Post by MORAG MACBETH on Jan 10, 2013 20:22:53 GMT -5
Morag Finley Macbeth
"Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t.”
OOC:My name is Nessie, I don’t wish to reveal my age, I’ve been roleplaying for (good grief…) around nine years now and I found RC way back when I was a crazy fanfiction writer at ff.net. Good times!
Canon: ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare. I’m playing three villains from three different Shakespeare tragedies. What does that say about me? :/
Face-claim: Kate Walsh
Social Status: High class – Although most of Morag’s money is made through criminal means she doesn’t look down on her husband’s role in the mob, joins him, and is happy to wear the metaphorical fur coat. Also, in aiming to distance herself from her poor past and drawn to the luxuries she can now afford, she ends up splashing a lot of cash.
Occupation: For all outward appearances Morag is an actress, recognizable but not as consequential in the business as one may first believe. However she puts her acting skills to good use in her work with the Scottish mob – a role of which only her husband and fellow mobsters are aware.
Age: 36, looks slightly older
Appearance:
With her fiery hair and her height, Morag Macbeth is a woman who would easily come across as intimidating on a first impression – and that first impression would not be far wrong. Using her height to her advantage, she carries herself in a proud and sometimes even defiant manner, while her hair colour is reflected in the French proverb "Redheaded women are either violent or false, and usually are both." Although she does not let this define her, in some cases she does live up to redheaded stereotypes, as evidenced in her extroverted nature and her temper.
In contrast to her bright hair, Morag’s clothes are, in general, relatively inconspicuous, especially considering the wealth she has at her disposal and the fact she enjoys making use of it. Her clothes consist mainly of smart jeans, jumpers, blouses, a couple of skirts - save for a few choice items (such as a faux fur coat) and particular pieces of jewellery. The latter have particular sentimental significance – especially the simple silver bracelet which was given to her by her father, which she constantly wears. She also has a particular fondness for her tartan skirt – she may not like to be reminded of her past but she is proud of her country and her heritage.
Overall Personality:
Morag – ‘the great one’ - Morag feels she has suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in her past, but that due to this she is now a far greater person – stronger, wiser and, most importantly, more powerful. From her initially poor beginnings she has certainly grown – she can now play the mob on a more even footing, and she has a great deal of persuasive power, whether that be through her sharp tongue, bribery or her use of ‘feminine wiles’. Morag can be charming when the need arises, although her polite veneer may simply be her acting coming to the fore, trying to shed vocal and physical (appearance-wise) ties to her past.
Finley – ‘fair warrior’ - Finley is traditionally a Gaelic male name, but it fits Morag well. After the death of her son Morag vowed to withdraw from ideas of feminine ‘weakness’ and, in joining the mob, aspired no longer to the traditional feminine role of a mother but instead to a dominant role in a traditionally male world.
Macbeth – ‘Good fortune is allied to bravery’ - Morag is well aware her current high status is due more to criminality than anything else, but surely that in and of itself is a form of bravery? Morag is able to get ahead due to her determined nature and her ambition – to this end she can become easily frustrated with those whom she deems hesitant or weak-willed.
Likes, dislikes:
Likes: Success, instant gratification, the sound of applause
Dislikes: Being perceived as weak (‘Good fortune is allied to bravery’, after all), being reminded of her past, not being clearly understood
Goals, fears:
Goals: Keeping her involvement in the murder of Duncan a secret, keeping her two lives separate, helping her husband become leader of the Scottish mob
Fears: Having others discover her involvement in Duncan’s murder, failure, remorse
Overall History:
ooc: Just so you are aware, I’ve tried to leave the events of this history and the events of the play, for Macbeth’s part, as vague as possible for the benefit of potential future roleplayers in this canon.
Morag Mackinnon was born in 1976 in a poor area of Glasgow. Her parents, contrary to the prevalent lack of morals in this area, were strict in adhering to the values of their parent’s generation. Suffice to say they did not approve of this generation’s looser morals, and instructed their only daughter accordingly. This was not to say they were overly harsh or strict parents – on the contrary, both loved and cared for their daughter dearly, although Morag’s mother was less averse to dealing out punishments when her daughter got into mischief.
On her thirteenth birthday, Morag’s father gave her a simple silver bracelet (for which he and his wife had saved up for for at least a year), inscribed with the ancient Mackinnon motto ‘Fortune assists the daring’. This was a motto the young Morag took to heart, though perhaps not in the sense her parents would have expected. For them, daring was synonymous with perseverance, carrying on despite the adversity of their situation. For Morag, daring meant just that – daring. It was not long before she found an outlet for this new embellishment of her personality/misinterpretation – having started small through truancy and minor acts of vandalism she soon found herself a member of one of the areas many street gangs.
Her parents remained blissfully unaware of this change in their daughter (it seems her acting career began in these years) but all this changed when Morag confessed to them that she was pregnant when she was sixteen. Fear made her tell her parents all – from the gang she had joined to her boyfriend, ____ Macbeth. Needless to say, both her mother and her father were furious, with her mother even going so far as threatening to disown her. It was Morag’s father who eventually managed to restore a semblance of calm – breaking out of his shell he managed to meet with the Macbeths and, after an initially hostile reception, arrange for their son and his daughter to marry, in a simple ceremony at a registrar’s office.
Although the marriage was clearly an attempt on Morag’s parents’ part to perform damage control on their reputation and that of their daughter, it was also clear that the couple genuinely loved one another, and the unorthodox circumstances of their marriage, it seemed, only served to heighten this. Morag Macbeth gave birth to her son five months after the marriage – she chose to name him Kerr (which means ‘man of strength’). However, the child did not live up to his name - not long after he was born, he fell ill. Morag’s father tried to help her and her husband pay for the child’s treatment, but he was prevented by his wife who, despite the marriage, continued to act coldly towards her daughter. Her mother’s influence over her father meant that Morag received no money from them and since her husband had only a poor paying job, the pair found themselves back amongst the ranks of the gang in order to ‘earn’ the money needed to pay for Kerr’s treatment.
However, the boy’s illness was more serious than had initially been diagnosed, and it soon became clear he could not be treated in Scotland – he would need to be taken to the US. This was more than the Macbeths could afford at this point, even with their unlawful income, but Morag in particular was determined they continue on this path in order to save her son’s life.
They were nearing the required amount when Kerr died.
Kerr’s death led to a profound shift in Morag’s character, which in turn altered the nature of her relationship with her husband. Gone was the passion and idealism of their illicit relationship and first months of marriage – Morag was grief stricken, with her son for dying and for herself, seeing herself as a failure as a mother. She came to blame herself for Kerr’s death and her grief turned to a passionate fury and bitterness. The conclusion was made that it was unfitting for her and her husband to remain in Scotland with their criminal connections and constant reminders of the future they could have had there, and so they eventually resolved to use what money they had raised to travel to the US and start afresh.
This was how the Macbeths came to be in New York City – Morag still trying to come to terms with her loss, her husband anxious both for her wellbeing and their uncertain future. The couple tried to start a new life, as they had said they would, but the past caught up with them in the form of the city’s Scottish mob – its leader, Duncan, was connected to many of the smaller gangs in Glasgow, including the one of which they had been a part.
The pair were initially reluctant to have anything to do with the mob due to their vowing to turn over a new leaf, but failing job prospects and a bleak future, not to mention the fact that Duncan would not accept ‘no’ for an answer, meant they soon joined the mob’s ranks.
As the years went by and they gained greater experience in the mob’s dealings, rising through the ranks, Duncan saw fit to give them appropriate pseudonyms. He had long ago dubbed himself ‘King’ Duncan, harking back to Scotland’s ancient clan past, and accordingly the Macbeths were granted the ‘titles’ of ‘Lord’ and ‘Lady’, in-keeping with the other ‘nobles’ of Duncan’s mob family. This title granted Morag a renewed sense of purpose and self-worth, which she cherished, while this nickname also acted as a useful cover for clandestine operations, distancing Morag from her more noble title as ‘Lady Macbeth’.
However, as Morag and her husband had risen through the ranks of the mob to acquire the aforementioned titles, they had accumulated a great amount of wealth. Morag, seduced by the possibilities of luxuries she could not have imagined when living in Scotland, was eager to put this wealth to good use and change her standing in the outside world – while she and her husband were nobility in criminal circles, in their everyday lives they continued to live inconspicuous, relatively frugal lives. In order to live as lavishly as Morag now aspired, the pair would need to find a suitable ‘outside’ explanation for their wealth – initially purporting a moderate amount of it came from an inheritance, they were also able to use the money to provide their cover in acquiring suitable jobs – bribery and corruption was as common outside of the mob as within it.
It was thus that Morag’s acting career took off – initially playing small roles in small venues, her distinct accent and characteristics in comparison to many of the other hopefuls in the field marked her as ‘unusual’ and ‘exciting’ to the general public and garnered her great acclaim as she rose to prominence (not to mention she wasn’t averse to slipping the directors a subtle wad of hundred dollar bills when the need arose). Acting seemed to come naturally to Morag and, although it may not seem the most stable of jobs, it provided an easily explainable cover for her lavish spending. Not only this but Morag loved to act – she loved the gratification it gave her, the feeling of worth and satisfaction at every laugh from the audience, the sound of applause and taking bows at the curtain call – it enabled her to forget who she was and how she had come to be there, in a way that no other job would have, by allowing her to become someone else entirely. That being said, it is sometimes customary for members of the mob to visit her dressing room after shows in order to relay messages and so forth, as it’s easier to find her there than trying to track her down during the day.
While the Macbeth’s fortunes prospered in the ‘civilized’ world, the Scottish mob itself was not in so fortunate a situation. A series of scuffles with rival mobs, particularly Hector Tormei’s, over ideas of boundaries and territory meant Duncan, Macbeth and other prominent members of the mob were involved in continual conflict. It was after one such territorial dispute in which Macbeth had been involved that Morag received word from her husband concerning a ‘prophecy’ he had been told – that he, Macbeth, ‘shall be King’.
Morag saw this ‘prophecy’ as a sign. If fortune assisted the daring, as her old family motto suggested, then she and her husband would have to live up to this in order to reach the zenith of their success. But how was Macbeth to become leader of the mob – which was the nearest way? It was thus that Morag formulated the plan to kill Duncan, renouncing her previous ‘feminine weaknesses’ (as she termed her past behaviour) and vowing to replace such feelings of kindness and compassion as are traditionally associated with women with direst cruelty. By renouncing traditional feminine ideals, she hoped to make herself a worthy partner of greatness to Macbeth’s enterprise in the murder.
Unfortunately for Morag, her husband was not as convinced, nor as determined as she – not at first. He was hesitant about committing the murder, fearing his inability to go through with the deed, and to deal with its consequences. Morag belittled him, insulted his manhood, scorned his love for her – she even went so far as to say she would have dashed her child’s brains out if she had so sworn as her husband had done. This rejection of her previous maternal emotions indicated just how changed she had become in light of the prophecy, and Macbeth was forced to submit to her desire to have Duncan killed.
Morag would have done the deed herself and saved herself the trouble of persuading her husband, but for all the faults she attributed to Duncan (namely, his leading the mob when she felt Macbeth should), she found that he reminded her painfully of her father – he had cared for her and Macbeth almost as a father might care for a child, taking them under his wing in the mob and ennobling them – another tie to her past that she felt had to be broken.
It so happened that Duncan and some of his entourage were forced to stay the night at the Macbeth’s ‘mob residence’ – a sort of safe house in comparison to their ‘real life’ apartment, in a far less respectable part of the city – due to the on-going tensions between the gangs. Duncan was unable to retire to his own residence without risk of harm and Macbeth, unaware of Morag’s designs at this point, offered him the use of this residence. Morag met Duncan and his followers there and let them in before conveying her aforementioned plan to her husband in secret – and so Duncan came to be murdered by his host, spurred by his gracious hostess.
ooc: In RC time, I shall be beginning to roleplay Morag almost immediately after Duncan’s murder – the death of this well-known and feared criminal leader has caused a sensation in the New York Times and the Scottish mob is leaderless…for now.
Most Influential Event: Arguably either or both of two different events – the death of her son, which lent her character great anger, grief and bitterness, or her learning of the prophecy from her husband, which spurs these feelings to murderous action.
Sample Writing:
It had been an exceptional show. How could it not have been, with a Scottish woman playing Mary, Queen of Scots? Not that Morag was biased, but considering she had to put on a French accent and speak in broad Scots for the role, she felt she deserved the acclaim. Liz Lochhead certainly knew how to write a good play, and ‘Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off’ was no exception.
That being said, Morag highly doubted the majority of the audience had understood it, so steeped as it was in Scotland’s history with a great deal of cultural in-jokes. To be honest, she didn’t know why her director wanted to put on such a Scottish play in New York City but she wasn’t going to complain. She was playing the part of a queen.
A knock on the dressing room door distracted her from her musings. Turning back to the mirror for a moment, Morag applied a swift coat of lipstick before rising and moving to open the door.
“Lady Macbeth?”
Morag raised an eyebrow, first at the unexpected visitor (where was an adoring public when you wanted one?), second at his words. Yes, the pseudonym was useful but Jim didn’t need to actually say it – she knew full well who he was and why he was there.
“Haud yer wheest, Jim! How many times have I telt you, I dinnae want you using that –“ She paused. “Oh, dinnae fash yersel’. Come in.”
Having ushered her fellow mobster into the dressing room she closed the door behind her, offering Jim her vacated seat. She stood, critically observing him.
“Whit d’you want, then? Out wi’ it, I havenae got all nicht.”
“Its Angus…its true, whit’s been bein’ said... He’s left, says he isnae gonna work for the mob nae mair, not wi’ Duncan gone…He reckons it wis an inside job…”
James wasn’t expecting Morag to slap him, but slap him she did, with full force.
“Whit…” he stammered. “Whit the hell wis that fir?”
“We’ve already had Angus fleein’,” Morag said, surprisingly cool and calm considering the blow she had just dealt – and the real reason behind it she would not voice. She inwardly scolded herself - it wasn't like her to betray her emotions like that - was she an actor or wasn't she?- but this was not a play on stage. This was real - it had been an inside job, she had persuaded her husband to kill Duncan. “I dinnae want you spreadin’ any mair suspicion and fear in case others do the same, ye ken?”
Jim nodded, slowly.
A pause.
Then,
“Tha’s no reason to gie me a beltin’, Morag!"
“I hae my ways, Jim,” Morag answered. She had her ways, indeed.
ooc: I felt Lady M wouldn't be Lady M without an accent/some Scottish vocab - will this be OK or would you want some sort of ooc translation at the bottom of each post if meanings aren't immediately obvious? XD
That being said, Morag highly doubted the majority of the audience had understood it, so steeped as it was in Scotland’s history with a great deal of cultural in-jokes. To be honest, she didn’t know why her director wanted to put on such a Scottish play in New York City but she wasn’t going to complain. She was playing the part of a queen.
A knock on the dressing room door distracted her from her musings. Turning back to the mirror for a moment, Morag applied a swift coat of lipstick before rising and moving to open the door.
“Lady Macbeth?”
Morag raised an eyebrow, first at the unexpected visitor (where was an adoring public when you wanted one?), second at his words. Yes, the pseudonym was useful but Jim didn’t need to actually say it – she knew full well who he was and why he was there.
“Haud yer wheest, Jim! How many times have I telt you, I dinnae want you using that –“ She paused. “Oh, dinnae fash yersel’. Come in.”
Having ushered her fellow mobster into the dressing room she closed the door behind her, offering Jim her vacated seat. She stood, critically observing him.
“Whit d’you want, then? Out wi’ it, I havenae got all nicht.”
“Its Angus…its true, whit’s been bein’ said... He’s left, says he isnae gonna work for the mob nae mair, not wi’ Duncan gone…He reckons it wis an inside job…”
James wasn’t expecting Morag to slap him, but slap him she did, with full force.
“Whit…” he stammered. “Whit the hell wis that fir?”
“We’ve already had Angus fleein’,” Morag said, surprisingly cool and calm considering the blow she had just dealt – and the real reason behind it she would not voice. She inwardly scolded herself - it wasn't like her to betray her emotions like that - was she an actor or wasn't she?- but this was not a play on stage. This was real - it had been an inside job, she had persuaded her husband to kill Duncan. “I dinnae want you spreadin’ any mair suspicion and fear in case others do the same, ye ken?”
Jim nodded, slowly.
A pause.
Then,
“Tha’s no reason to gie me a beltin’, Morag!"
“I hae my ways, Jim,” Morag answered. She had her ways, indeed.
ooc: I felt Lady M wouldn't be Lady M without an accent/some Scottish vocab - will this be OK or would you want some sort of ooc translation at the bottom of each post if meanings aren't immediately obvious? XD
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