Madison

Madison's Vitals
Name: Madison Grace Bennet
Race: Werewolf
Shortdesc: 5'5", 125 lb, auburn-haired female with blue-gray eyes.
Position: Journalist with the Chicago Chronicle
Fame: Daughter of Senator Charles Bennet of Georgia
Temperament: Mild-Mannered and Epitome of Southern Hospitality
Themesong: The Show Must Go On - by Queen
Olivia Wilde as Madison Grace Bennet

Info

WARNING: This information should be considered OOC Knowledge unless one has the IC means to access it.

General:
Youngest child and only daughter of Senator Charles Bennet from Georgia, a renowned supporter of anti-preternatural groups upon Capitol Hill. A journalist with the Chicago Chronicle, Madison is relatively social and congeneal by nature. Though not originally from the Chicagoland area, she is an alumni of the University of Chicago and fairly charitable to those in need. Fairly skilled with regards to social graces, charm, and even musical endeavors — some may question as to whether or not the young woman is a bit 'too' perfect to be entirely sincere in the image she presents.

Personality

Madison is blessed with a great deal of patience and nurturing disposition. She has spent the majority of her life as a caretaker for the needs of others: whether her father or even her brother. She is highly social and always willing to sacrifice her own wants and needs for the greater good. Southern to the core, she believes fully in good old-fashioned Southern Hospitality and will go to great lengths to try and ensure people around her are afforded a degree of warmth and comfort. She has been known to lose her temper upon occasion, though upon those rare times the anger usually burns out relatively quick.

History

A picture tells a thousand words, or a thousand lies. For Madison, pictures were merely the snapshots of her life, one spent under the constant pressure of always presenting a perfect image. Madison Grace Bennet, or Maddie to her family and friends, was born on the morning on March 10, 1986 as the second child and only daughter of then Georgia Governor Charles Oliver Bennet and his wife, Sarah Lou.

It was a fairly idyllic childhood for young Maddie and her elder brother, Cole, as the children appeared frequently doted upon by their mother and personal servants. Being born to privilege, there was very little the children lacked – games, toys, lessons, private studies… all these and more seemed to cement the very foundation of life within the ‘perfect’ Bennet family. Admittedly their father had a tendency to be quite overbearing and strict at times, but the children learned early on to navigate his moods and temperament so as to avoid too much trouble. As long as they continued to paint the perfect portraiture of a doting family for the frequent publicity shoots, their mother saw fit to let them do as they pleased.

Yet idyllic lives are rarely truly ideal and behind the veil, Sarah Lou was crumbling slowly. Peace became permanently shattered on a cold February morning, not long before Maddie’s twelvth year. The children had spent the day with their father, promoting his latest campaign for Senate while their mother lingered behind due to complaints of a migraine. Following the long photo session, the trio returned home with little Maddie rushing up the stairs to share her latest news with her mother. The main bedroom proved empty, the bed carefully made with little sign of Sarah Lou anywhere. From somewhere deep within her, Maddie felt a gnawing pain of dread as she started to scour the large plantation home – calling her mother at the top of her lungs. She ran downstairs to inform her father, but Charles simply brushed his daughter off, explaining he had a telephone conference which could not be disturbed. Not really one to be deterred, Maddie sought out her brother as the two agreed to divide the estate in half in their search for their mother. Three hours hailed little and by that time, little Maddie was on the verge of tears. Her brother managed to calm her slightly, appearing far wiser than his sixteen years as he ordered her to take a bath and relax while he went to speak with their father. Ever the obedient child, Madison relented and took herself to her private room. She spent several more minutes upon her bed, taking the time in private to let her real panic flow, before mechanically carrying herself to her bathroom.

Screams echoed from the third floor, stirring a panic as Maddie stared in mortification at her once mint julep toned bathroom – the walls and floors painted with a slick coat of blood. She vaguely recalled her brother carrying her on out, even remotely remembered hearing the painful wails of her father as he tried to cover the still gaping wounds of her mother’s ice cold corpse. The local papers ran the news of the untimely death of the young mother, the story altered and skewered from public eye effectively by Governor Bennet’s own campaign staff. Photos ran rampantly at the funeral, the young Bennet children painting a perfect image of ‘familial’ heartbreak and grief as they stood beside their teary-eyed father. At one month shy of her 12th birthday, the press fell in love with the young motherless Maddie as she placed a solemn white rose tied with a red ribbon upon her mother’s casket.

In the months following the death of Sarah Lou, love became a distant memory among those of the Bennet plantation. Charles launched head first into his campaign for Senate, the death of his wife having granted him an unprecedented boost in the polls while the children were left mostly to their own accord. Cole took to spending as much time away from the plantation – undertaking a series of athletic activities to simply detract from the memory of the recent horror. Madison, on the other hand, delved into her studies – breaking only to make public appearances and grace the cameras with a perfected smile. When the November elections were tallied, it came as little surprise that the widowed Governor and former USMC officer won the hearts of his people. While some would credit the horrible loss early in the year with his win, many others would argue it was the undeniable heartbreak of that one timeless photo of Madison and the rose which sealed the election for him.

A new position meant changes for the Bennet family, mostly in requiring the children to withdraw from their parochial schools to embark upon the venture of home study. This restrictive decision incited rebellion from Cole, who at seventeen protested the denial of his senior year. Madison was no less upset by the decision, but handled the order with a degree of compliance as she always did. The children found themselves bounced back and forth between a brick townhouse near Embassy row and the plantation of their youth, depending upon whether or not the senate was in session. While Cole continued to routinely challenge their father’s rule with nightly jaunts and escapades that more than once landed him upon the media’s hit list, Madison remained the media darling – bringing a balance to the overall view of the Bennet children.

It came as little surprise when at the close of their first term as senatorial children Cole enlisted in the USMC and headed out to training. Some speculated it was all the boy could do to escape the rigidity of his callous father, while others claimed the young man had little choice in the matter. Whatever the case, with the departure of her brother, Madison was left alone within a rather cold and political world. Scarcely more than fourteen at the time of her brother’s departure, the young girl desperately struggled to find her niche. Most of her days were spent deep in study, gaining her constant praise from the commissioned tutors employed by her father. Her nights were often spent putting in public appearances upon her father’s behalf or acting as the charming escort for whatever social function demanded his latest attention. In many ways, the death of Sarah Lou nearly three years before had left a vacancy within Charles’ political career and as the only daughter – the obligation fell to young Madison to fill it.

Though Senator Charles Bennet had always been fairly conservative in his views, the loss of his wife and dealings with his rebellious son had sadly made the man nearly stalwart in his views. It was a complication that had upon more than one occasion left Madison feeling a bit uneasy. She loved her father a great deal, but her own views always fell more to the moderate or slightly liberal – moderate side of the social and political scale. However she learned from her brother’s example that to dare speak or even suggest such contrary views to her father could prove detrimental all around. So, she continued to smile and charm her way through most of her teen years – never once giving the press nor her father reason to pry deeper into her inner thoughts or the relative unhappiness that was her life.

Her teen years passed without too much complication – Madison permanently cast in the role of the ‘perfect social princess’ of the iron-fisted Senator from Georgia. Though her father often received hate mail and death threats for his stern views and alleged affiliations with preternatural hate groups, little seemed to trickle down to mar her. She learned quickly to court the press as much as they courted her, knowing full well that if she gave them what they desired – there would be little need for them to pry deeper. By the time she was seventeen, her father would entrust her to handle philanthropic and charity functions without his own presence, using her as an extension of himself. She was the ‘golden heart’ of the Bennet campaign and many speculated that Senator Bennet was merely laying the foundation for a future bid for the White House.

Upon completion of her secondary studies, Madison enrolled in the University of Chicago for a degree in journalism. For the first time in her life, she found herself granted freedom. Her daughterly duties still obligated her to the occasional social affair here and there upon her father’s behalf during holiday breaks, yet she discovered what it was to live a fairly ordinary life. It took her a few months to adapt to the lax world known as ‘college life’ but soon she found herself not only adjusting but flourishing within it. Her years of courting the press and politicians had made her quite the social creature and she enjoyed having the chance to do so upon her own terms for a change.

There were still a few who found her intimidating due to the expanse of her father’s reputation and wealth – but for the most part, her charm tended to help smooth it over. Perhaps the biggest change in University life was the introduction to the dating scene. Though she had often been the escort of her father, Madison gave little credence to her own lack of relationships - a condition her roommates were all too quick to remedy for her. Unfortunately commitment seemed to be somewhat elusive for the young woman. Between the time spent in her collegiate studies coupled with the obligations to her father, and it simply left little energy and time devote to any one man for too long.

Tragedy struck again when news of her brother’s disappearance reached her just prior to her Winter Finals in the middle of her third and final year. Madison did all she could to try and track down more information as she met with road blocks each step of the way. Finally she turned to the press, seeking to call up those she had repeatedly indulged over the years. Her father refused to get involved, instead focusing all his energies into the promotion of his latest attempt at trying to further hamper the rights of the elusive ‘Preternaturals’. Madison had a hard time comprehending how it is her father could hate any race of people with such a passionate display as to consider them worth greater consideration than her brother – especially when she was not even entirely certain they even existed.

Her final semester came and went, still without word of her brother. Maddie had tapped nearly all her resources in trying to uncover some lead to his disappearance and sadly found none. Her graduation was a somber event, the ticket reserved for her brother passed to some Senatorial advisor upon the Hill who her father had taken to dating a few months prior. Desperately needing a bit of time away from Chicago as well as her father’s own indifference upon the matter, Maddie accepted early enrollment within the Masters of Journalism program at UNC, at the age of 20 – a decision that would forever change the course of her life.

The first year of her graduate studies proved difficult, leaving her little room to breathe let alone socialize. What little free time she did have was dedicated solely to trying to find a link towards her brother’s disappearance. Just when it seemed as though the trail were ice cold, she received an anonymous email informing her that the key to her brother’s disappearance was nearby detailing a place not more than five miles from her apartment and a meeting time of later that evening. Though her common sense screamed at her to use caution, her desire for the truth as well as her love for her brother caused her to cast caution to the wind.

Madison arrived at the locale nearly thirty minutes before the scheduled time, hoping very much to catch a glimpse of the informant beforehand. Armed with a notepad, pen, and small Dictaphone, she made her way on into the somewhat abandoned warehouse. The stench was the first thing she noticed, rich and coppery as it left a raw taste of blood upon her tongue. Still she continued onward through the entry and up the stairs to the third floor. All the windows were painted black – while the air hung like a thick blanket of death and decay all around. She glanced down at her watch, the sun having set not more than five minutes prior as she made her way on through the third floor hall until she reached the last door on the left. Pushing it open, Maddie stepped inside to pure darkness. Her hands fumbled upon the walls for a light switch, only to find none as the voice rasped in the shadows, “What have we here…. Hmmm, someone sent for delivery – how sweet.”

She felt something move to the left behind her as she whirled around. She never saw the leap, but she screamed as her body found itself thrown against the wall – her head slamming the surface hard. Madison clawed at the hands which pinned her, the strong stench of death permeating from her assaulter’s breath. A scream tore through her throat as she felt teeth sink on in deeply, her struggling starting to fade as tears continued to stream down her cheeks. Suddenly, she found herself freed – a gust of something else from the shadows ripping the attacker from her as she crumbled to the ground. The sound of snarls and battle echoed in the darkness, inspiring Madison to muster what little strength she had to crawl away as she followed the wall until she found the door. Still shaken, she rose to her feet – the blood pouring from her wound as she fought to remain conscious. She managed to pull the door open just enough to slip through as she stumbled her way on out of the warehouse. Ripping her shirt from her body, she held it against her wound to flee to her car. She fumbled with her keys, the sound of glass breaking from the building sending her into full-fledged panic as she finally managed to open the door to her car.

Dizziness threatened to claim the young girl as she started the car and put it into gear, leaving the building and horrors in her wake. Tears blinded her eyes as Madison struggled for composure, the loss of blood causing her to swerve until she finally slid off the road and right into a tree. As the glass shattered, her last thoughts were that of her brother before the blackness claimed her.

She awoke nearly twenty-four hours later to the sound of Blue Oyster Cult piping through the radio amid a small wooden room. She lifted a hand to her head as she closed her eyes against fragments of memory that sought to spill through of the night before. Madison tried to sit up only to fall back with a groan at the throbbing within her head. Instinctively her hand slid to her wounded neck, finding it completely bound and tended with gauze.

A woman’s voice pierced the air in the small room with a cautionary tone, “Leave it – it’s not yet healed, give it a few more days. You’re very lucky, you know – most don’t survive an encounter with Jonas. We’ve been tracking him a while now… though, sorry we didn’t get him sooner.”

“Sooner? I…I don’t understand. Who are you? Where am I? My brother…” Madison questioned as she struggled again to rise, this time managing to lean against the wall in a half-lounge.

The woman moved quietly to sit upon the edge of the bed as she reached over to smooth Madison’s hair from her bandaged brow, with a gentle lulling sound, “Your brother is not here, Madison. He never was. I wish I could tell you otherwise, but it is not the first time Jonas has fixated upon another’s grief. I am Norah, Lupa of the Lukoi here in Raleigh. You’re at my home, Lazarus… our Ulfric found you when he trailed Jonas to the warehouse and brought you back to us once he had taken care of business. I realize not much of this makes sense now, but it will in time.”

Madison merely frowned at the words, confusion clearly upon her brow. After a full meal and another changing of the dressings, Norah spent the better part of the evening explaining the Lukoi as well as the young woman’s future position among them. If Maddie felt adjustment to University life to be difficult, it was nothing compared to her adjustment to Lukoi society. Norah spent a great deal of time preparing the young infected for her first change, yet no amount of preparation nor explanation could dare hope to prepare her for the pain and freedom the change brought.

Lazarus and Norah managed to suppress the transformation of the young woman, adding her to the ranks of their own Therian status. For the next year, Madison divided her time between Lukoi and human society, excelling in her studies within both. She took a position as writer in the obituary division of the local paper with the promise of eventual promotion after six months. Time flew by as Maddie continued to resume her old life, though this time with a secret she didn’t dare to let anyone know. Since her transformation, her eyes appeared suddenly open to the various nuances of the preternatural world. While her father continued to rally supporters upon Capitol Hill for his campaign against the preternatural race, Madison strived in secret to try and help uncover other recently infected in an effort to keep them below the notice of authorities and potentially prevent them from running amok such as Jonas had once done.

By her twenty-forth year, Maddie had managed to gain a firm handle upon her preternatural powers, developing an almost predictable routine of humanity as she again exuded the image of the ‘perfect little princess’ of Senator Charles Bennet. For her graduation from the Master’s program a year prior, Lazarus had purchased her a police scanner in an effort to help her upon her endeavor to infiltrate the media system. Though there were those within the pack who severely resented the fairly ‘high’ profile of their newest member – Lazarus and Norah became among her closest friends and supporters. When news of the disappearance of a girl outside of her old Chicago haunting grounds, Madison decided it was time to move on ‘home’. With a heartfelt goodbye to Lazarus and Norah, she picked up the pieces of her new life and found herself once more back within the Windy City. Senator Bennet was relieved with the return of his daughter to a more prolific social scene and sought to make the situation easier by helping her secure a position within the Chicago Chronicle. Though regaled to the Lifestyle/Metro division, Madison harbored desires of one day landing a feature reporting slot.