Vanessa Stone

Vanessa Stone (art by Ryuki)

Name: Vanessa Stone
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: Cochise High School
Hobbies and Interests: Guitar, softball, driving, video games.

Appearance: Vanessa stands at 5’8” and weighs 148 lbs. She has a somewhat toned build and sports a noticeably large chest. Her warm olive skin is further tanned from her constant time spent outdoors.

She has long, wavy black hair with dyed red tips that she generally wears loose, coming down to her shoulders in the front and back, though she ties it back into a ponytail for softball. Her face is square in shape, with rounded grey eyes that often sport mascara, a button nose and a voluptuous mouth which possesses a stud piercing just below the right side. Her ears are slightly long for her head, but she generally hides them under her hair.

Vanessa wears a lot of arm decorations, such as charm bracelets and spikey wristbands. She also often wears a red choker styled like a collar. She has recently gained a tribal style coyote head tattoo on her left bicep.

Vanessa’s choice of clothing tends to show a lot of skin. She favours vests, tank tops and belly-tees, usually sporting rock band logos or animal motifs, as well as cargo shorts or hot pants. For shoes, she usually sticks to a pair of long boots that come up to just below her knees. Generally she chooses her wardrobe to abide by the school dress code by as fine a line as possible, but she has been disciplined for violating it in the past.

In the winter, she usually opts for a jacket over a shirt, as well as swapping to a pair of jeans.

On the day of the abduction, she was wearing a grey tank top with the Rolling Stones logo, a pair of blue jean shorts that came up half an inch above the school dress code, along with a pink belt, and a pair of black combat boots. On her left wrist she had three wristbands: a tan leather one, a green rubber one and a red spiked wristband, as well as three metal bracelets of varying thickness. She was also wearing her red collar-styled choker and her spider-bite piercing.

Biography: Vanessa was born to Caitlin Stone née Suarez and Steven Stone in Phoenix, Arizona. Caitlin was a Venezuelan who’d studied in the states and became a lawyer working in Phoenix. She met Steven, an Arizona native who was qualifying as an actuary, through a dating service. The two married two years after meeting, after which Vanessa’s older sister Liza was born two years afterwards, and Vanessa herself came two years after that.

As Caitlin had taken a lot of time off work after Liza was born, she decided to become a stay at home mother full time after Vanessa came along to look after her two daughters. Steven’s income at this point was more than sufficient to support the decision, but Caitlin insisted on moving out of Phoenix: she was never fond of the big city and had been discussing moving to a smaller town with Steven for years. The two finally moved to Kingman when Vanessa was three years old, finding a comfortable three bedroom house for themselves.

Steven continued working in Phoenix and tended towards becoming engrossed in his work, which meant he was away from home most of the time. Whilst Liza and Vanessa only got to see their dad on the occasional weekend for the most part, the visits were full of treats and outings to make up for his absence. Caitlin was more firm about treating the girls, being responsible for the disciplining side of the parenting and making sure they behaved.

Vanessa was very excited to start kindergarten, having heard fun stories from her older sister. Whilst a part of her had intended to stick near Liza at first, she found herself quickly branching out and befriending the other kids. She had a very forward approach with people that made it easy for her to meet new people, but she did have difficulty dealing with people who rebuffed her for whatever reason; she learned that she could get their attention by irritating or poking fun at them, though she found herself feeling guilty when they became upset. She would quickly forget these feelings however and resume provoking people who didn’t acknowledge her.

Liza and Vanessa had a very close relationship as kids: Vanessa looked to Liza for leadership and guidance, and Liza enjoyed playing the big sister role. When Liza started playing softball towards the end of elementary school, Vanessa decided to join in and found herself loving the game. She enjoyed getting to practice with her sister and the team, but she enjoyed challenging herself to improve and beating other people even more. As a result of her passion, she continued taking part in softball throughout her school career.

It was also towards the end of elementary school that she picked up her passion for the guitar. After playing Guitar Heroes III at a friend’s house, she wanted her own version to play. Her father, always eager to please, got the game for the family’s Wii console, and Vanessa spent countless hours perfecting it. She decided afterwards that she wanted to try the real thing, and got an electric guitar for her eleventh birthday.

Whilst she was slow to learn the theory side of music, partly exacerbated by a poor teacher, she picked up the technical side of the instrument fairly quickly, memorising many chords and becoming adept at fingering. She would generally learn music through rote memorisation, rather than relying on knowing the underlying notes or musical foundations. At the time she generally played whatever sounded good to her, having no strictly defined musical interest.

On the first day of middle school, she met her future best friend, Cameron Herrig. The two quickly bonded over their shared passion for the guitar, whilst Cameron’s tactless way of speaking meshed with Vanessa’s forward approach to other people. During a fit of excitement she suggested the two should team up with their guitar skills, which resulted in the eventual formation of the band Peyote Coyote.

As Vanessa developed physically, she started to get involved in the idea of dating. When she found herself at the attention of a few boys, she was flattered but unsure how to react. Though she tried going on a few dates, she became very uncomfortable with the idea of kissing, and was quick to break off relationships once they started to head in that direction. Eventually she started to get a negative reputation for her frequent dating amongst the girls, whilst the boys began to treat her like a tease.

The reputation started to upset her, but the support from her friends allowed her to cope. She decided that she wasn’t interested in a relationship when she started high school, and was quick to turn down people who tried anything more than a casual flirt in her direction.

Whilst Vanessa had long since grown used to her father’s limited presence in her life, his increasing workload was beginning to make him feel guilty about not spending more time with his family. As a result, he began to spoil them excessively when Vanessa entered high school, giving them generous allowances and frequently doting on them with lavish gifts. Caitlin grew frustrated with Steve’s approach to her daughters, but appreciated that he wanted to feel more connected to them. However, she still tried her best to keep her daughters grounded and not become spoilt.

Although Liza and Vanessa still enjoyed a healthy relationship with their mother, Vanessa came to see her as something of a strict disciplinarian compared to her father. The two often butted heads, especially when Vanessa began to rebel.

Taking after the rock bands that she’d been exposed to through Peyote Coyote, Vanessa began to alter her fashion to show off her body more, enjoying how it looked on her. Whilst she was cautious about the reputation she’d experienced in middle school, she preferred to feel comfortable in her clothing than to let other people dictate her dress. She got her lip piercing when she was fifteen, pleading with her dad to let her get it with him as her accompanying guardian, much to her mother’s dismay.

During Vanessa’s sophomore year, Liza came out as a lesbian to the family. Vanessa was unsure how to respond to the situation; she didn’t consider herself to be intolerant, but it changed her view of her sister all the same. Though she tried to accept it, not wanting it to cause a rift between them, she struggled when she realised how uncomfortable she was with the idea.

A few months after Liza came out, Cameron came out as bisexual to Vanessa. She found out that the idea that her best friend could possibly be physically interested in her was even more discomforting. Though she worked hard to not let it ruin their friendship, and eventually she was able to come to terms with the news, she still finds herself feeling awkward when Cameron teases her with playful banter. Whilst she’s asked Cameron not to do this, it has yet to take with her.

After passing her driving test in her junior year, her father gifted her with her prized jeep. She took great pride in having her own vehicle and began using it to go everywhere. She also began taking long drives with no particular direction in mind, be they around town or through the desert, and likes to consider herself Peyote Coyote’s driver. She finds long drives with the radio blaring to be very relaxing, and often uses it to unwind.

Academically, Vanessa underachieves. She generally maintains a B or C average in most subjects, a result of her natural intelligence being hindered by her inherent laziness towards things she’s not interested in. She has been known to achieve A grades when she works, something her teachers and parents constantly try to encourage her, but she has shown herself to be disinterested in most schoolwork and only puts effort in when offered a suitable bribe. She shows the best proficiency in mathematics and humanities subjects, with other subjects hovering around a level of low achievement. Whilst she does well in Spanish, thanks to her mother speaking it at home, she isn’t quite bilingual.

Socially, Vanessa gets on well with a lot of people. In addition to her band, she has friends on the softball team as well as amongst her peers. She retains her forward personality with people, but is also careful to mind what she says and considers herself able to adapt socially to most people. Though she still retains her self-centred attitude and habit of provoking people who dismiss her, she means well for her friends and tries to keep their best interests at heart.

Vanessa continues to avoid dating her peers. Whilst she is fine with some friendly flirting with the guys, she gets put off very quickly if people try to get intimate with her. Though she doesn’t consider herself asexual, she still has yet to feel comfortable with the idea of getting physical with people, and often finds herself disliking being touched in general.

After playing on her family’s Wii console when she was younger, Vanessa developed a taste for video gaming that she still has to this day. She sticks to console games, specifically her PlayStation 3, and her favourite genre is first person shooters for their competitive element; she also enjoys RPGs if she finds them to be challenging enough. She generally only uses video gaming as a time filler when she doesn’t have softball practice or plans with her friends, but she enjoys it all the same.

Whilst attending a party with Liza in her junior year, who was visiting home after heading to Arizona State a few months earlier, Vanessa wound up getting exposed to peyote through one of her sister’s friends. She was already used to drinking at these parties to lower her inhibitions, so she assumed that the peyote would allow her to enjoy them even more. The ensuing trip left her feeling inspired musically, and the next day she created one of the few compositions she’s written in her life. She since got into the habit of doing peyote with the band, though Peyote Coyote was named before-hand. Whilst she doesn’t consider herself to have a problem, she has begun taking the substance more and more frequently lately and often drives out into the desert with the group to get inspired. She generally keeps her family in the dark about this habit, though her mother is starting to get concerned.

Vanessa continues to play on the softball team at Cochise high. She has played in a number of positions over the years, and whilst she currently plays as basewoman for the team, she has her eye on the pitcher position. She aimed to be the team’s captain, again as a means to be in the spotlight, but unfortunately lost out on the position to Sandra Dyer, which she has moved on from for the most part.

Musically, Vanessa continues to play guitar in a technical manner. Though Peyote Coyote favours stoner rock, Vanessa doesn’t really feel any particular draw to the genre, or any genre: she just likes to listen to whatever sounds good to her. She does have a soft spot for 80’s pop music such as Cyndi Lauper and Bonnie Tyler, but she doesn’t think the rest of the band would go for covering the style.

Within Peyote Coyote, Vanessa serves as one of the two guitarists along with Cameron, as well as previously acting as the band’s front woman and singer. Though she is good at projecting her personality on the stage, her singing leaves something to be desired as she is often flat. It was for this reason that she found her position as singer being replaced by Coleen Reagan, a change that caused her a lot of frustration and anger.

She doesn’t consider the band to be a professional vocation, but more something she does for fun with her friends and for the glamour that she feels being in a band brings. They typically play house parties or whatever gig presents itself.

Although Vanessa had no plans to attend college previously, her parents’ insistence combined with Cameron’s own plans to attend Arizona State made her reconsider. She has decided to study business at her father’s suggestion, a decision that was partly incentivised through promising to fund an apartment for her and Cameron if she did so. To make sure she could attend the college, she has since begun putting more effort into the relevant subjects, bringing her average up to a steady A grade in those topics.

Advantages: Vanessa is in good shape from her years of softball, with excellent motor skills, and she is a capable socialite with people she’s not in conflict with. She has a lot of confidence in herself and her way of doing things, so she’s unlikely to start doubting herself on the island. In spite of her lazy demeanour, she does possess a sharp intellect.
Disadvantages: Vanessa is used to getting her own way, and has difficulty dealing with situations that go against this. She tends to provoke people who don’t acknowledge her, which will both hinder her forming new relationships and may result in grudges from school carrying over.

Designated Number: Female student No. 050

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Designated Weapon: Bag of weed and blunt wraps

Conclusion: Sadly for G050, daddy isn't on the island to dote over her highness and that bad attitude is gonna get her in trouble. Luckily she got the perfect thing to chill her ass out.- Josie Knight

The above biography is as written by Slamexo. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.

Evaluations

Handled by: Slamexo

Kills: None

Killed By: Maxim Kehlenbrink

Collected Weapons: Bag of weed and blunt wraps (assigned weapon), table leg (taken from the staff lounge)

Allies: Min-jae Parker

Enemies: Alessio Rigano, Maxim Kehlenbrink

Mid-game Evaluation: Vanessa awoke in the staff wing of the asylum, and spent some time exploring after discovering her assigned weapon. She came across a distressed Nancy Kyle in the staff lounge, and they shared some tense conversation. Vanessa attempted to calm Nancy down, but was distracted by the realization that several of her friends had not been on the trip and thus were not on the island.

Vanessa and Nancy were startled by an injured Min-jae Parker collapsing outside the lounge. Nancy fled, but Vanessa went to offer aid and helped Jae tend to his injuries. After taking some time to recover, Vanessa and Jae decided to move on together to search for their friends. They headed up to the rooftop, where they came across Travis Lynch and Cass Prince. While the four of them had a peaceful exchange, Vanessa's composure started to crack and she disturbed Trav and Cass with a laughing fit and yelled when they tried to calm her. She saw that the situation was getting tense and she left with Min-jae again.

The next day she and Jae traveled to the radio tower, where they heard the announcements and found Eliza Luz. Eliza was crying, several names on the announcements being familiar to her. Vanessa tried her best to comfort Eliza despite the personal awkwardness. Hazel Jung and Jordan Green arrived soon after. The groups split apart shortly afterwards, Hazel and Jordan left with Jae and Eliza also left on her own mission. Vanessa was able to take a bit of comfort in reuniting Hazel and Jae, at least, and determined to continue to search for her own friends, especially Cameron Herrig.

Her search took most of the day and provided no bounty. She eventually found herself near the rooftop and ascended back there, vaguely hoping to meet Trav and Cass again and apologize for her earlier awkwardness, but they were by that point long gone. Vanessa realized then that she had company, Alessio Rigano had approached her, at a distance, from behind. It took prompting from him for her to realize he was a familiar face, and she asked him for information about Cameron. His behavior was awkward and she wasn't able to deal with it well, especially when he threw a confession of affection at her. She tried to reject him as gently as she could, and quickly made her exit, unsure of how else to proceed.

She wandered the asylum halls on Day 3, mood ruined since her former ally Jae had turned out to be a killer. She then walked into a death scene, after hearing Vincenzo/a Gatti calling her friends name. Cameron had been stabbed in the gut and left to die, and Vanessa could only watch stunned as Enzo tried and failed to staunch the bleeding. Vanessa finally came to her senses and forced Enzo out of the way so she could hold her friend, but Cameron was already gone. She turned on Enzo, and the confrontation quickly escalated as Vanessa started to blame Enzo for not having saved Cameron as a bystander. Enzo tried to defend themself but Vanessa refused to hear it, and Enzo eventually left, fed up. Vanessa's temper abated too late for her to run after her still living friend, and she was left alone. She mourned for a while, and ended up taking Cameron's bandana as an arm wrap, to remember her by. Vanessa was dissatisfied, but didn't know what else she could do.

Vanessa fled the asylum, reflecting painfully on the memories of her old friend. She learned Cameron's killer was Alessio, but unfortunately she didn't recognize the name despite having met him earlier. She searched the supply depot's storehouse, hearing people, and accidentally stumbled onto Kaitlyn Greene using the bathroom in a supply closet, which she found absolutely hilarious, the first laugh she'd managed to have in a while. Their conversation started off on a good foot, casual, but both girl's less than friendly sides became apparent as Vanessa asked for Al so she could hunt him down, and recalled in turn that Kaitlyn was a killer. Vanessa verbally pried as un-subtly as she could for a motive, curious. Kait pounced, and laid out a mutual alliance where they could help each other with their goals, Vanessa was reluctant but Kait insistent. Vanessa initially agreed, believing her goal of revenge would be best served with the alliance, but not even a few minutes of musing on Kait's behavior made her realize the alliance was risky, too risky, so she lied to escape the situation.

She returned to the asylums art room by Day 6, inconclusively musing on the announcements revealing that others, including her old bandmate Coleen Reagan, had killed. She found the corpse of Mitch Settles and was squeamish, but approached with the best grim humor she knew how to wear. She was then startled by Kimiko Kao, who Vanessa didn't immediately recognize, but she did recognize a gun and spoke quickly to assure Kimiko there was no trouble if she didn't want any. Vanessa was assured she'd be safe, and the two began to awkwardly converse. They were both quick to admit their time on island so far had been less than kind to them, but Kimiko had no information on Al. Vanessa asked for Kimiko's name, and was quickly taken aback when she learned it, Kimiko grew quiet and standoffish but Vanessa was suddenly inclined to pry, to gain insight into the motives of killers like Al. Kimiko initially refused to answer but Vanessa wouldn't let her off the hook, she pressed Kimiko to make herself clear. That began to draw out Kimiko's temper, Kimiko insisted in longhand that Vanessa wouldn't understand, which Vanessa found laughable and infuriating at once, she spit back that Kimiko's motivations were idiotic and inconsistent. Kimiko's body language grew aggressive as they continued to argue, Vanessa was unfazed and stood her ground. In the end Vanessa was able to vaguely get Kimiko to agree to something before departing, though Vanessa couldn't be sure what she felt she'd perhaps managed to put second thoughts about Kimiko's killer destiny into her head, and was satisfied.

That evening she returned to the scene of Cameron's death, or tried to rather, but she failed to force herself to pass through the door of the storage closet, distracted by her own thoughts.

A day passed without event, and come the afternoon of Day 8 Vanessa's hunt for Alessio brought her to the burnt husk of the library, where she found Maxim Kehlenbrink and was friendly but more inclined this time to keep her distance. Something about him seemed off to her, and she cut to the chase and asked for Al. Maxim knew him, and then after a brief back and forth he indicated that he was behind her. It was false pretense, as when she turned he quickly attacked, landing a bolt in her shoulder with his bow. The pain was intense but she still had the energy to run, but tripped over the rough terrain of the burnt out library and collapsed, unable to recover as Maxim closed the distance. She was surprised, confused, scared, but also furiously defiant to the end, spitting at him and yelling as he brought a hammer down onto her skull.

Post-Game Evaluation: Man, that's not bad at all. Dead's dead at the end of the day and she loses points for being tripping death rip-off 46-point-0, but she at least had some fucking attitude. - Josie Knight

Memorable Quotes: “Christ, Cams, way to make this hard.” -- Turning up empty handed after a day of searching for Cameron.

“Fuckin’ A’, this what you do when you’re not at school? Or should I give a heads up to the janitors?” -- Laughing, after finding Kaitlyn relieving herself in a closet.

“If you’re going to go and kill like, half a dozen people, you can at least show a little fucking commitment either way.” -- To Kimiko when she tries to shrug off her commitment to being a killer.

“EAT SHIT AND DIE!” -- Her final words for her killer, in her final moments of life.

Threads

Below is a list of threads that contain Vanessa, in chronological order.

Memories:

• Take My Bones Away

V6 Pregame:

• Pitches
• Smoke On Her Face
• Said and Done

Sadie Hawkins' Dance:

• My Freeze Ray

V6:

• デビュー
• Five Finger Death Punch
• We're Here Because We're Here
• Sunset Boulevard
• Shock Me
• Dark Necessities
• Resident Evil
• Keep Cam and Carry On
• This Nearly Was Mine

Your Thoughts

Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Vanessa Stone. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!

• Not terribly pleased with the result. Vanessa makes for a good example of a character having plenty of potential plotlines but none of them actually paying off. We could blame it on rolls, but it's not like she didn't have any opportuniies to capitalise on them when she was still kicking. Let this be a lesson in being more proactive in making your story arcs unfold. ~ Slam