Suzie Costello
From BTR Wiki
Contents |
[edit] The Mun
- Name: Jaqui
- Contact
- Email: trollopfop@morethanmortal.com or gmail.com
- GChat: trollopfop@gmail.com
- AIM: foppishtrollop
- Yahoo: trollopfop
- LJ: http://trollopfop.livejournal.com
[edit] The Character
- Name: Suzie Costello
- Age/Birthdate: 34/November 19, 1972
- Species: Wanderer
- Type: Jungian psychology contains the idea of the shadow aspect, the part of the unconscious mind which contains "repressed weaknesses, shortcomings, and instincts." Shadow attributes aren't always negative, but consist of whatever the conscious mind censors out. While the shadow's more than just someone's dark side, it is that, as well, and can, in dreams and visions, take on an appearance of its own and interact with the conscious mind. (More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_(psychology) ) It can also, thanks to the Rift, interact with Suzie. She sees the shadows of others, and can communicate with them. Of course, people will probably look at her like she's crazy if she does that aloud. She'll most likely get a better reading off of people with more to repress, and most shadows probably won't want to interact with her at all, being more interested in things like, Fuck the diet, I'll always be fat, and I want a goddamn cookie. She also has no access whatsoever to the conscious mind, only what gets shoved away... So though she may be able to use this to gather (highly subjective) information, any effects on the character in question will be very subtle.
- Canon: Torchwood
- Journal: http://superiorspectre.livejournal.com/
[edit] Appearance
Thin and tall, with curly black hair and brown eyes, Suzie's a striking woman. When dressed up, she's almost disturbingly beautiful, but she rarely finds the time. Her normal mode of dress is simple, comfortable, but still stylish, what could best be described as "librarian chic", especially when the cat-eye reading glasses come out.
[edit] Personality
"She was good at computers. She was good at everything." - Toshiko Sato
Suzie is, in a word, competent. She's good with technology, with weapons (though she was never completely comfortable shooting at people), with building things... Yet she never quite felt she was good enough. She's a ruthless perfectionist when it comes to herself, and that extends to a lesser degree to the people around her, leaving her with no patience at all for fools.
For all that she's good at what she does, she's amazingly insecure. She needs people to talk to, people who can listen, but she doesn't dare go to the rest of the Torchwood team... That's work. She has to be perfect, in control. Can't let them think any less of her. And, deep down, she's always been afraid that they'll turn on her one day. She loves her job, but one day, she knows, things will go wrong. They always do.
So she's learned to manipulate people, to play with their minds, to give them exactly what they want to hear from her so she gets what she wants. Not that she doesn't care... She does, she cares deeply about people (otherwise, she'd never have been able to use the resurrection gauntlet), but that's secondary to the pursuit of knowledge, and to keeping herself safe. She is, after all, a consummate survivor.
It could be said that, for all she's a caring, if private, person, she's got a dark side that could devour suns. She won't turn on anyone unless they give her a reason, but she always has plans laid, just in case.
She's fond of poetry, especially Emily Dickinson, and has a tendency to wax philosophical at times, though she has no tolerance for pointless feel-good nonsense. Although usually serious, she does possess a wicked sense of humor, which comes out at occasionally inappropriate times.
[edit] History
Suzie was always a quiet child. She lost her mother when she was young, and when it came to nurturing, her father was somewhat... lacking. His idea of taking care of a child was pushing her as hard as he could, demanding nothing short of perfection. And then, as she grew older, he got... other ideas. She was the woman of the house, her mother's replacement (in more ways than she'll discuss), and his perfect little overachiever.
She learned to hate him.
She could never shake the need to be better than she was, though, and this caused her to excel in university, and go on to do rather well in a series of technical jobs. The series of disasterous relationships that went with those jobs, though, she could have done without. She had a habit of falling in with complete bastards, much like her father had been, and it never, ever ended well.
And then, completely by accident, she met Jack Harkness.
She was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and very nearly became Weevil food. She handled herself well, though, and Jack recruited her for Torchwood after a background check, though she knows little about the Weevil attack itself, thanks to a bit of Retcon.
Torchwood gave her a new sense of purpose, a new reason to excel... And what could be better than having the chance to save the world?
Not that it was an easy job, though. She joined the Pilgrim group just to have people to turn to outside of work, and then started disclosing parts of her life to one of the members, dosing him with Retcon shortly after. It helped make things bearable, made her feel less alone.
As things stood before she stumbled through the Rift, she was doing well enough at Torchwood to have made it up to second-in-command. She had a completely casual affair going with Owen Harper... He was a bastard, but at least an honest one. And Jack was talking about letting her poke at an artifact that no one's yet found a purpose for: a strange metal gauntlet that fell through the Rift years ago.
For her part, she couldn't wait.
