATION :: bisexual, polyamorous BIRTHDAY :: August 8th, 1989 ZODIAC :: Leo SHIPS :: /Carlos, /Dana Cardinal, chemistry

• BIOGRAPHY •

Vanessa remembers her childhood in the way most people do. She recalls hot days and burning hands from schoolyard metal playgrounds, and even hotter summer ones and the way she would frantically slurp at her ice cream to stop it melting. She had friends, and partners, and a decent, but not close relationship with her parents. 

She remembers very clearly the day she decided she wanted to go into radio, something had happened (but it was Desert Bluffs, and strange things began to blend together to a certain extent), and she remembers listening to the radio because she couldn’t go outside, and just falling backwards into the words until it felt like they were a part of her.

After that, she dedicated her time towards learning about it, and taking curses so she could be even better. She got the internship at DBCR, and she’s pretty certain it was the happiest day of her life. It wasn’t glamorous by nay means, mostly she made coffee for others, and collected field information to be reported, but it felt like it mattered. It was exiting, and different, and what she wanted to do. University days were long, and the assignments seemed to drag, but none of that seemed to matter.

Life was... good, happy, ideal. On days when she was lucky, or Kevin couldn’t show up, she got to do the broadcasts, and that alone made the hazards of interning at public radio all worth it.

And then StrexCorp Synernists Incorporated came to town, and at first, Vanessa didn’t put much thought into it. Sure her next door neighbours seemed more productive, and happier, but she thought nothing of it. It wasn’t too out of the ordinary after all.

But more and more places were being bought out, and the strange happiness seemed to spread until the day that they decided to take the radio station. She isn’t sure what finally caused it, but she knew she’d come in to work that day, and didn’t leave. StrexCorp had come, and killed the intern who had gone outside to stop them. Her next recollections are fuzzy at best. 

She knew she had died, and that Kevin had been taken, and then everything had faded. The next time she woke up, she had tried to leave the station and couldn’t and she couldn’t pick up a her coffee cup and then Lauren walked through her, and that was when it really hit her. She was a ghost. She was dead. Everything she’d fought for... gone.

After a month, she’d figure doubt how to make herself visible, and more or less corporeal. Now she’s still the intern and she gives new ones advice on how to survive, and she makes sure that Lauren never gets too close to Kevin when it seems like he’s breaking the conditioning. She still can’t leave the station and she knows that Strex hates her because they can’t control her, or get rid of her, so she protects what she can and tries to remember that desert Bluffs had been good before. It had not always been this.

• PHYSICAL •

FACE CLAIM :: Tashi Rodrigues HEIGHT :: 5’5” BUILD :: medium, thin VISUAL AGE :: 21 (She’s a ghost, and will never visually age again) ACTUAL AGE :: around 23 HAIR :: dark brown/black EYES :: dark SPECIES :: ghost, human (formerly) HAND :: right GLASSES :: no IDENTIFYING :: Vanessa doesn’t look like the other citizens of Desert Bluffs do- at least, not like they do anymore with their horrific “smiles” and darkened eyes. She died when Strexcorp took the station, so she still looks as she did. The same normal eyes, and soft smile she wore more often than not.

• MENTAL •

FAITH :: agnostic MARITAL STATUS :: single OCCUPATION :: intern at the Desert Bluffs Community Radio EDUCATION :: Desert Bluffs Public high school, and three years at Desert Bluffs community college for communication, with a minor in journalism. QUIRKS :: Vanessa tends to be selectively corporeal, so things like her hands will be, but not the rest of her, and this often ends with her forgetting that she isn’t entirely one way or the other. On more than one occasion she’s gone to phase through a door, or a window, or a wall and gotten caught by the part of her that is physical.