XXXXXXXXXXXXMARYSE VAN DER LINDE
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXEntrepeneur
﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏Cʜᴀʀᴀᴄᴛᴇʀɪsᴛɪᴄs﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏✯
Aɢᴇ ◆ 301
Sᴘᴇᴄɪᴇs ◆ Werecat (Demigoddess)
Gᴇɴᴅᴇʀ ◆ Female
Wᴇɪɢʜᴛ ◆ 125 lbs
Hᴇɪɢʜᴛ ◆ 5'10"
Eʏᴇs ◆ Brown
Hᴀɪʀ ◆ Dark brown; style varies
Mᴀʀᴋɪɴɢs ◆ Oddly shaped fingernails which are actually claws; sharpened canines
﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏Sᴋɪʟʟs﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏✯
◆ Regenerative healing factor
◆ Superhuman senses/reflexes
◆ Retractable claws
◆ Superhuman strength
◆ Dressmaking
◆ Business management
﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏Pᴇʀsᴏɴᴀʟɪᴛʏ﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏✯
Maryse has always been a rather patient, reserved, and proper individual who would prefer to stay on the sidelines and offer moral support, rather than get in the thick of things; she deliberately avoids high-stress environments because she has never been able to properly adjust to them. She has never completely outgrown 18th Century mannerisms, even though she is more relaxed in the modern era than she once was due to changing times; she simply sees no reason to completely abandon more "elegant" attitudes when it comes to dealing with others, because she doesn't like to appear rude.
However, this attitude of staying on the sidelines has veered into apathy on occasion, and Maryse has become somewhat desensitized to the plights of underprivileged groups around the world; her view is that such things will work themselves out on their own given enough time, and that she needn't get involved or try to make a difference as a result of this. This can lead her to seeming cold or indifferent to more world-conscious people, though this is not intentional on her part-- It can be traced by to the series of events that led to her attempting suicide, and the phobia of stress that she has developed as a result of them.
In regards to how Maryse sees herself, she has always looked upon her powers not as a gift, but rather a curse that has done little but keep her from living the normal life as a housewife she had always wanted, starting from when she was sixteen; even her perpetual good health and lack of aging have forced her to shy away from society more often than not, and her healing factor makes her wish that her deceased husband had been "cursed" in the same manner so that he need not have died more than two centuries prior. She has never felt pride in her natural abilities and occasionally wishes that she were a normal human being, unaware that she is part of a separate species altogether, and nowadays prefers not to think about her powers at all if she can help it.
﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏Hɪsᴛᴏʀʏ﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏✯
In the year 1713, Maryse van der Linde was born in the Dutch Cape Colony of South Africa, to farmer Philippe Rousseau and his wife Lena. Though neither parent was actually aware of the circumstances of her birth, Maryse's actual father is the Egyptian deity Nefertem, whom used his godly powers to masquerade as Philippe and impregnate Lena simply because he could.
Maryse's childhood, growing up as the daughter of a farmer, was one of long hours and hard work in helping her father with his crops, and Maryse eventually grew to hate working out in the sun in order to sell crops to the Dutch East India Company (or the VOC for short). Her mother taught her how to sew clothing in the meantime, which Maryse much preferred, but during her teenage years, strange powers manifested on her person; one night when she was sixteen years old, a local boy attempted to have his way with her. Distressed and panicking, Maryse unintentionally unsheathed a set of talons where her fingernails had been. The boy, thinking that Maryse was a witch due to this odd display, backed off in fright, but Maryse knew that it was only a matter of time before townspeople heard of what had happened, and did her best to suppress the memories of the event, attempting to convince herself that what had happened was some mad delusion.
Thankfully, because no-one else had actually seen what had happened that night and Maryse herself kept quiet, her attempted rapist was written off as delusional and Maryse was allowed to live in peace, more or less. However, more powers began to manifest apart from the odd talons she had grown; her senses became much sharper, she found herself totally resistant to disease, and injuries she sustained healed quickly. Disturbed by this, she kept quiet about these things for years, keeping them a secret even from her parents. Eventually, around the 1750s, Maryse realized that she was not aging like others around her and, fearing what would happen once this was noticed, Maryse stowed away on a boat headed to the Dutch Republic.
On this trip, Maryse was eventually discovered by the ship's captain, who demanded to know why she was on his ship. Very reluctantly, she showed him the claws that she had not extended for years. Shocked, the captain nonetheless offered to keep Maryse's secret safe for the price of her virginity, and Maryse once more reluctantly agreed to this. Upon arriving in the Netherlands, Maryse made a habit of moving from one province to the other every decade or so, laying low and working as a seamstress, and by 1776, Maryse decided it was safe to return to the Cape Colony, figuring she was forgotten.
In 1777, Maryse met Rutger van der Linde, a farmer and merchant like her father, and the two were smitten with each other, though Maryse did not dare reveal her secrets to him for an entire year of courtship. When she did this, Rutger was shaken, and for a short while cut ties with her to think about what he had been told. Thankfully for Maryse, Rutger returned to her after a while and declared that no matter what sorcery she must have been cursed with, he still loved her and would keep her secret, proposing marriage. Overjoyed, Maryse accepted, and the two were wed, with Maryse giving birth to a son, Nikolaas van der Linde (or "Niko" for short) in 1780. Maryse settled into her new life as a mother, taking up the same position as her mother had done with her new family and working as a trader of goods; mostly foods, but also clothes. Despite the authoritarian policies of the Dutch East India Company, and the exodus of other colonists moving inland to get away from this, Rutger and Maryse nonetheless managed to accrue enough wealth to be considered middle class by today's standards.
In 1795, when Niko was fifteen, things began to take a turn for the worse for Maryse's family; the VOC was going bankrupt, and the family's modest wealth was being depleted. Things were not helped when Niko came home one day with blood on his clothes, hurriedly and fearfully telling his parents about how he had accidentally killed some local boys in a brawl with a set of sharp talons that grew from his fingers. Shocked by this, and realizing that Niko had inherited the same odd abilities that Maryse herself had, both parents urged their son to head north, to avoid being persecuted by the angry families of the boys he had accidentally killed. Maryse and Rutger managed to keep things quiet for a short while, but the parents of the slaughtered boys eventually came to them and started asking questions. In an altercation that turned violent, Rutger was shot and killed, while Maryse managed to escape, her own wounds healing. Realizing that it was again no longer safe to stay in the colony, especially once the British Empire arrived to take control of the Cape Colony from the VOC shortly after this, Maryse again became a stowaway on a British vessel for several months, heartbroken at the losses of both her beloved husband and son, and feeling as if she had lost everything.
Unfortunately, Maryse's troubles did not end there, as like the last time she stowed away, she was again found, this time by British sailors who soon attempted to rape her. Maryse was forced to defend herself and briefly lost control of her mental faculties, and wound up brutally slaughtering the sailors. Once she snapped out of it, Maryse, heavily distraught at seeing the carnage she caused, decided she simply couldn't take all that was happening to her recently, and threw herself off the ship as it headed to Britain, hoping to drown herself.
This attempt at suicide failed, and Maryse washed up on a shoreline in Sussex, England. Dazed, confused, and dehydrated, she was found by some local fishermen and taken in, nursed back to full health shortly thereafter. She refused to tell them anything other than her first name, fearful of what they might do if they learned of what she was and had done on the ship that brought her to England, and eventually left them after several months, travelling through Britain, penniless and homeless. After a short while, she was eventually found by a British noble and hired as a maid, which was a job she worked for several years. Eventually she was let go, and managed to build a comfortable home for herself in Sussex.
Over the next several decades, Maryse began to show a more business-savvy side by investing in various trades, and put her own abilities as a dressmaker to good use, gradually accruing more wealth than she had ever had previously. Eventually, she became more of a socialite, though she often stayed out of the public eye and used various false identities every few decades-- Even occasionally posing as her own hypothetical descendants. By the 1900s and through to the 21st Century, Maryse had become a multimillionaire several times over and lived an affluent, yet lonely, lifestyle, often taking trips to other countries such as Russia, Italy, and the United States; currently she has decided to visit the small town of Mystic Falls, in an attempt to act as a relatively normal figure for the first time in decades. She has never remarried, is unaware of her son's status, and remains completely unaware of her true heritage.
