Madison Black

Come to bed, don't make me sleep alone Lithium, don't wanna lock me up inside Lithium, don't wanna forget how it feels without Lithium, I wanna stay in love with my sorrow Oh, but God I wanna let it go... Couldn't hide the emptiness, you let it show Never wanted it to be so cold Just didn't drink enough to say you love me I can't hold on to me. Wonder what's wrong with me? Lithium - Evanescence _____________________________ Madison Blanchette was a victim of the system, plain and simple. Born from her mother's high school fling with a local boy, Madi spent most of her developmental years with her paternal grandmother as her own mother and father lost themselves into drugs and drink. After her father's arrest and his family's refusal to enable him any longer she was given back to her mother at the age of six and spent the next few years surviving by sheer luck alone. It was when her mother was at her most functional, a dependa to a sweet soldier named Darren Scott, that Madi was able to really flourish both as a student and a young kid. But as everything in her life it was short lived; between her mother losing her battle to her addiction and Darren being put on active duty, the fifteen year old was left as one of the many homeless youth of Hartford.

It was shortly before her seventeenth birthday in 1994 that Madi was brought into the hospital after a good samaritan called in her passed out from a fever by the riverside underpass. And after assessment was transferred to the IOL to help with her detrioriating mental health. It was at the Institute she met Dr. Magdalena Black, the current Prince of Hartford. There was something about the broken soul that spoke to the Malkavian and Maggie ghouled her immediately, resolving to give her a second chance at the world. Even going so far as to help fast track her education and grease the bureaucratic wheels necessary for her to claim her medical degree. This time in the asylum was the happiest of her life, though even as a ghoul Maggie refused to bring her thrall to the Court proper.

All joy however ended swiftly; on Sunday June 27th, 1999 Madison lost herself into a violent fit, unable to separate the real from psychosis and Magdalena was forced to lock her ghoul in a quiet room in full body restraints before being called away by multiple panicked calls from her clan mates. On Monday June 28th, 1999 Zapathasura, the Antediluvian of the Ravnos Clan awoke, ushering in the Week of Nightmares. And while she fought valiantly, Magdalena met Final Death during the battle, all while psychically connected to her ghoul back in Hartford who found herself trapped in a Frenzy.

How she got free she never properly figured out, nor how in the subsequent chaos as the entire asylum descended into madness she got ahold of the mirror. But the result was the same and Madison Blanchette breathed her last in an attempt to follow her Domitor into Oblivion. The blood in her system however, had another idea entirely.

It was the voices upon the Cobweb that kept her alive, and her newfound clan mates that guided her the first few months of her life as a fledgling. Lost and delirious, haunting the bowels of the asylum as a ghost of herself before finally coming to her senses enough to throw herself upon the mercy of the new prince and his court.

The Fates were kind twice over; Prince Julian St. John had been a dear friend of her sire and immediately upon seeing the lost Malkavian took a personal and affectionate liking to her, a sentiment shared with the first Kindred she ever spoke to. When she entered Elysium, guided by the whispers in her mind, she found her way to a side table and shyly asked the gentlemen in a long coat and top hat with half his face a mess of burn scars if she could sit beside him. Oblivious that Dr. Viktor Vandemar, the then Primogen of Clan Malkavian, would be called up to witness not only his own brother's execution but be spared for whatever reason St. John had at the time...

Perhaps it was his co-dependency that latched on to his clanmate as a surrogate for his obsession. Perhaps it was Fate's twisted way of guaranteeing she would be where she needed to be come the End Days, but Viktor and Madison became inseparable. From mentor to devoted loves they never parted from each other's side. The pair shared everything, even the blood bond desperate for a companion in the long nights ahead despite her strong hold on her humanity and his nigh abandonment of it. After one of their more insidious clan elders kidnapped and assaulted Madison, Viktor ashed him brutally before whisking her back to their Haven. In the hidden tunnels beneath the mansion he led her, blindfolded so as to hide his experiments and victims from her, through a series of traps and mirrored halls before coming to his brother's crypt. And in that place that stored the ashes of both of the ones they had lost, Viktor proposed with a large diamond, the only flaw a deep crack in the heart of it mimicking the symbol of their shared blood before stealing her away to Europe for a year of simple bliss.

It was when they returned to Hartford that everything changed. St. John had begged Madi to escape with him when the Justicars bid him home in the hopes of getting her away from Viktor. But love blinded her beyond a multitude of sins and it was when her last sanctuary left that the veil was ripped from her eyes. Viktor would stay away for extended periods of time, not bothering to attend the monthly Court meetings at Elysium through multiple Praxis and Princes unless it served him. It was in this loneliness and grief that Madi faced her first Earthbound demon, the one and only time the pacifist ever struck out at another person to save Viktor's life. But even that action seemed pointless, as his only response was to steal the body of the possessed Hunter and make off with it leaving her to clean up the mess he made of the Masquerade. Eventually the position of Primogen was stripped from him and given to her as she had always acted as his second-in-command. Soon his absences even included her, as he would disappear for weeks at a time, coming back only to feed her blood and spend the bare necessity of effort to keep his wife appeased. It was the blood bond now that kept her loyal to him even as her heart shattered each time he would return, features losing what little humanity he had into a cold indifference. Eventually all physicality and affection fell to the wayside, followed shortly by any sign of emotion towards her. The Viktor she loved existed only in memory. And while she had made many friends across multiple clans (most notably the Gangrel who taught her Protean for her own protection) it was Viktor she longed for.

In fall of 2005, after six weeks of no contact, Madi attended the Northeast Gathering of Kindred. An event that three important things happened that changed her stars forever; meeting her mentor on the path of the Watchtower, Malkav pulling her into his mind and the past to bless her mind with not only knowledge of the coming End Times but beyond the scope of her previous capability, but confirmation that Viktor had not only abandoned her for the Sabbat as a Bishop of New York but to a Tzimisce woman who had been wooing him onto Path of Death and the Soul when she attacked Elysium hellbent on not only Madi's murder but an attempt on Justicar Pascek and his Archons.

Once more, Madi broke irrevocably.

The next years passed in fragments; staying in Hartford until she couldn't bare it any longer before moving to Springfield and into the care of some of Clan Assamite that she had previously helped without any selfish motivations. Perhaps it was because of what she had done to save their elder, perhaps it was because the Children of Haqim would always protect the 'little brothers' of Clan Malkavian, either way she was brought into the fold and taught to become as one of them. Violet was born of her madness and their compassion, and as such she found a home and family on the Mountain for seven years as they remade her into a person whom all the pain that dogged her steps would be unable to destroy ever again.

It was after a Praxis attempt on the Malkavian peacock prince of Hartford that Madi nearly lost her life, staked in the heart by her own clanmate who believed she truly was an Assamite until her cries of pain shattered his mind across the Web. And while her life was spared, it came on the heels of his judgment that Viktor had not only taken up the mantle of Priscus but had diablerized the Malkavian Justicar for the Glory of Caine. To spare her life, she was smuggled out of the city by her adopted clan and was brought to Boston. The hope being that in the Giovanni run and Sabbat occupied city would be a decent enough place to try and figure out how to save her husband's life but not before he was placed upon the Red List for his crimes.

In 2018 Madi made her way to Europe once more to throw herself upon the mercy of the Justicar Council and whatever happened from there remains a mystery. In January of 2019 Madi once more appeared in open court, this time down in New Orleans and after proving herself to be a dedicated and loyal member of the Camarilla she was given the position of Keeper of Elysium by Prince Hastings.

The rumors of her being on Golconda are a matter of public debate, though no one has ever bothered to outright ask her about it instead steering the conversation to her thrice damned Anathema husband.

During the events of the Apocalypse, Madison was captured by Caine and has been seen in chains at his feet as his own personal pet Oracle. Due to having her name added to the ritual performed by Becca Whateley, Madi possesses knowledge of the Apocalypse and the Final Nights firsthand.

After the trial of Evelynn Cavendish; the Justicar Council has stripped her of her title of Prince, declaring Praxis for the minimum of one moon with a replacements of the entire Court of their choosing. Because of this her position has been stripped as Keeper of Elysium and she has been forbidden from coming into physical contact with the party by the Justicar Council. However she has continued to try and help out her fellow archons whose freedoms as well as comings and goings are less limited and monitored than her own.