Simone Dumas

From SuspireWiki

Description

Description: Simone Dumas is a tall (5 ft. 10 in.) attractive woman, with red har cut in a short bob, athough she often wears in slicked back in a masculine fashion indictative of the forties. Her eyes are a pale blue that, when coupled with her full-lipped smile, can be quite captivating. Her mannish style does not end with her hairstyle. She prefers dark men's suits and matching fedora hats, and can often be seen enjoying a fine cigar. Quite often she will accessorize with other manly apparel, like a pocket watch and fob or a walking stick. That being said, she also is ironically rarely ever seen in public without her makeup being flawless. When not around mortals, she sometimes wears her clothes in a way that reveals the numbered tattoo (A98288) on her forarm, by such habits as rolling up her shirt sleeves. Any kindred who has been in the city more than a couple of years is probably aware of it. Her voice is best described as smokey or sultry, and despite her tavels, her Parisian accent is still quite strong. (Blood Potency 2, Striking Looks 2, Presence 2, Humanity 6)

History

1917-1939: The Early Years and the Lost Generation
Simone Dumas, a French Jew and direct descendant of the famed French writer Alexandre Dumas, pere (her great-great-grandfather), was born in Paris in 1917. The youngest of three siblings, her life during these early years was very much as one would expect from an upper-middle class Jewish family in Paris - her name and lineage allowing for much.
Since a young age, young Simone had the ancestral passion for writing, and once in her teens, would often herself in submerged in the coffee-house scene of Paris in the 1930’s. While an “adequate” writer herself, she basked in the glow of such writers and artists as Ernest Hemmingway, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso – who all flocked to Paris as part of the ‘Lost Generation’.

1940 – 1945: The War Years
On June 14th, 1940, the Beast known as Adolph Hitler and his Third Reich invaded the streets of Paris and the coffee-house meetings where no more. Many of the writers of the ‘Lost Generation’ fled back to America or England, went into hiding, or struck deals with the Nazis in order to be allowed a peaceful existence. But for Simone, there was no such option. Paris was her home, she was no where near an influential enough personality to merit any special treatment, and she was a Jew. Survival meant staying hidden away from the prying eyes of the Nazis and their collaborators, but her passion for her city and the hope that freedom would triumph over tyranny, drove Simone to seek out the French Resistance. Over the months, she fought on as watched as the Nazis round up virtually all of her family at one point or another, and shipped them off – never to be seen again. And with each one, her desire for justice grew. It was with the freedom fighters that she found her calling, her purpose, her new family.
With the Resistance, it was her role to aid in many aspects of the struggle; spying, sabotage, smuggling goods and people; but where her true skill lay was with the inate way she could handle a pistol. Normally, the chivalrous French mindset would not allow a woman to take part in the killing of German soldiers, but Simone was not your ordinary French woman.
Raised firsthand on the feminist writings of Stein and the adventurous tales of Hemmingway, Simone took to heart the role and began adopting many male mannerisms. She began to wear fashionable men’s suits, smoke cigars and cut her hair, completing the sexually androgynous look. She even went as far as to take on female lovers, something she still prefers to this day - although with mortals, usually. She hypocritically finds the concept of 'necrophilia disturbing, as thus normally avoids taking other kindred lovers.
Her life with the French Resistance came to a crashing end in the summer of 1944. She was captured during a night raid and interrogated by the Gestapo for weeks on end, although she never revealed to them her involvement with or knowledge of the Resistance. In the end, it didn’t matter. Being both a Jew and a lesbian, the Germans tattooed her wrist and shipped her to her new home – Auschwitz.
Luckily for Simone, her time in the concentration camps was short - less than a year. The war was nearing an end, and while this seemed to add a renewed fervor to the German efforts at extermination, she learned that by hiding in plain sight, blending in with the other prisoners, she could avoid the scrutiny of her keepers.

1946 – 1956: On to the Promised Land:
After the war was over, many Parisians tried to go back to ‘business as usual’, as did Simone, but her life in the Resistance and then Auschwitz had changed her. Embittered and without her family, she wandered Paris for a year or two – truly a member of the new lost generation.
Simone immigrated to the newly-created state of Israel in the fall of 1948, settling in Jaffa. She used her former experience with the Resistance to work with the newly-formed Israeli Defense Force (IDF). She was involved mainly in clandestine operations and training, while various aspects of the early Jewish – Arab wars raged across the region. These clandestine operations included her role the now infamous attempt in 1954, by an Israeli spy ring to blowup the US Information agency and other foreign institutions in Egypt, in an attempt to blame the effort on Arab interests. Though it was the events of the fall of 1956 that rocked the region and changed Simone Dumas forever – The Sinai Campaign and the Invasion of the Suez Canal.

1956-1967: From Embrace to Exile
Simone was part of an advance scouting patrol moving into towards the Suez region, when her group was ambushed by a small Egyptian force at a place known as the Mitla Pass, 40 miles east of the port city of Suez. Badly wounded and dying, she staggered out into the desert while the battle raged on in the distance. Eventually, she found shelter in a desolate series of caves, their cool darkness offering respite from the desert sun. Simone knew just how grave her wounds were and mouthed a short prayer to God before falling unconscious.
Her prayers were answered, in a fashion. The cave was the resting tomb of an ancient Khaibit vampire called only the Mut-Iboni (The Ebon Mother) and her elder Gangrel watcher, Amun Asar. The Mut-Iboni had been in torpor for a several decades, but her rest was interrupted but the shelling in the distance and the scent of fresh blood in the cave. The rising Khaibit slaked her ancient thirst on the unconscious Simone and then in reasons entirely her own, embraced her. Although Simone has speculated in the many nights since as to why she was embraced, ranging from the Dark Mother wanted a guide in these new nights to some unforeseen regret, she also knows that one can never really understand the mind of such an ancient creature.
When Simone awoke from her first death, she was horrified by what had become of her. Yes, her prayers were answered, but at what cost. Her hunger for fresh blood was in direct violation against God’s condemnation of ‘unclean’ foods and a direct sign that she was truly Damned. But the Ebon Mother and Amun Asar offered comfort and solace. They explained that they were her new family now – in death.
Over the next decade, Simone stayed with Mut-Iboni and Amun Asar in mutual tutelage. She would tell them the fascinating tales of Paris and the world at large, and they instructed her on the ways of the Kindred – those who were damned like her, and of the ways of her ancient Kindred heritage that is hers to claim. The trio kept their travels limited to the Sinai Peninsula and never strayed far from the caverns. Mut-Iboni had explained to her that it was an ancient holy site for something called the Cult of Set. While never fully giving up her Jewish faith, she began to reconcile with her fate, and in time, began to even relish it. Though, once more war intervened in Simone’s life and robbed her once again of a mother.
During the Six-Day War in 1967, a series of Israeli rockets struck the caverns that were their haven, if the false belief that they were being used to hide Egyptian troops. Amun Asar and Simone were badly wounded in the attack and Mut-Iboni met her last death, but not before having Amun Asar swear that he would raise Simone as he would his own childe.

1968 – 1992: The Grand Tour
Once they were well enough to travel, Simone and Amun Asar (intrigued by the stories Simone entertained him with of the world beyond his range) set out on a grand tour. They traveled through many European cities, never staying in any one place for longer than a year or two at most. It was finally back in Paris that Amun Asar fell into a voluntary torpor, still grieving the loss of his mate.
During that time, Simone dutifully watched over her adopted Sire, much the same way he had watched over her own Sire years before. It also gave her time to become involved in the local scene and interact with kindred politics. She even joined what she saw as the modern-day Kindred equivalent of the Resistance – the Carthian Movement.
She also used the time alone in Paris to reacquire the wealth that her family had once known. They were fortunate. The Dumas estates were nearly untouched by the Nazi occupation, and she was able to reclaim much of what was lost. Fame did have its privileges. She also used the Grand Tour as a way to track down what other family possessions that had slipped away, expropriating them from their current owners.
One such incident involved and altercation with a German Nosferatu that ended up with Simone slaking her fury upon him. Knowing that she couldn’t stay in Paris without being connected to his death, she ensured the elder Gangrel’s torpored form was safe with her family's crypt and fled to the Americas. Simone first handed back control of the estates and wealth to other family members in return for a monthly stipend before they left, but not before reclaiming a good portion of the Library and art collections.
After brief stops (a year or two each) in New York, Chicago and Boston, she found herself in here in Atlanta in 1992. It was then decided that Simone would benefit from the stability that the city had to offer, at least for the time being. Seeing a Carthian haven in Atlanta, Simone decided to see if it was the type of place she could set roots down in.

Simone Today

• Known by other characters - Since her arrival in the early to mid-nineties, Simone has began to entrench herself in the Carthian Movement within the city. She has been a strong, albeit quiet voice against oppression, often out to aid the underdog, if for no other reason than no one else would. She has spent much of her time to date in Atlanta, far from the limelight, earning a dual major in Law and Business at Georgia State. Recently graduated, she is now ready to pursue further goals.
• Not known by other characters - Her business acumen, which could put most Invictus to shame, has allowed her to keep much of her wealth intact over the years, and she often supplements her Trust with income earned as a freelance investigator. To that end, she has also gained some amount of influence within certain Atlanta legal circles, as well. In addition, she has an adaquate pulse on other sectors which she most ofter uses to stay in the know.
• Known by other characters - She maintains her primary haven in Buckhead. It is a rather upscale manse, well-fitted for the neighborhood. While she rarely wouldprevent others from enjoying the area, she can be also rather protective of the area against over feeding and misuse. It is well rumoured, that since her arrival, little, if anything', occurs in Buckhead without Simone Dumas having knowledge of it.
• Not known by other characters - Recently Simone had felt a change in her blood, the thickening of her vitae that signaled an increase in the potency of her vitae - and along with it, the ability reach beyond the Mekhet blood and claim her Khaibit heritage. This has spurred an interest in the occult, in an effort to learn more of her heritage and the mythical Cult of Set.
• Known by other characters -Simone is and always has been, distrustful, if not overly hostile to Germans.
• Known by Gangrel characters - She seems rather friendly with the Gangrel of the city, and can almost always be counted on to assist one in need.
• Known by Carthian characters - She is a devout Carthian, but will be outspoken against an oppressive fascist Cathian power structure just as fast as an Invictus one.