InsaneJournal

NAME: Lauren Spicer
NICKNAMES: n/a
AGE: 35
GENDER: Female
HAIR: Brunette
EYES: Blue-green
HEIGHT: 5'7"
BUILD: Slim

MARITAL STATUS: Taken by Nysa Anders
SEXUALITY: Bisexual
OCCUPATION: OIT director @ UofM
RESIDENCE: Camelot Place

RACE: Technokinetic - Master
BLOODTYPE: A+ demonic
BIRTHDAY: January 12th, 1974

LIKES: Technology, Nysa, being in charge, french toast
DISLIKES: Deadzones, power outages, Emilia, Dinah, tea

PARENTS: Veronica and Andrew Spicer
SIBLINGS: None

NAME: Linds
AGE: 24
AIM: aspenlinds
EMAIL: aspenlinds@gmail.com
TIME ZONE: CST (GMT -6)

Lauren has always said she's pretty much average when it comes to her looks -- but she just says it so that people tell her that no, she's pretty. She has long, wavy brunette hair and blue-green eyes. Her smile is wide and inviting and frequently given to make people feel more at ease around her. Everything about Lauren is specifically designed and presented to make her seem like the ultimately likable person. Like that aunt you have no problem telling things you'd never dream of telling your mother. She tends to dress more conservatively and rarely wears anything that shows off her physical assets; and if she does then there's a very good reason such as her going on a date or trying to distract someone from what else she's doing.


"She has a strong personality" - that is very, very accurate. Lauren has a very strong personality and she has a habit of enforcing it on others without even realizing it; and if she does realize it then she doesn't much care. She is a dominant sort of person and would rather be in charge than let someone else make the calls. She doesn't do well not being the boss and she has always done her best to rise as quickly as she can through the ranks, using whatever means she has to. This includes her technokinesis. She's been using it more for her own gain ever since she figured out how to, and no, she hasn't really told anyone about it. From her point-of-view it's a secret best kept that way, because if people knew then they might suspect that she's used it (which she has) to help secure her job and eliminate other people who could be better than she is. Lauren uses everything available to her if it means getting what she wants without considering whether it's right or wrong. Machiavelli became her hero when she read "The Prince" and she fully believes that 'might makes right'. However, despite this belief and attitude, she prefers to get her way via charm. She acts nice and polite to people who could have an affect on her, knowing that smiles get her further than glares. She just lets all of her pent up anger out at people she doesn't like or need. Mostly when no one else is around to see it. She was totally that bully at school who no one ever caught and the teachers didn't believe was causing trouble, because she never did it where anyone could see. And she still doesn't. All of her key personality traits can be directly tied to her being demonic-blooded and she loves it.

Special Skills/Abilities: Of course Lauren is aces when it comes to anything technological, but her specialty is computers and security systems. She also isn't a half-bad cook and can throw a wicked curveball thanks to playing on the faculty softball team pretty much every year.

Personal Weaknesses: (1) Bully. Lauren always has been and always will be a bully at heart. She uses people and when she can't use them, she puts them down as far as she can. And she does it in such a way that no one believes she's done it. She's that kind of bully.

(2) User of people. Everyone that Lauren is "friends" with thinks that she is their best friend, that she trusts them or tells them things she doesn't tell anyone else, and she does her best to make sure they always think that when really, she doesn't trust anyone. Not even her girlfriend. She uses them for what she needs them for and if they stop fulfilling that need then she kicks them to the curb using every drop of venom she has in her.

(3) Ability dependent. If you took away Lauren's technokinesis then she wouldn't know what to do with herself. Then she'd have to use her hands to work her computer or phone instead of just make it look like she is, and she wouldn't be able to mess with the university's system or check up on people's history so that she knows the best way to get to/use them... she'd be lost in the dark.

(4) Doesn't love anyone. Unless you're counting herself. Lauren has always loved Lauren and pretty much only Lauren. Oh, she'll say the words, but she doesn't mean them, because when it comes down to it she always puts herself first no matter how it looks and she wouldn't inconvenience herself for someone else no matter who they were unless it benefitted her in the long run. It makes for a rather lonely existence, which she might actually figure out one day.

Personal Strengths: (1) Use and abuse. That's what she does: she uses people and when they've done what she wants, she leaves them. She has no problem doing it and never feels any guilt over it.


Like most kids, Lauren doesn't remember her childhood. Unlike most kids, she never asked for stories about it so the things that happened when she was under the age of five and started school don't matter and she can't tell you about them. She does remember starting school, because that was the first time she was ever around other kids her own age. That was when she started figuring out how to use people. She made half a dozen best friends within her first week and whenever asked by one she would assure them that of course they were her best friend, whoever said something else was a dirty little liar. That was also the age where she started remembering that she had a habit of giving people little shocks: not like lightning or anything, but constant static shocks even if she hadn't been scooting her feet across a rug. She was also always drawn to electrical things: like the television or phone, and she would cry if they ever shorted out when she touched them. Which happened a lot because, despite having a feeling that she was the cause, Lauren was drawn to everything electronic. She didn't want to play with silly little Barbie dolls (unless they had a voicebox), she wanted every video game when they came out (she was the MASTER of Pong), she had a Telstar and an Atari 2600. Her parents were constantly amazed by how easily she took to these things, never even seeming to need to have them explained: if anything she was the one explaining it to them. And yes, electronics were more important than friends. Every now and then she'd do the usual girl thing and have a sleepover, but it wasn't to try and get them to like her more, it was to try and figure out what they knew about everyone else so that she knew it too.

Lauren always got along better with boys than girls, probably because girls that age who she knew weren't interested in technology like her, and the closest she had to actual friends were definitely the "geeks" in the ATV club (which she joined). It was around the age of eight when Lauren figured out that her natural inclination towards technology might be more than just an interest. Things had stopped shorting out as much when she touched them and she was able to make... things happen. That and no matter what was put in front of her she seemed to just know how to make it work. Even teachers started picking up on it and if they had a problem with their projector then they'd call her. Her technology collection at home only grew; it was all she ever asked for for presents and being an only child she did get a little spoiled. Her parents were worried that she was showing more interest in games and programming than other people, but if they ever tried to take anything away then she had an unholy fit and they ended up zapped with something a little stronger than static. It was better just to leave her alone when she closed the door to her room. Her mother was happier doing that anyhow; she'd never been that motherly in the first place and having a daughter who pretty much saw to herself and could work the microwave was aces in her books.

While she can't tell you much about school, Lauren got through just fine. It was in high school when she started realizing that if she wanted to look really good on her college application then she needed to actually do things outside of her technology-ridden bedroom. So she used the friends she'd made and a bit of blackmail for the people who didn't like her to earn secretary of the Student Body. What she really wanted was President, but she didn't manage to net that until senior year, and even if she didn't really want it she still did a pretty good job and maintains that her reign is the reason why they had their first computer lab. Computers were the future after all, and everyone needed to know how to use them or else they'd be left back in the Dark Ages with their parents and the Atari. Still, she was more than happy to leave high school behind and move onto college. College meant picking a specialty and Lauren was all over that. Computer Sciences was the major she chose and she flew through the coursework like no one could believe: her natural inclination towards electronics being what she credited. What she didn't tell the professors was that she just understood machines. That and she could manage to make them do things that no one else could. Add in how she'd been devouring books and manuals about the inner workings of computers, phones, televisions and video game consoles since she could read and you had a recipe for a girl who was more suited to her major than at least half of the people teaching her. Oh and she knew it, and she used it. She wound up getting her bachelor's degree in three years of study and, after being offered a scholarship if she agreed to stay and work with their OIT department upon graduation, she went on to get a master's and then a doctorate. Becoming a professor would have been way, way too much interaction with human beings, so she stayed with the OIT department and eventually made her way up to being one of the directors by the time she was thirty.

Now, Lauren's entire life didn't just revolve around technology: she had a social one too. Not much of one, too, but she went out enough to figure out that she felt the same way for girls as she did for boys and it didn't seem to make a difference in who she was attracted to. She dated off and on through her college years, but it was never anything serious. They were never interesting enough: as in they never presented her with a challenge she had to figure out. That was what was great about constantly advancing technology, there was always a challenge and a next level to achieve and overcome. Lauren needed that same challenge in her day-to-day life or else it was just too boring and she ended up leaving to find something else. Friendship was different, she had a reason for having those. However it was when she was thirty that it came to her attention (via her various 'friends') that people were talking about her, and it wasn't all the good sort of talking. Their subject matter was how Lauren didn't have a family; she didn't even have a steady boy or girlfriend! Thirty years old and a spinster, they were saying. Lauren hadn't ever thought it was a problem, but apparently it made some people hesitate, or suspect that she was seeing someone who was married. While she personally didn't give a damn, it could make her look bad and Lauren absolutely hated looking bad. People who looked bad didn't advance and she very much wanted to be the only one in charge of her department by the time she was forty. But when she looked around she saw that all the other heads were... well, they were married with children.

So Lauren started looking to find someone who met all her criteria for that. The unfortunate thing was that they still needed to give her a challenge. She couldn't just attach herself permanently to someone boring. And it was a lot harder than she thought it ought to be to find someone. Her moment came when, a few years after she'd started looking, she was doing an outside job. It wasn't that she didn't get enough work at the university so much as she just liked getting to deal with other situations, so she freelances occasionally for personal homes or small businesses. (That, and it gives her an insight into yet another household.) Most of them were pretty dull, but then she was called to a house where it seemed like everything electronic had just been... blown apart without any sort of explosive. It made her think of how she'd always shorted things out when she was a little girl, and her first thought was a child like her. But the man told her that no, it hadn't been a child, it'd been his wife. He then went on a rather long rant about how this happened frequently and was getting expensive. Again, Lauren thought the woman might have similar predilections to her own, so she came around once after she'd fixed everything to see her. They didn't even meet: she was storming out in a huff over something, but just being that close to her told Lauren that 1) they didn't have anything in common and 2) she set every last nerve she had humming on 'irritated'. It was during that check-up that the man, one Doran Anders, offered her a drink and went off on another rant about his wife. He asked Lauren if she was married and she said no, sadly, she was still looking - and he made a muttered comment about how if she liked women he knew the perfect one she could take off his hands. No, not his wife, his sister, Nysa. The woman his wife always ran to when she was upset, her best friend who needed something else to be busy with so that Emilia couldn't always be around. Lauren perked up, began asking questions and was delighted to learn that this Nysa actually worked at the University. She told Doran she'd stay in touch and began the process of "checking into" Nysa Anders, which included insisting that the library's computers needed a complete overhaul and of course she could do it herself.

Who proved to be exactly the challenge that Lauren needed outside of her machines. It was a big bonus that Nysa was actually attractive, too, and smart. So Lauren started to pursue her, and thought she was having moderate success. They went on some dates, she managed to flirt with her while she was working... everything seemed to be going along nicely until the first night that Emilia had a fight with Doran (or at least the first one that interfered with Lauren's plans). She had been all set to spend the night at Nysa's when she got a phonecall from Nysa telling her she couldn't; and then telling her the exact reason why she couldn't. Emilia was staying over. Emilia was staying over in her bed. Lauren actually hung the phone up on Nysa and spent a solid half hour staring at it in disbelief. She'd never experienced anything like that before and she wasn't sure she liked it. But it kept happening. Eventually, Lauren figured out the best way to deal with it was to just accept it and go with it. If Nysa was sleeping with Emilia behind her and Doran's backs -- which seriously? Lauren is 99% certain she is -- then so be it. Emilia is still married and she still makes Nysa miserable half the time, while Lauren doesn't. Oh, she gives Emilia no end of grief. Not only does she keep her and Nysa's relationship interesting, but pissing the other woman off is just... a thrill all it's own. (Lauren doesn't know she's demonic-blooded and that Emilia is angelic; she just knows that she gets a serious kick out of bothering her.) Coming over to make breakfast when Emilia stayed the night, showing up with flowers, checking into her medical history, doling out snarky little remarks and smirk smiles in response to Emilia's own waspish ones are just things that she does to pass the time. She's still pretty sure that it'll only be so long until Nysa agrees to let her move in and stops her little carrying-on's with her brother's wife. Both because it'd be the right thing to do and because it's what Lauren wants and Lauren is very, very used to getting what she wants. She wouldn't have invested so much time into her otherwise.

Since the Light of May: Oh. So, there's actually a name for what Lauren is and other people like her... she doesn't like that very much. Both that she's not unique and that others might begin to suspect that her 'natural abilities' are actually supernatural in origin. Lauren doesn't want anyone to know what she is or that what she can do is because she's a form of psychic: she just wants them to think she's talented. She especially doesn't want Nysa to figure it out because then she might get the idea in her head that Lauren reads her texts or emails (which she does). All that bother with demons and things at the high school is just that: bother. Lauren doesn't give a damn what else comes into the world so long as it doesn't mess around with her technology or her advancing relationship with Nysa. She's not too far off forty, she needs to get that family thing going now and she's invested too much time to start in with someone new. Besides, it'd look really good for the university if one of their department heads was a married lesbian with children.