Addaline Laplace

A native of Baltimore, Addaline was born into the Laplace family on All-Hallows Eve, 31^st October 2005, during the Witching Hour (3-4am), an omen her estranged Grandmother liked to tout. Her parents are Gareth and Fiona Laplace, her father is an owner and manager of a local Home Depot franchise, while her mother is an aspiring paralegal working as a Public Defender. Addaline was the second born in the family, her older brother, Edward, is 7 years older and by 2024 has already moved to Pittsburgh to pursue his own career. Addaline was 10 years old when her mother gave birth to her twin siblings, Christophe and Joan.

Growing up in the Laplace household, young Addaline was occasionally visited by her maternal Grandmother Jacqueline, who had been on rocky terms with the family due to her claims of being a witch and that their family had a tradition, which Addaline was in line to inherit. In the times that the two got to spend together, her grandmother told her that she had inherited something called ‘Numina’, or the ability to use Hedge Magic, making young Addaline a Hedge Witch. The young girl took to her grandmother’s training with mixed success, she showed potential, but her mother kept interfering, citing hocus pocus and restricting their visits. When Addaline asked where their family’s power came from, she was informed that Jacqueline was responsible for keeping the family’s genealogy, a subject her mother was far more accepting of.

According to her grandmother’s records their family had French ancestry, their family name coming from Pierre-Simon Laplace, a famous French scholar whose work was important to the development of engineering, mathematics, statistics, physics, astronomy, and philosophy. A fact of pride for Addaline’s mother who liked to flaunt that their ancestor was the Marquis de Laplace, who taught philosophy to Napoleon Bonaparte. But the family’s records indicated a connection to another French family of noble lineage, Pierre-Simon Laplace’s son, Charles Emile de Laplace, married the daughter of Marquis de Devereaux, Maria. Old French records showed that the Devereaux family held sway in Saint Domingue, and Maria was sent back to France as a young child when the Haitian Revolution began. According to the accounts of trusted servants at the time, Maria had an older brother Claude and an older half-brother Julian, who was rumored to be an illegitimate child the Marquis had with a slave woman.

However, when in secret, her grandmother would tell her that Pierre-Simon Laplace was more than the world thought him to be, that he was a sorcerer, that his mathematics unlocked the secrets to the universe, Laplace’s Equations and the philosophy of Laplace’s Demon. Unfortunately, tragedy befell the family when shortly after Addaline’s sixteenth birthday her grandmother and mentor passed away from Wilson’s Disease. Her family were surprised to find that when the will was read Addaline only inherited a single old steamer trunk, the rest of her grandmother’s assets were sold off to cover Jacqueline’s dying medical expenses. In her grief, Addaline adopted a new style for herself, one she’d already liked from pop culture and Halloween, the Goth style, her hair was already black, but she added bright teal highlights and experimented with makeup. This annoyed her mother and entertained her father and younger siblings, who she adored and help raise as their parents were often very busy.

When her grandmother’s old steamer trunk was delivered, Addaline told her family that she’d open it privately to honor Jacqueline’s wishes, secretly she let the twins watch. What she found was her grandmother’s most cherished possessions, the most surprising amongst them were Pierre-Simon Laplace’s original handwritten manuscripts that were eventually published into his five-volume body of work, Mécanique Céleste. But, as these were the original manuscripts, they also held Laplace’s personal notes, which were mathematically coded in French. Having already been raised to speak and read French and excelling at math in school, Addaline spent the next year deciphering Laplace’s code, once done she learnt that Laplace had noted down all future holders of his manuscripts, the last two entries being Jacqueline and Addaline. The manuscripts were already bound into tomes and these now serve as Addaline’s Grimoire as she journeys to learn the secrets of the universe.

Unbeknownst to Addaline, in the first half of 2023, a strange man had come to Baltimore. This man was Christian Rex, or at least that was the name he used as a film director back in the ‘70s. He had always had a nihilistic personality, something he expressed through his films and is what drew the attention of the Kindred that embraced him. Unfortunately for Rex, his sire abandoned him as Caitiff, this only fueled Rex’s nihilism and ultimately caused his film career to spiral into oblivion. But this did not abate Rex’s ego, considering his own paltry body of work akin to classical high art. Over the years he drifted from city to city, constantly casted out by Kindred society, further fueling his nihilism. When he arrived in Baltimore, he was chased out of the docks by a commie mobster, so he tried to seek shelter at the Homewood Elysium, where he meet the Keeper Angelique Cloutier. Rex introduced himself in his usual ego-centric fashion, touting his film career, but sadly the lady recognized him two-fold, both as a Caitiff and she had heard that his films were universally panned by critics and audiences alike. Lady Cloutier chose to cast the bothersome Caitiff out of her Elysium, but what stung Rex to his core was when Angelique called his film work garbage and that there was no place for his kind of ‘Trash’ here. What Rex failed to realize was that she wasn’t calling him trash but using the Kindred nickname for Caitiff. But to have his films called garbage and him trash… Rex flew off the handle with a tirade of insults, getting him forcibly ejected from Homewood, he left vowing vengeance.

A few months later Addaline was celebrating her high school graduation, partying with her friends and hanging out at her usually gaming venue, Natural 20 Gaming Café. Having scored exemplary marks in mathematics, her parents got her a graduation present, the latest model MG ZS EV electric car, and her father made sure to get it in metallic Teal to match her highlights. Unaware to Addaline though was that Rex had witnessed her jovial celebrations. For a week he watched her, seeing her bright and cheerful personality, her happy home and loving parents, and he devised a new film, the dying of her light, a film that would prove to all that nihilism is the only true philosophy. One evening, after leaving a post-graduation party, Addaline was jumped in a fast-food parking lot, when she awoke, she found herself bound to a pipe in a dirty old garage.

Her head throbbed and there was a strange pounding sound in her ears, her mouth was dry, and her body felt dulled, yet her senses were incredibly sharp. Although there was very little light, she was strangely able see exceedingly well, colors were oddly vibrant, and she could sniff a hint of cheap cologne from somewhere. But her immediate concern, other than having been kidnapped, was the near-unbearable hunger pangs she was feeling. Looking around she saw a few cameras had been set up at different angles to record her, this worried Addaline somewhat. Knowing her parents are well-off, she figured the kidnapper may be after a ransom, but with this array of cameras… she had other concerns. Plus, what had this person already done to her, drugged her maybe… her clothes where dirty but otherwise fine. She saw that the garage windows had been blacked out and that someone was sleeping in the parked sedan, likely her assailant.

When Rex rose that evening, he found his newly embrace childe still bound where he’d left her, but she was already awake and looking at him as he climbed from his car. Approaching her, she asked who he was and what he wanted, he answered with his usual cinematic flair, that he was Rex! Her Sire, the one who dragged her from the light and made her into a creature of darkness, forever shunned and destined to feast upon the blood of humanity! Addaline nearly burst out laughing at his flamboyant over-acting, only managing to stifle it to a snicker. Rex wasn’t amused when she considered him funny, even having been kidnapped and embraced hadn’t dulled her cheerful personality. For a week Rex instructed Addaline in the rudimentary basics of surviving as a vampire, something the young woman found intriguing, yet she was still his prisoner. She was disgusted at having to feed on humans, but ultimately accepted that she had to, and to Rex’s lament, she refused to kill and only fed to survive, never taking more than needed. When she asked what the pounding sound in her ears was, he told her that is was her Beast, her darker instincts that needs to be fed and will only accept the blood of humans. She did find that the pounding sound subsided after feeding.

During that week, Addaline tried a number of times to escape her captor, but she found that her sire was far quicker and stronger than her, beating her as punishment. But, on one escape attempt she tried her Hedge Magic and to her surprise it had changed, almost like becoming a vampire had altered her magic. Before, her abilities were like parlor tricks, now she found focus and clarity, both of though and action, gone was her ‘Numina’, replaced by something else, something her mathematical mind better comprehended. When Rex noticed her strange behavior he pressed her for answers, she only said that her grandmother was Wiccan. This excited Rex, spouting her as a Witch, a harlot of darkness, and that embracing her was destiny. Yet, regardless of what Rex tried to do to Addaline, strangely enough she wouldn’t break, she accepted her change and it even made her happier. To Rex this was all wrong, she was supposed to feel sorrow, grief, mourn her sunlit days, wallow in loathing for the tragic thing she’s become. If he couldn’t break her under the pretext of what she had become, then he’d mold her into a monster of the night with what he would make her do.

Maintaining a tight control over the girl, the following week Rex took her out to other locations to ‘train her’. He tried to get her to hunt people… she refused. When he commanded her to terrorize a woman in the park… she spoke with the woman and made a friend. Each time Addaline twisted his orders into an act of kindness or nicety, he failed to notice that he’d been pulling clumps of his own hair out. His only marginal success was when he ordered her to kill a homeless man, informing the girl that he was dying anyway. Tenderly she examined the old hobo before draining him dry, finally Rex thought he’d made progress, but when Addaline stood, she spoke of mercy and a peaceful rest from pain. Rex fumed, his eyes bloodshot, he began to take out his frustrations on a dumpster, until he felt her hand on his shoulder and her voice in his ear, telling him that it was alright, that he could let go of his anger, his ego… Oddly enough, her touch and words annoyingly calmed him down, but he could never let go of his ego, it was all he had left, and his ego had just the task for his ward.

Having prepared cans of gasoline and Molotov cocktails, Rex ordered his childe to firebomb and burn down the site of his recent humiliation, Homewood. Addaline was shocked, she had never thought of doing something like that, she pleaded with Rex to reconsider citing that it was a historic building and innocent people were inside. Her sire told her that those inside were Kindred like them, other creatures of evil and darkness, and that he demanded this of her. She was dumbfounded at his demand, saying that regardless of the natures of those inside they were still people, she fervently refused his order as she ran off. One thing she had learnt from her sire was his quickness as she was gone before he realized, despondent Rex returned to the garage that evening feeling utterly defeated. He sat outside on the cold concrete, contemplating his abject failure of an existence, not noticing the time passing as the night sky slowly brightened. In his nihilistic self-loathing Rex saw the sunrise one last time.

When Addaline ran, she had no direction in mind, she just ran, for some reason (possibly Stockholm Syndrome) she found herself back at the garage she’d been captive in. The following night she rose to find she felt oddly lighter, like a weight had been lifted. Upon stepping outside she found a pile of ash that held her sire’s charred watch, and she knew that both her and her sire were now free.

Having been freed from her captor, Addaline contemplated returning home, but she wondered how she’d explain her new condition. That night she stood on the hill overlooking her family home, struggling with what to do, then she heard a voice nearby. When she turned, she saw a middle-aged man, bald and wearing an odd white robe, he was pale under the night sky, but she could tell that he seemed to have a Mediterranean complexion. Addaline was understandably nervous, having already been kidnapped once, but the man bore a strange calmness to him, and when he spoke it was like he was speaking from a place of serenity. He introduced himself as Jerome, a fellow Kindred who happened to have observed her sire’s attempted “training”. For witnessing Addaline’s selfless and caring heart and her firm grasp of her humanity, Jerome offered to properly teach her. To teach her in the ways of the Children of Osiris.

For a month the two of them traveled the country, Jerome instructing her in the struggles that all Kindred share in maintaining their Humanity. Eventually, they arrived at a hidden location that not even Addaline could recall, a secretly built temple to Osiris, presided over by the regional Undying King. At the temple she was formerly inducted as an acolyte where she began more training, but unlike her sire’s training, this was peaceful, meditative and tranquil. There she made a few friends and learnt the ways of Osiris, though she did not enjoy having to shave her head every night. And there she stayed for nearly a year until she was visited by Jerome and the Undying King. She was told that she was a dutiful acolyte and a truly kind soul, so she would be given a choice, she could stay at the temple and abandon her old life to further her understanding of their faith’s philosophy and rise in station. Or she could leave with the King’s blessing, serving the temple as a hidden agent and possibly seeing her family again, but she could be hunted by the temple’s enemies as the Serpents had slithered everywhere. That night Addaline chose to leave.

However, returning home to her family proved far more taxing as she had been missing for a year. Her family flipped out when she suddenly arrived back home, wearing a strange white robe. Addaline was bombarded with questions from her family as well as the police, she gave an edited account of the events in her statement to the cops, omitting anything supernatural, and stating that her captor had released her then set himself on fire. She further explained that due to the trauma of her kidnapping that she made her way to a “Spiritual Retreat” to heal, she would have called but they had a strict “No Contact” policy. Thankfully, her overly protective mother shoed the cops away and let her rest. The following few days Addaline moved her bedroom into her parent’s basement, bricking up the small windows to prevent her mother from “opening the curtains”. Her younger twin siblings were of course concerned for their big sister, but to reassure them she let them in on the secret of what she’d become, it became their own little game. The police had retrieved her car from where it was left, and her father had collected it from the impound yard, it had sat in their garage so long her parents were about to sell it. Her father was deeply concerned for his daughter, saying he’d scoured the city, he’d spoken to her friends and the folks at Natural 20 searching for her. And her mother was using her legal acumen to hound the police in their search. But, after a heartfelt conversation with her parents they felt reassured that their girl was fine, chalking up her new change of behavior to her traumatic experience.

Now Addaline wonders what her new future will entail, either way it will be exciting.