Josephine Benoit

Josephine "Jo" Kahalani Benoit
"Lugh's daughter- they call me his witch."
Canon:	Scion: Hero
Species:	Witch/Scion
Hometown:	Elmo, Montana, USA
Age:	27
Journal:	venefica
Player:	Kayame

Josephine is many things: a student of the universe, someone who identifies as her Yemen-born mother's daughter while still recently immersing herself in her divine father's completely separate Irish background, someone who grew up in foster care and group homes, someone who got married much too young. She's a former clandestine government employee, a dancer, daredevil, a photographer, a troublemaker, a bleeding heart, wry about anyone who tries too hard but appreciative of their earnestness. She has the questionably evil creatures called Fomori as well as ancient gods in her family tree, but considers herself neither, if touched by both. This variety is an inheritance from her estranged father and serves as both a curse and a blessing, but rather than call herself just swordswoman or just wanderer, she's settled on one word that she feels encompasses it all:

Witch.

you made a deal, and now it seems you have to offer up

typical

The half-Irish daughter of a Temani woman from Yemen whose mixed Moroccan and Yemenite family moved to the United States in the tumultuous 1960s, Jo grew up fatherless, though she was given to understand the man who stayed for only nine months worked as a photographer (triggering her own life-long fascination with the art); her mother, Noa, died of septimecia linked to meningitis when Jo was just eleven, leaving her to live primarily in Catholic-run group homes, the religious structure of which never entirely suited her. She was a rebellious teenager, particularly in her early teens, with a wide variation of interests and talents--many a result of the pastoral settings she'd grown up in, which left little else to do but seek inventive methods of self-improvement or hobbies. She married a man named Terry Benoit when she was only seventeen, and throughout her tenure in university their small family became fractured with the accidental death of their four-year-old son (born when Jo was just sixteen) and deep-seated, alcoholism-laden unhealthiness.

It was all very common, very small-town, and very numbing--not at all what Jo wanted for herself. So, upon completing her college degree in International Relations (an interest fueled by her varied background, probably) at the University of Minnesota in Duluth, Josephine applied for a government position. She'd been told her entire life she was wasting her talents in small towns, and supposed that maybe finally divorce and a move were in order. Much to her astonishment, she received an interview...accompanied by a background check, and six months' waiting in Los Angeles. Her language skills were in high demand, and so was her willingness to devote herself whole-heartedly to the cause.

This is roughly where things took a sharp turn for the weird.

'NOC', or non-official cover, is a position within the Central Intelligence Agency. NOC officers are not documented publicly, and if one is taken hostage, the government will generally not negotiate for their release. Josephine only worked with the CIA for six years, functioning in various commercial and corporate disguises, before she abruptly quit, and she wasn't the only one, as a disconcerting roughly sixty officers have been leaving every year. Her reasons weren't stated, because as far as the government knew, Josephine Benoit had no family--which, along with her athleticism, lateral thinking, and knowledge of both Hebrew and Arabic, previously made her her ideal for their service--and she couldn't possibly explain that her her long-estranged father was the cause of her decision. They would have asked questions, and her answers were too complicated to share with even the people who had called themselves her "family" for the past half-decade.

Said father was not exactly human, as it happens, and he had big plans for the strangest and most secretive of his three mortal children. All Scions are calculated births, but Jo in particular had gods with intentions for her extending across the pantheons (which her father doesn't really like, but he's made some deals to guarantee his own aims are fulfilled, and Jo was unknowingly a part of them before she was even awakened to her nature; she's very useful for the agendas of the most ancient beings, if troublingly willful), and furthermore her own divine father had heritage which prompted him to look at her mother as the best possible parent of his child.

quietly

Since her Visitation with her supernatural parent, Lugh, she's been traveling, trying to find him again, while carefully exercising her newfound abilities. The six-year gap in her resume makes it difficult for her to find a long-lasting career, so she takes odd jobs, making enough to support herself and make it to the next location; just before her present circumstance, she was a nanny, although that ended catastrophically for reasons that were at least fifty percent her own fault, so now she has three jobs to survive in London: she teaches bachata and salsa dancing, occasionally reads fortunes, and works with horses--including two very special ones that are gifts from her father.

She has yet to make much money off her artistic endeavors, but she hasn't really tried, either. It may be nerves.

but will it ever be enough? raise it up, it's not enough

Game history!

i must become a lion hearted girl, ready for a fight

"It's very curious but the more I try to satisfy myself with all sorts of natural affections, the more I seem to want. I'd no idea hearts could take in so many; mine is so elastic, it never seems full." - Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

In the Scion universe, the gods of assorted origins are embroiled in an epic beyond the mortal realm, and their enemies include the Titans and many of the Fomori. This leaves the material world unprotected, and so, to defend the earth, they had Scions, the children of mortals and gods who are, at least unless and until they ascend to work with their divine parents, also mortal, but very different, like Heracles of legend. Some of them have many powers, and some of them have only a few - it all depends on their heritage. The gods involved are the Pesedjet (the Egyptian gods), the Dodekatheon (the Greek gods), the Aesir (the Norse gods), the Atzlanti (the Aztec gods), the Amatsukami (the Japanese gods), the Loa (the gods of Vodoun), the Deva (the Hindu gods), the Celestial Bureaucracy of China (obvious), and, of course, the Tuatha de Danaan.

Josephine's father is the High King Lugh, known as a solar and sky god. Among Lugh's provinces is versatility; a story about him says that when he came to the Tuatha to be let in as a god on the highest level of the Tuatha's rulers, he was a musician, a sorcerer, a master swordsman, an accomplished intellectual and historian, a healer, and a smith besides, and he proved each skill to the court. They said they had gods who could do each of these things, as any good and complete pantheon would, but Lugh asked if they had any who could do all of them, and so he was permitted entrance into the court, later going on to achieve his Kingly status. Lugh is controversial for being half-Fomor, a race of beings that were there in Ireland before the Tuatha's appearance, thousands and thousands of years ago. Further new White Wolf canon states that Fomor and Nephilim are essentially the same thing, and the other word for Nephilim is 'Bene Elohim,' a race of people who may have been angels or demons or simply something else altogether, mentioned in The Book of Jubilees and Book of Enoch. This ancestry may have been what led Lugh to Josephine's mother Noa, with her connections to the Middle East and North Africa--the "Arab Jews" have background in pre-dynastic Egypt that then spirals up into the Levant, too, though they weren't called Jews then, and those were the first places the Bene Elohim appeared, along with Malta, where the giants built massive places of worship. Not all Fomor are evil (Elatha is a decent example), but they do tend to be, often leading others into sin and temptation, particularly those with a blessing of beauty, and they are often selfish. Lugh, however, overcame any such inclination, and was instead placed by prophecy and fate in direct opposition to his grandfather Balor, the King of the Fomori in those days, before Lugh killed him and his army in battle.

When Scions are 'awoken' to their true nature - they generally go through their lives believing they are ordinary people who have never met one parent, a common enough state of affairs - it is by a Visitation with their supernatural parent, or an emissary of their parent's will. The blood in their veins turns to ichor, and they discover their powers. Lugh's Scions always stand to inherit their father's versatility, but each of them has their best, and Jo is no exception, preferring mystery, prophecy, and magic of the following:

wildly

• Magic: 'Magic' is something that is innate in Josephine (on both sides of her family, in fact, even if it skipped her mother's generation), but study and practice are what allow her to control it. Uncontrolled reactions to things -- spontaneously starting something on fire or flinging it across the room, the like -- are not a part of her accepted existence, not because they are supernatural but because she dislikes the ineptitude it implies. Her concentrated spells are pretty varied but require energy and willpower, so they can tire her or, if she pushes too far, cause serious damage to her psyche. One of her most potent spells is that of demanding a labor of someone, or essentially making them do tasks for her or suffer enormous consequences--at a low level, this can involve solving a puzzle or delivering a message to a supernatural being, or, at a higher level, defeating a tough monster or performing some other extraordinarily dangerous and seemingly impossible feat. With an object belonging a person, or a form of physical contact with them, she can also map out their past, their ultimate fate, and sometimes prophesy their future.
• Healing: Josephine can, to an extent, heal her own injuries. This is not total and doesn't extend to aggravated damage, but depending on the severity it can take minutes or seconds. She is, however, considerably more skilled at healing others, being capable of assessing the health of others, blessing or blighting the reproductive abilities of others (...yes, really; this extends to bolstering the health of a fetus currently in utero), or simply healing or infecting another person with medical malady. This works exactly the same as magic spells do in that it could overwhelm or damage her if she attempts to overextend herself, and could in fact be considered something under their purview of magic by onlookers.
• Grace and Speed: Simply put, Jo is agile and quick. She has a special talent for tightropes and gymnastic feats, but the knacks, or spiritual tricks taught to her by dint of her father's species, are somewhat more varied. She is capable of leaping a good 48 yards forward (or 24 yards straight up, which is roughly the equivalent of a seven-story building). Difficult to knock down and harder still to catch, she makes up for not being the physically strongest Scion with being one of the fastest, and she's getting good at using momentum for compensate for a lack of super-strength. Her enhanced running speed is such that she can run across water or muck without getting sucked down into it.
• Combat (assorted):
• Charisma: The gifts given to her in this arena are more difficult to pin down- less obviously feats of the supernatural, they may, however, seem suspicious to anyone who is in the know, but then anyone who is in the know is also probably aware that Josephine is a witch and therefore not really normal. With raw reassurance, she can smother an upwelling of panic, hatred, or suspicion directed at her, hopefully long enough to soothe the other party for good. She can also give 'spellbound speeches,' serving as an inspirational speaker that leaves her audience literally hypnotized for the duration of the speech, unable to move or attack. Because the Tuatha are also shameless about using their physical appearances to get what they want, she can also employ these abilities to demand someone's presence in a blatantly seductive way: a text message captioned 'come see me ASAP' will do, provided there's a picture of Jo herself attached, but it works best to summon someone to her side and prompt their interest in person. (It's worth noting Jo has never actually used this one.) Additionally, she is something of a born social chameleon, which is helped by the fact that she's not 100% outgoing and sometimes does prefer to sit and observe rather than communicate- and following the observation, it's easier to fit in. The less subtle side of her gifts in this field involve a knack which is called 'overt order,' wherein she basically gives someone a short and not too complicated command ("shoot him," "freeze," "go away," etc.), and they feel compelled to follow it.
• Geasa: Heroes and gods are held to a greater standard. Because the simple lives of mortal men are no challenge to the enech of the entities of Legend, it is only appropriate that they accept greater restrictions and requirements to demonstrate their mindfulness, honor and perseverance. Thus, the greatest of gods and heroes are laid with geasa, prohibitions against specific actions or requirements that a specific action must always be undertaken when the Scion or god is presented with the opportunity. It is important to keep one’s geasa secret, for those who know them can use them as a weapon against the hero. The most famous warrior of legend (also a Scion of Lugh), Cúchulainn, died by such cunning. When Queen Medb learned of his geasa against refusing hospitality and against eating the meat of a dog, she invited him to a meal of roasted hound, sealing his fate. He died by a spear-blow in his very next battle. Josephine is bound by the child geas (a geas involving the protection of children, with the benefit of enhanced resilience as long as she keeps the geas unbroken), an animal-oriented geas (specifically dogs and horses, though she personally takes it upon herself to extend it to all domesticated animals, with the benefit of extremely strong loyalty in her pets as long as she keeps the geas unbroken), and the imbas geas, which means that if she stops creating art or stops dancing or stops playing music for longer than a month, she loses enech, luck, and power, and comes with the benefit of enhanced ability in her arts as long as the geas is, again, unbroken. Josephine may also use her magic to put geasa on others, or twist others' present geasa if she knows their details.
• Immunities: Owing to having divine ichor (an ethereal, golden-silvery sort of substance) as blood, Josephine can resist much
• Sight:
• Guardianship: One task laid out for the Tuatha, even their mortal children, is protecting others- and the earth itself. Josephine can work with plantlife and gardening to an exceptional degree, providing blessings that keep greenery healthy for up to a year, as well as protecting land from vermin and blight- or cursing it with as much. In regards to other people, involving a magical warding called a vigil brand, which involves placing a mystical mark of her protection on a person, place, object, or entrance. She can use this brand to check up on what or whoever is under it, or sense if that brand's subject has been injured in some way. Going further on this premise, the aegis actually grants the person or object a measure of divine physical protection, making them slightly harder to damage and kill. She can also place actual wards on people, places, objects, or entrances, barring certain types of presences, and can have as many wards in one place as she has energy to maintain.
• Sun, Sky and Storm:
• Faery Contacts:
• Animal Command/Companions:
• Weaponry:

knowingly

• Assumption of the Land: :: Another ability which can easily be considered magical; however, it is significantly more dangerous and draining than most of the others, and so is to be employed out of necessity. The Song of Amerghin relates the process called "assumption" best — when the Milesian bard Amerghin first set foot on the shores of Ireland, he sang this song, taking into himself the powers of Eire and making himself one with the land. Employing this boon, Josephine can do likewise, opening herself up to the unique flows of enech associated with that location and making himself part of it. First, she must immerse herself in the enech of the site and gaining the dinsenchas (“place lore”) of the land she stands in. From there, she can work with the land. The effects gained through the use of this power are as follows:
  • She can feel the health of the land, becoming aware of its strengths and weaknesses, its damaged areas and recently reparied ones, whether they are environmental, spiritual, or even Titanic (or, more likely where Josephine is concerned, Fomori/Nephilim) in origin, revealing the location of any creature who fits that description.
  • Each site has a purview (type of element in existence) associated with it- a fire purview for a factory, a health purview for a hospital, and a war purview for a battlefield are all decent examples. Josephine's abilities in each of these regions are enhanced while she is attuned to the land on which she she has chosen to focus.
  • The location works to defend Josephine. The area is filled with improbable coincidences intended to keep her safe, including attacks of which she is not aware. She can re-attune herself to a location with relative ease after revisiting it, but the friendship with the land is not one-sided. Josephine must be consciously aware of any potential dangers to it and not mistreat it while she is there, and appease it following any unintended slights or damages.
• The Ninth Wave: When the Milesians first came to Ireland, the three queens of Eire asked them to withdraw back beyond the ninth wave of Ireland until they could determine the appropriate course of action. Because the ninth wave symbolized the borders of the land, the rulers of the Tuatha could then call upon the powers of the land and its enech to assault the intruders, rather than risking hospitality laws, an important but exploitable part of their culture, by having the land rise up against those who stood upon it. With this power, Josephine withdraws herself or another past the metaphorical ninth wave of a Godly power, withdrawing from the enech of that part of the world. In less flowery game terms, Josephine chooses a Purview and removes herself entirely from that concept as it interacts within the world. While she is withdrawn from that Purview, she cannot be affected by the powers of that Purview, nor by effects that are based in it. Withdrawing beyond the ninth wave lasts until she wills it to end or cannot maintain it any further. This spell has the following effects, based on the Purview in question:
  • Animal: Withdrawing beyond the ninth wave of the animal world means that Josephine functionally doesn’t exist for any animals at all — they do not see her, nor can they touch her in any way. Likewise, while she can see them, she cannot touch them either. This includes intelligent versions of animals and nemean animals.
  • Chaos: Withdrawing beyond the ninth wave of chaos means that Josephine is unaffected by chaos unfolding in the world. Mobs, crowds, storms, earthquakes and similar situations of chaos manifested in the world have no effect on her — she walks among such situations and the madness parts before her, leaving her untouched.
  • Darkness: Withdrawing beyond the ninth wave of darkness prevents Josephine from being affected by the darkness whatsoever. It poses no limitations on her vision and does not hide her — she always stands out, perfectly back-dropped by the darkness but very clear within it, as though the viewer were seeing her in full sunlight.
  • Death: Withdrawing beyond the ninth waves of death prevents Josephine from dying, whether from taking too much damage or having death-inflicting superpowers used on her. This merely postpones the inevitable, however, for when this effect ends, if the Scion is still under the damaged condition that would cause her to die, she immediately drops dead. Creatures of death such as ghosts, vampires, zombies and similarly undead beings cannot see her.
  • Earth: Withdrawing beyond the ninth wave of earth allows Josephine to step through stone, soil, sand and metals as though they did not exist. Attacks based on such effects — including hurled boulders and weapons forged of normal metals, including iron, to which Tuatha are sometimes sensitive — simply fail. Josephine doesn’t fall through the earth or anything similar if she doesn’t wish to. She may choose when the earth acts as a barrier and when it does not.
  • Enech: Withdrawing beyond the ninth wave of enech grants Josephine immunity to the flows of enech. She cannot violate any of her geasa, and no action she takes will ever violate the geasa of others, including that of hospitality (which has felled several Tuatha and even a few that were half-Fomor) and caring for land.
  • Fertility: Withdrawing beyond fertility's ninth wave allows Josephine to ignore the green and growing things of the world. She does not exist as far as plants are concerned, and may pass right through them as though they didn’t exist. Plant-based creatures cannot perceive her.
  • Fire: Withdrawing beyond fire's ninth wave makes Josephine immune to fire completely and utterly, as though the flames did not exist. She is also immune to the effects of fire in the environment — she breathes smoky air without notice, and surface and air temperatures that might scald her skin or lungs don't cause any discomfort. Creatures made of fire or associated with fire cannot perceive her. (Josephine also possesses a fire immunity boon, separate to this spell.)
  • Guardian: Withdrawing beyond guardian's ninth wave renders Josephine immune to perception by defenders, watchers, sentries, security systems and those things which exist to watch and warn. Additionally, her interactions with others protected by various Guardian purview boons which function as protective alarms, even for other Scions, do not set those alarms off — she and her actions do not exist for the purpose of this Purview.
  • Health: Withdrawing beyond health's ninth wave renders Josephine immune to any and all normal biological interactions with the world. Though true gods generally engage in such matters only voluntarily anyway, but Jo is still a mortal, and this effect makes it so that human beings cannot see or interact with her in any fashion, though she is still physically, solidly present. The direct effects of her presence can still be felt, though, and any environmental effects can still affect Jo.

brightly

• • Justice: Withdrawing beyond the ninth wave of justice renders Josephine immune to the influences of retribution and justice. Those seeking revenge against her, even for an understandable reason, simply cannot see her, and any actions augmented by supernatural vengeance will fail against her. Additionally, agents of justice and revenge (from the toughest police officer to the mighty Furies, who are also agents of Fate) cannot perceive her.
  • Moon: Withdrawing beyond the moon’s ninth wave permits the Scion to strip influences of concealment and lunacy from her existence. She automatically spots any and all hidden things. In fact, they stand out to her more than their surroundings. She is also immune to madness, and those who are insane cannot sense or affect her.
  • Psychopomp: Withdrawing beyond the ninth wave of the psychopomp eliminates the need for Josephine to actually engage in travel. She may simply will himself to be anywhere in the World for the duration of her withdrawal. She must know of the location, however — at the very least, she must be able to point it out on a map.
  • Sky: Withdrawing beyond the sky’s ninth wave grants Josephine immunity to all weather effects and winds. Rain does not soak her, winds do not blow her clothing and she becomes immune to all attacks involving cold and electricity. Air pressure does not discomfit her in any way.
  • Sun: Withdrawing beyond the sun’s ninth wave casts Josephine into eternal shadow, hiding her from the sight of gods and men alike. By the light of sun or moon, she becomes completely unseen, for those sources of light pass right through her as though she were not there. Only in rooms completely devoid of any trace of outside light will she be revealed. Any attacks based in light (including lasers and the like) cannot touch her.
  • War: Withdrawing beyond the ninth wave of war places Josephine beyond the reach of any and all violence. Moreover, this renders Jo incapable of inflicting violence herself for as long as she is withdrawn. Thus protected, she also becomes completely unseen in the middle of battles and conflicts regardless of the size. Because most athletic competitions were intended to keep fighting skills trim in times of peace, this includes sports as well.
  • Water: Withdrawing beyond the ninth wave of water causes Josephine to not exist as far as water is concerned, and vice versa. She may choose to walk upon the surface of water as though it were solid ground or walk through water as though it weren't there, and then come away without a single drop on her. All liquids that are not better associated with another Purview (such as magma being associated with Fire) are included in this.

She also has some mundanely learned skills:

• Art: Drawin', blah, will go here.
• Martial Arts:
• CIA Training:
• Languages:
• Craftsmanship: Auto repair, kids.
• Crack Driving:
• Academics:
• Technology:
• Empathy:
• Stubbornness: Okay, it's called things like 'integrity' but this is an actualfax WoD skill. And she has max points in it. enjoy!

before i make the final sacrifice

coolly

Josephine's heritage demands she attempt to be good at everything. This is a pretty heavy weight to bear, but she is so used to feeling this demand to propel herself forward that she doesn't even recognize it as pressure anymore--it's something she's always lived with and always will. She's not precisely competitive with other people so much as determined to self-actualize: she always feels like there is more of the universe that she can learn and try to understand, and for her, new skills and hard work are a part of this quest to solve the mysteries of existence. The simplest question can have the most illuminating answer, and she intends to use what she learns to make the world a better place--both on the plane of mortals, and potentially one day in the Otherworld where the divine (and their fallen enemies) wage their war.

She was named after Jo March in Little Women, and in a few ways does resemble her namesake: spirited and sometimes impulsive, she has had years to work on her temper and the sense of overwhelming passion that can sometimes take her. One of her mentors, following her Visitation, once commented that her heart was too large for her body, and that she could sometimes be too guided by her empathy as well as her curiosity - she doesn't just want to slay what's evil, she wants to understand it first. Naturally a lot of people think it is unwise to converse with these beings, but Jo literally believes nothing is past saving, so if it comes to it, she's a talented warrior, but she's hesitant to forsake people immediately or easily. At the same time, she's mistrustful; she can persuade djinn to tell her their stories, but she doesn't necessarily believe them, because she's aware they're going to try to manipulate her. She is determined to draw her own conclusions, though, and she needs information to do that- information which comes not just in their words, but their body language.

Still, there's a reason that she doesn't have a band to travel with, like other Scions: they're frequently mildly put off by the occasional monster she protects and befriends. (The ones that don't even have high intelligence and are merely like hideous wild animals are particularly likely to fall under her protection. The others, the cleverer ones...that's a case-by-case basis, but she's a lot less easily convinced.)

Her ancestry is much more complicated than she even presently knows; along with a few others, Jo was not just the result of a god impulsively procreating with a human, but many years of careful breeding on her mother's side - her mother's great-grandfather, for example, was a Yazidi (and therefore not Jewish at all, which was deeply scandalous for the times), and further back the history of Jews in Morocco and Yemen becomes increasingly tangled. Jo is perfectly cognizant of the fact that her family is strange, even on her mother's side, but as far as she is aware, her family's involvement with the gods began with her mother's pregnancy--not that they might have influencing things far beforehand. What little she does know has caused her to consider her awareness of free will, and how much she prizes her own.

in the spring i shed my skin, it blows away with the changing wind

Danu:
Gates Enfys Ryan
Isis:
Morrigan:
Nuala:
"That makes us--this family tree is a thornbush, I don't know if you noticed--I guess...second cousins?"
Natalia Angevine:
Tanith Beckett:

the waters turn from blue to red, as towards the sky i offer it

peacefully

Alexander Georgiou:
"You have an old soul, you know." "I get that a lot."
Langdon Angevine:
Lugh:
"You are my daughter--but for that thrice-damned mouth of yours. You must have gotten that from your mother."
Nash'ah Sadiq Antar:
Niklas Angevine:
Osiris:
Robbie Angevine:
Stelios:
"How many of your English words do I need to call her provocative? What's the word for 'troublemaker' in this tongue?"

this is a gift, it comes with a price

I must cap myself at 20 songs here. THERE ARE ONLY 17.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Make You Feel Better" :: Somehow we'll make it, because that's what we do.
Green Day - "The Last of the American Girls" :: Like a hurricane in the heart of the devastation, she's a natural disaster.
Cobra Starship - "Hot Mess" :: You were a problem child, been grounded your whole life, so now you're running wild, playing with them good girls.
Pink - "18 Wheeler" :: Hey, hey, girl, are you ready for today? You got your shield and sword, because it's time to play the games.
Eve 6 - "Superhero Girl" :: So break the bruised monogamy, and let him fade to memory; your erotic wet atomic eyes keep reoccurring in my mind.
Girls - "Lust For Life" :: Yeah, I'm just crazy, I'm fucked in the head, and maybe if I really try with all of my heart then I could make a brand new start.
Taio Cruz - "Break Your Heart" :: I know karma's gonna get me back for being so cold...if you fall for me, I'm not easy to please, I might tear you apart.
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - "Stay Alive" :: Don't you try to shoot up the sky; tonight we'll stay alive, and when it's gone you sit and stare until the golden dawn.
Iron & Wine - "Woman King" :: Hundred years, hundred more; someday we may see a woman king, sword in hand, swing at some evil and bleed.
All Time Low - "Lost In Stereo" :: She's trouble in a tank top, pretty little time bomb blowing up. Switchblade attitude, snakebite heart, she's sex in stereo.
IAMX - "Mercy" :: Are the licks and the lips of temptation just tricks, not for playing? Are you the camera suck, gun slut to headphones to fuck holes in my being?
La Roux - "Bulletproof" :: Been there, done that, messed around, I'm having fun, don't put me down. I'll never let you sweep me off my feet.
Poe - "Control" :: I've been open, and I've been closed like a book, and burned down like a written sin. So if you wanna play dirty darling, I'm gonna win.
Vienna Teng - "Hope On Fire" :: You've gotta stop lying still, because this is no kind of life. You don't need guarantees, you just want something to build.
Emilie Autumn - "Thank God I'm Pretty" :: Thank God I'm pretty, so that every skill I ever have will be in question.
Patrick Wolf - "Magpie" :: We will sing: one for sorrow, two for joy. Three for a girl, four for a boy. Five for silver, six for gold. Seven for a secret, never to be told.
OK Go - "Invincible" :: When they finally come to destroy the Earth, they'll have to deal with you first. I bet they won't be expecting that.

who is the lamb and who is the knife?

Josephine strongly favors her mother's Temani family, with long black hair, eyes so dark they could easily be called black, too, and olive-brown skin. She is tall, a shade under 5'11", and around 130 pounds; her physical appearance is the sort that causes some blithely well-meaning but slightly offensive people to call her "exotic" (olive skin and a clearly nonwhite ethnicity earn that regardless of how American you really are), or, for the occasional individual looking to minimize or demean her pursuits, "a glorified Maxim model." She doesn't really suffer as a result of being a large-chested Amazon, because that's not how reality works, but it does mean sometimes people don't take her seriously, as a combatant or as an intellectual mind; on rarer occasions, they interpret sexual competitiveness in her personality that isn't really there. Jo nevertheless doesn't adjust her manner of dress a bit, and so she tends toward a variety: sometimes it's miniskirts and leather jackets, sometimes it's shorts and cowboy boots, sometimes it's expensive trousers and silk blouses with high heels, and sometimes it's the type of fashionable dresses she pretty much never thought she'd be able to afford. She likes classic, old-school perfume (Dior Miss Dior is her personal favorite for evening, these days, and Patou's Divine Folie for days), but doesn't always wear it, and it's not always the same thing.

midas is king and he holds me so tight

tiredly

current events/storylines

he turns me to gold in the sunlight; this is a gift

Josephine Benoit is a fictional character hailing from Scion: Hero, which belongs to White Wolf Publishing, and Moran Atias's very unique and very often unclothed likeness is used purely for representative purposes. The lyrics used as category titles are employed as the character's theme song, which is "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)" by Florence + The Machine, and it can be heard here, if you're curious.