Have you ever noticed that there are people who do things which are most indelicate, and yet at the same time - beautiful?
audrey devine
In her heart there's a hole, there's a black mark on her soul. In her hands is my heart and she won't let go till it's scarred. She got blood cold as ice, and her heart made of stone. She got two little horns and they get me a little bit.
QUICK FACTSAPPEARANCEPERSONALITYHISTORYSOCIALET CETERA
QUICK FACTS.
NAME: Audrey Olivia Devine AGE: 27 DOB: 14 December HOMETOWN: Sydney, AUS
HEIGHT: 5'5" WEIGHT: 120lbs HAIR: Dark brown EYES: Dark brown BLOOD TYPE: O-
MARITAL STATUS: Single SEXUALITY: Heterosexual, aromantic OCCUPATION: Contract killer FAMILY: Father: Unknown, Mother: Jenny Devine, deceased. Benefactor: William Bennett, deceased.
ARCHETYPE: Predator AFFINITY: Reflexes. The phrase 'catlike reflexes' is more than just a phrase when it comes to Audrey, and she's never missed a catch when asked to 'think fast.' She can react instantly to changes in her surroundings, whether it's something as simple as catching something that's been thrown at her or as complex as dodging or maneuvering around detriments or attacks. She's able to react noticeably earlier than others, almost always lands on her feet if falling or thrown, and is particularly slippery in a fight.
APPEARANCE.
Audrey is deceptively delicate-looking; she’s 5’5” and 120 lbs on a slender frame. If one were to look closer, however, they’d note that she’s all muscle under those curves, the sort of muscle tone that comes from hard work, and an unconscious grace and economy of movement that speaks of gymnastics and formal martial arts training, supplemented with weight training and running for endurance and stamina. She doesn’t necessarily look like she could go toe to toe with a 6’2” professional bodyguard or haul around over a hundred pounds of dead weight, but she can, and those who challenge her may find themselves in for a surprise.
She’s usually got a nice light to medium tan, the product of genetics and time spent outside. She has long, thick chocolate-brown hair that’s usually left in big, tousled waves when she’s not in ‘business mode’, at which point it’s usually pulled back securely. She has wide, almond-shaped brown eyes with long lashes that can look remarkably innocent when she tries; those eyes paired with a good pout combine into a devastatingly effective puppy-dog face. Typical attire depends mostly on what she’s doing; she’s comfortable in everything from jeans and plaid to formal dresses to business attire. She wears whatever is appropriate for the job she’s doing. When she’s not doing a job, she prefers anything that she can move in easily.
PERSONALITY.
Audrey is not necessarily a bad person - she’s not mean for the sake of being mean, she doesn’t go out of her way to hurt someone without reason, she does her best in her line of work to avoid unnecessary casualties. She’s actually rather quiet when on her own - she has no problem entertaining herself, has a wide range of interests and hobbies to keep her busy, and wouldn’t mind in the slightest if she went a month or two without seeing or speaking to another human being. But the personality she projects out to others is fluid, changing and adapting to whatever fits the situation most appropriately. She can be funny and engaging, intense, sympathetic, whatever is necessary. She’s not perfect - there are times when the act slips and some of her innate, natural coldness will slip through, but it’s not often. She has a natural bent for sarcasm and dry humor, occasionally leaving others wondering whether or not she was actually joking.
She has an intense temper - though her thick skin means it’s slow to rouse (without knowledge of her triggers), it is icy and lasts forever, and she can hold a grudge through to Doomsday if she wants to. Audrey may eventually forgive, but she never forgets - and she can be downright vengeful when provoked. She’s sharp-eyed and observant; even when she’s in the middle of laughing or joking with friends, you can bet she’s not missing much. And as a keen student of body language, it’s hard to lie to her. She’s also highly competitive and a total adrenaline junkie; she’ll take pretty much any dare or challenge or bet, and once challenged finds it next to impossible to back down. If it’s something dangerous, all the better. Additionally, Audrey is borderline hypervigilant; she is always aware of who is in the room, she does not like to sit with her back to the open, is constantly scanning for threats, and sleeps very lightly, usually less than five or six hours a night.
Despite how friendly (or not) she might seem, however, Audrey’s got an internal switch that flips when she’s got a job to do. When she’s working, Audrey is completely focused on completing her goal, whatever that may be, and she’ll do anything to make it happen - even if it involves slaughtering a school bus full of five year olds on their way to a day at the fair. She’d make that her last resort, but if it was that or failure, she’d do it. She has no hesitation, feels no remorse, and wouldn’t think twice about doing whatever she needed to do to remove any obstacle to her end goal. When she does what she does, it’s never personal, just business, and so she doesn’t feel guilty about it. She’s a consummate professional - while she might view the people involved as disposable objects instead of real people, she’s never needlessly hurtful or overly emotional. Get in, do the job, get out.
Audrey’s primary motivation is taking care of herself - she lucked out and escaped a shitty life of poverty once, and she’s not about to let herself fall back into that life. Or get caught and go to jail, which is also highly likely. She can always be counted on to take the option that benefits her over a more selfless choice. She doesn’t like to share, doesn’t like people in her private spaces, and especially doesn’t like people touching her things or moving them around. Her personal spaces are always highly organized and very specific to her, and she’ll instantly know if someone has messed with something. People are largely a means to an end, but she can feel genuine (if muted) affection for individuals that prove to be particularly useful (which is a broad definition and basically boils down to being able to provide Audrey with something she needs or wants, be it general companionship or something more specific.) She does, however, struggle to empathize or connect with them emotionally.
strengths. Resourceful: Audrey spent half her life having to figure out how to make do, and that often required improvising and making the best out of what she had. It’s a skill that’s served her well over the years - though she might not have the exact tool she needs to get a job done, she’s usually got something on hand (or can find something) that’ll work in a pinch.
Survivor: Growing up poor as dirt and parentless by age eleven, Audrey could’ve easily given up at any point over the years. But she didn’t; she kept fighting until she was in a better place and even there, she worked hard to acquire the skill set she currently has. She’s not the type to roll over and give up or let others kick her when she’s down. She’s a fighter and she’s going to stay that way.
Unshakable: The one benefit to Audrey’s diminished emotional capacity? She’s hard to scare. She’s hard to shock. She’s hard to hurt or intimidate. She’s a rock in a crisis and a good member to have on the team - assuming you can convince her it’s in her best interests to work with a team, that is.
weaknesses. Lack of empathy: Audrey has a distinct lack of empathy towards anyone she doesn’t consider important, which right now is just about everyone. She can fake it but doesn’t often have the patience to do it for long periods of time. It’s hard for her to understand how others are feeling; in her mind, if she’s managed to deal with everything life has dealt her, surely you can get over breaking up with your boyfriend.
Competitive: Audrey likes to win, she likes to be the best, and she likes everyone to know it. Give her a goal, tell her it’s a contest, and watch her work her ass off to come out on top. It’s a survival-based instinct that’s served her well so far in life, and it gradually came to affect all her dealings. Tell her she can’t do something and she’ll do it just to prove you wrong. That means she almost never turns down a bet, dare, or other challenge, even if the stakes aren’t very high and is why ExB was so appealing to her.
Adrenaline junkie: Simply put, Audrey lives for a good adrenaline rush, whether it be the thrill of a job, swimming in shark-infested waters, or going base jumping off a skyscraper. If it’ll get her heart going and her pulse racing, she’s interested in doing it, and she doesn’t give much thought to any potential danger before, either.
Amoral: Audrey, as clearly evidenced, lacks any sort of normal moral compass. She does what’s right for her or for someone she wants to take care of regardless of societal norms. She has difficulty recognizing the normal “right thing” to do in a given situation and has a clear disregard for the moral beliefs of others.
Shallow emotions: Though she can and does have feelings for others, Audrey doesn’t feel emotions as deeply as a normal person would. It means that without extra motivation on her end, personal relationships can suffer or be neglected, and a diminished fear response (in most cases) means that thoughts of pain and punishment serve as weak restraint at best - though she’s almost never unaware of potential consequences of her actions.
Personal space: Audrey keeps her living and working spaces very clean and very organized, and she doesn’t like anyone messing with her stuff. Everything has its place and if someone touches things or rearranges them, it will irritate the living shit out of her. If you want her to snap at you about the importance of respecting personal space, move her hairbrush 2 inches from its place. She will instantly know if something’s out of place by even the tiniest amount and she will not tolerate the intrusion.
Hypervigilance: Audrey has exaggerated threat-detection behaviors that, while not necessarily unwarranted, can also lead to exhaustion and anxiety if triggered too severely. She is constantly scanning for threats, can be reactive to excessive stimuli, and has difficulties falling and staying asleep.
Migraines: Audrey’s been to specialists, but no one’s been able to determine the cause of her migraines. There’s no discernible trigger that she’s been able to identify, but once every few months (or more) she’ll be laid up anywhere from a couple hours to a couple days with intense migraines - auras, photo- and phonophobia, nausea, the works. Nothing helps except to pop some heavy-duty painkillers and hope for the best.
HISTORY.
Audrey was born in Sydney, Australia to single mother Jenny Devine; her father was an American tourist who didn’t stick around long enough ever know he’d knocked up a stripper. Her real last name was Miller, but Devine was her mother’s stage name and Audrey adopted it as her own name and made it legal later in life. Jenny was a stripper at a third-rate club in the Sydney slums; she didn’t make that much to begin with but having a kid pretty much ruined what few assets hadn’t already been wrecked and prematurely aged from drugs and alcohol. Audrey grew up in a shitty one-bedroom apartment that Jenny shared with another stripper, Starla, until the night Starla overdosed on heroin and died on the floor in the living room just a few feet from where a young Audrey was asleep on the couch.
That was probably the first indication that something wasn’t normal with Audrey; though she was the first to find the body, she didn’t scream or cry - she poked it once or twice until she got bored and went to get her mother to handle it.
Money was tight, especially without Starla’s meager (but necessary) contribution to the rent. Jenny took on what shifts she could get at the club and started hooking on the side; Audrey swiftly got used to her mother bringing a succession of strange men home for an hour or two (or sometimes the whole night, after which they went grocery shopping to celebrate being able to properly stock the kitchen for once.) Audrey spent a lot of time either at the strip club (as a youngster) or else otherwise unsupervised once she proved capable of getting herself ready for school or preparing basic meals for herself. Unsurprisingly, she fell in with a rather unsavory crowd early on - street urchins and fellow poverty children like herself - and there learned (sometimes the hard way) how to steal and pickpocket without being caught.
She managed to keep herself in school and help her mother with the roof over their heads until she was eleven; her mother caught a particularly nasty bout of pneumonia and died a week later. Knowing the only place a kid in her circumstances went was foster care - and knowing as well that she wouldn't do well in any kind of state supervision - Audrey didn't notify anyone of her mother's death and disappeared on the streets. It wasn’t the best-planned decision, as she had nowhere to go, but in her mind, anything was better than a group home. The same street kids that she’d been running with in her spare time were the ones to take her in and make a more permanent place in their group for her. Her ability to get in, get something valuable off a mark, and get out fast and without getting caught helped her earn her place amongst them.
She survived by picking pockets and snatching purses until she tried to steal from the wrong mark, who caught her before she could get away. They fought, and Audrey would’ve been overpowered and seriously hurt (if not killed) had she not somehow managed to fight free, get his knife, and stab the shit out of him until he stopped moving. Unbeknownst to her at first, the fight was witnessed by William Bennett, international businessman-slash-crime lord on his way back from a clandestine meeting with one of his drug suppliers. He might have continued on his way, marginally impressed by her actions, had she not further intrigued him by systematically stripping the corpse of anything of value. William might have expected that of an adult in the same situation, someone older and more experienced, but Audrey’s age and apparent natural ruthlessness when it came to her own survival intrigued him. He offered to take her in, provide her education and care and a job when she reached her majority. Audrey wasn’t an idiot - he was rich and she was tired of living in the gutter. She took the offer.
True to his word, William took care of her - she had the best available health care, private tutors, and a room that was bigger than her mother’s apartment. She even got to travel - William occasionally took her along on his business trips to New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong... while he spent the day working, she trained. Hard. Not only intellectually (though she was put through a rigorous private study program) but physically - she was trained in gymnastics (mostly tumbling and balance-related things), krav maga and aikido, and weapons training (knives and a variety of firearms.)
Over the next few years, Audrey grew to genuinely care for the man (inasmuch as was possible for her), giving him both dedication and loyalty, and he took her on as his executive assistant when she turned eighteen. But it wasn’t a normal assistant position, not quite. Audrey did plenty of filing, organizing, scheduling, and generally otherwise keeping William’s day moving smoothly. What was more useful to William, however, was her value as a quiet spy - she could slip in to competitors’ offices and steal proprietary information, or lift IDs or other items from men who visited the office without them noticing. She was also the least obtrusive addition to his security team, frequently overlooked as no threat.
It wasn’t a bad life at all, but Audrey soon grew bored. Life on the streets might have been hard, but it had been a rush at the same time, and she missed that adrenaline spike. William saw that, and knew he’d lose her if he didn’t find a way to up the excitement factor for her. Remembering how easily she’d killed the man the night he’d decided to take her in, decided to test her - one night, he sent her to a business associate who’d been dealing on the side. She was, to the man’s knowledge, sent to collect some paperwork from a recently closed deal. What he didn’t know, however, was that she’d come armed with a special little powder capsule that she slipped neatly and unobtrusively into his scotch. He didn’t survive the night.
Once William saw that Audrey did indeed have a talent for the unsavory, he stepped up her training in security and marksmanship, and added instruction in more advanced lockpicking and stealth/subterfuge. Her role, though still officially his executive assistant, became unofficially whatever he needed. Audrey lied, stole, coerced, and killed wherever, whatever, and whoever necessary - all on William’s command. It was a series of unique challenges that kept Audrey engaged and feeling useful - but more, it was security for her. She had all the tools she needed to be able to take care of herself under any circumstances.
Until the night everything went to hell. William was diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer; the illness had progressed voraciously enough that there was barely enough time for him to ensure his affairs were in order before he passed. The business went to his partners, but he made sure to set Audrey up with an extremely generous trust. It was fine with her; she knew she wouldn’t have been happy locked in a board room all day the way he would have been. Instead, she set out on her own, setting up a secure living space before using the contacts and knowledge she’d accumulated while working for William to begin hiring herself out as a professional assassin - or as she liked to call it, a human resources and conflict resolution consultant. She quickly built up a reputation for being a reliable and extremely professional hire.
She was taken from her apartment a little after 9 pm; the last thing she remembers was getting up to get a fresh glass of wine while perusing job listings for her next assignment. She heard a single footstep, then nothing.
FRIENDS.
ENEMIES.
ALLIES.
ET CETERA.
skills & abilities.
Audrey is skilled at a number of criminal pursuits, including lockpicking and pickpocketing. She is a skilled marksman with both pistols and rifles, a highly skilled gymnast (primarily tumbling and beam skills), and trains in the martial arts disciplines of krav maga and aikido. She also has basic survival skills and first aid, and speaks Italian, French, and Greek.
greatest fear.
Paralysis. Audrey’s terrified of the thought of being unable to move or care for herself; she prides herself on her independence and ability to survive through whatever means necessary. Were she to be paralyzed, she wouldn’t be able to do any of that (or more importantly, her job as a killer for hire.) She’d be helpless and it’d be terrifying.