Headmistress Astronema Lunamati - Vampire

NICKNAME:: Astronema
AGE:: sixhundredandfortynine 28
GENDER:: female
OCCUPATION:: Headmistress of the Academy || Politician
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION::
Astronema is played by: Jennifer Love Hewitt She stands right around six feet tall, but is often much taller thanks to the heels she wears constantly - she doesn't remember a day she didn't wear heels. She has long dark brown hair that is often down in waves or curls, but is also just as often seen pulled up into a bun or other up-do. Occasionally she'll straighten it, but she was raised in an age where curls were the thing and it has kind of stuck. She also has dark brown eyes, and a face with very sharp features, and is very expressive. She usually dresses very professionally, rarely seen out of a dress (that is, after all, how she was raised to dress). She has to be careful with clothes though, because she is very, very curvy, and always has to make sure what she is wearing isn't too revealing. She loves playing with make up, she thinks its one of the best inventions ever. But she rarely strays from neutral colors, and the style can range from very natural and minimalistic to very dramatic.

LIKES::
|| Piano ;; She's been playing since it was invented in the 1700's. Needless to say she's very good.
|| Classical Music/Dancing ;; As a young girl she loved going to the balls and parties, she misses them terribly.
|| Dresses and Shoes ;; SHOPPING. I mean come on. That's one thing she does love about the modern era - soo many clothes. She isn't limited to just one or two anymore.
|| Politics ;; She's currently really fighting for hybrid equality. It's come a long way over the years.
|| Theater ;; She remembers going to see William Shakespeare's plays. She loved it back then and she loves it now. - there are so many more effects they can use now!
|| Books! ;; So many these days.
|| Sunlight ;; She didn't see it for the first time until she was over 300 years old. She still loves it.

DISLIKES::
|| Modern Stuff ;; Music, dancing, culture....no one has any respect these days. She has no patience for it but she tries to be understanding.
|| Technology ;; She loves how it's made life much simpler, but people use it as a crutch to avoid doing things on their own.
|| Traveling ;; She spent much of her younger life traveling Europe with her father and although it is much easier to travel in this modern age, she much prefers to stay around Collision Falls.
|| Lunamati ;; Her father. He disowned her when she married a specialist, and things were even worse when she had Damon. They only ever speak at political conventions now. She likes it better that way.
|| Hatred ;; How anyone can be so closed minded....it blows her mind. Although she used to be that way herself.

POSITIVE::
|| Determined ;; She's been fighting for her beliefs for a long time.
|| Compassionate ;; People in the world around her are important. She always tries to help however she can.
|| Understanding ;; She grew up in a very different world than the kids she works with. She tries to keep that in mind.
|| Adaptable ;; When you've been around for over six hundred years old, the world has changed a lot. And it will continue to change. She's very good at changing with it.
|| Patient ;; When you are over six hundred years old, you learn that you have all the time in the world. She is perfectly happy to waste it waiting. Or reading.

NEGATIVE::
|| Judgmental ;; She usually keeps her opinions to herself, but still.
|| Proud ;; Like most vampires - she is very proud of her heritage and everything she's had the opportunity to learn.
|| Indecisive ;; Sometimes it takes her a long time to make decisions, especially ones that impact a lot of people.
|| Serious ;; Sometimes it is hard for her to let go and have fun. She takes everything very seriously.
|| Sad ;; She's very good at hiding it - but she still hasn't gotten over her husband's death.
|| Worried ;; She's horribly worried about Damon.

FEARS::
|| Never seeing Damon again.
|| Losing the "fight" against Lunamati.
|| Not getting the Christmas Card Damon always sends.
|| Falling in love with someone and then losing them. Again.

GOALS::
|| Become less judgmental overtime.
|| Find Damon.
|| All students that come the academy succeed.

HOBBIES::
|| Piano || Reading || Going to plays ||

HABITS::
|| Playing with her hair || Messing with her nails || Cracking her knuckles/neck/anything really. ||

GENERAL::
Astronema is a very strong and independent woman. She is, for all intents and purposes, alone in the world. All of her family is either dead or not speaking to her, and because of that she is in no hurry to make other friends. It seems like everyone she comes to care about either dies or leaves her, so she has decided that she is perfectly ok on her own. Sure - she has people she hangs out with - go to a movie/play/ or out to eat or something...but she isn't actually close to anyone. She keeps everyone at a distance. "For her own protection."

She's lived over six hundred years, and over that time she has learned a lot about the world. She has learned that history repeats, and that there will always be hatred in the world. She has learned that nothing good lasts forever, and that if you are too happy for too long the fates of the universe will no doubt come together to bring you misery. She is a very cynical person, always expecting that people will let her down or leave her, because that is what has always happened in her own experience. She has trouble being positive sometimes, because she is always expecting the worse case scenario "Hope for the best, plan for the worst" is definitely her motto.

She has always been a hopeless romantic, but now that she has found her true love, and lost him, she has no desire to do it again. The thought of finding someone to love, and then losing them again...it terrifies her so she is definitely not looking for any romantic partners.

Despite all of her issues with people, she is a very caring person, and wants to help everyone in any way she can. She loves her job as Headmistress because it allows her to help so many students, and she does. She pays very close attention to the students, how they are doing - both in and out of class, and if she sees someone struggling, with anything, she will pay them very special attention until they get everything figured out. She wants to see all of her students succeed.

She is a good actress. She has, over the years, participated in dramas and theater, but she uses her skills most to keep everyone from knowing how she's truly feeling inside. When people are around, she is the happiest person, very cheerful and just overall pleasant to be around. But when she is alone she rarely smiles, most often is buried nose deep in a book because the book is better than real life. Nobody knows the true torture she goes through everyday whenever she is alone.

She still longs for her son Damon to return. She doubts that he ever will, but she knows that she'll never be able to completely stop hoping.

FAMILY::
Andros Lunamati - Father - Vampire - 2532.
Anastasia Lunamati - Mother - Vampire - Deceased/1836
Antonio Lunamati - Brother - Vampire - Deceased / 143
Alaric Lane - Husband - Specialist - Deceased/45
Damon Lane - Son - Hybrid - 89
PLACE OF ORIGIN:: Born in Naples, Italy.
LOCATION:: She has a very nice apartment on the school grounds.
HISTORY::
Andros and Anastasia (Ana) were from two different parts of the continent. Andros came from Ancient Roman times, and Ana was from Russia. The two met while they were both traveling through Europe. The pair traveled together for a long time, just the two of them, for a few hundred years before they decided to settle down. They chose a town in Italy and settled down and had a daughter, which they named Astronema.

She was born just before the beginning of the Italian Renaissance. She grew up and stopped her aging at the age of 28, and the Renaissance was just getting underway. Art was everywhere, and music, and parties. At one point she met all the greats - Leonardo, Michelangelo...she remembers being amazed that they were human. She wishes she'd had more of a presence of mind to pay attention to them. She'd been somewhat young - proportionally anyway - so she hadn't really cared at the time.

Time went on, and the world evolved. Her parents were determined that she see as much of the world as was possible so they took her travelling, all through Europe and Asia, even into parts of Africa. It wasn't long before they started hearing all about the new world, and that peaked their curiosity. So, around 1543, right after the birth of her brother, Antonio the family got on a boat and headed to the America's.

Astronema was miserable in America at first. There was no grand architecture, or parties, or anything. Of course, eventually the land became more populated, by humans, not only supernaturals, and so people became more social. Of course there was the war with the witches to worry about, but that wasn't a huge deal to her. She didn't really care at the time.

That is...until the witches killed her mother. That was it for her father, Andros took it upon himself to kill every single witch he came into contact with. Honestly, she was afraid of him. It continued on like this for almost a hundred years. But then the humans became aware of them, and in the late 1600's, things got more difficult. The humans started hunting them, witches and vampires alike. Her father finally stopped trying to hunt down witches, and worked on protecting his two children. They were both full grown now of course. Astronema was almost 300 years old. Antonio was only a few years shy of being 150. Lunamati had to keep his children safe.

But then the humans found them. They were trapped in the underground taverns, and the humans came with torches and pitchforks and spears. The Lunamati's were living with a group of vampires at the time, and it was all Andros could do to get Astronema out through one of the back tunnels. He went back in an attempt to find Antonio, but he was too late. When Andros returned to Astronema without Antonio, Astronema cried for weeks. Now she had lost both her mother, and her brother.

Andros finally decided that enough was enough, and begged the witches to help them. If they worked together they could save all of the races, not just one or the other. Reluctantly peace came about, and the witches made one of Astronema's favorite necklaces into her daylight jewelry.

Astronema still remembers the first time she stepped into the sun. Being born a vampire, she'd never seen the sunlight, ever. Her father had been made, so he could remember the sunlight, but only barely. He was already over a thousand years old at this point, nearly two thousand, so the sunlight was a very distant memory for him. She felt the sunlight touch her skin for the first time, and she basked in the glory of it. She spent hours lying in the sunlight - the necklace kept the sun from bothering her at all, even a sunburn or a tan, so she could literally spend forever in the glory of the sun.

But she was still sad, she wished her brother could have been alive to see the sun. It was a different world when it was bathed in light from the sun instead of the moon. Colors had new meanings, and she knew Antonio would have loved it.

After that, she and her father traveled up and down the east coast (that was all there was of America in those days), and Andros even helped in the American Revolution Then time went by even more and then they were settling in Collision Falls. Her father and some of his friends, the council, built a school so that all of the supernatural could live together peacefully and learn what they would need to know to make their way in the world. It was prosperous, and once more, life was good.

Eventually Astronema became more interested in politics, and started going to council meetings with her father, and even began putting her opinions on the table. Being Lunamati's daughter, she was greatly respected, and Lunamati was proud.

Then, just before the end of the 1800's, things began changing. The various species had always gotten along, well - at least for the past hundred years or two. Now, according to her father, they were getting along TOO well. Species were mixing, and mating with other species. Her father was absolutely disgusted, especially with the vampires that did it. Whenever he learned of a vampire that had mated with any other species he tried to cut ties with that vampire completely.

Honestly, Astronema was as disgusted with his actions as he was with the vampires. But she was a loyal daughter, and loved her father dearly, so she kept her opinions to herself. But then, as the years went by, she grew more and more frustrated by her father's prejudice. And what's more, in the 1908, she met a man. But he wasn't a vampire. His name was Alaric, and he was a specialist. She still remembers, even though it's been over a hundred years, how she felt the first time she saw him. The world had stopped spinning and, just for a moment, it was just the two of them. They locked eyes, and that was it. For the next few weeks, they were inseparable. They spent every waking moment together that they possibly could. And in 1914, they eloped.

Oh, when Lunamati learned of this, he was furious. He ceased communication with her in all forms, and even tried to get her off the council. But by this point the rest of the council members were tired of his attitude, and they refused to allow her dismissal. So he still had to deal with her at council meetings. He refused to speak to her any other time.

Almost ten years later, when Alaric was nearly 25 years old, they had a son. They named him Damon, and together they were the happiest family in the world. The love between them was unmistakable, even strangers on the street could not doubt that they were all very close. Then Damon grew older. His abilities from his father started to appear, and Astronema wanted him to attend the Academy. Only problem was, as of right now, Lunamati was the headmaster and would never allow hybrids to be accepted.

And so Astronema went before the council, and pleaded her case. She said that hybrids needed protection just as bad as the pure species did. She said that if they couldn't learn how to live in the world with the humans, as everyone else had, then they would lead to the destruction of the supernatural world. Of course, this was a slight exaggeration, but it worked. The council voted that hybrids be admitted into the school. Lunamati of course was furious, and was forced to resign as Headmaster.

But that left the school in need of a Headmaster, and the council needed to vote on who would take Lunamati's place. It was almost unanimous. Astronema was voted in, and so she and her family moved to the Academy grounds, and Damon, now age 12, was allowed to attend classes.

Everything went smoothly for the next seven years. And then once again, tragedy struck. Alaric was on his way home from his work when he was in a horrible automotive accident, and was killed almost instantly. Astronema, of course, was shattered. But she had a son, who was a young man now at the age of nineteen, and she felt that she needed to be strong for him. So she did her best not to let him see her break down. It was almost two weeks before they were able to have the funeral. Damon was staying in the dorms at this time, so she was free to cry herself to sleep. And she did, every night. The bed was large and cold without Alaric there. She'd known that he would eventually die, being a specialist, but she'd been hoping that she'd have at least another twenty or thirty years. But he'd been taken from her by surprise, she hadn't had time to prepare herself....as if you can prepare yourself for the death of the love of your life. It isn't possible.

Damon of course, was greatly affected by this as well. He kept to himself, and barely spoke to her at all in the days leading up to the funeral. She tried to reach out to him, but it was as if he was ashamed of her or something. Then, after the funeral, she went in search of him, she had to see her son. She had to hold him, know he was ok...but she couldn't find him.

At first she was frantic. She had the entire school out searching for him, but to no avail. He had gone, disappeared off to god knows where....and Astronema was left alone.

She had no family now. Her mother and brother were long dead, her father had disowned her for all intents and purposes. Her husband was dead and her son had run away - why? She didn't know. For all she knew he was dead. She didn't hear anything from him for several months, and she was miserable. Of course, she is fairly good at hiding it in front of the rest of the world, but whenever she is home alone, she lives in a world of constant depression.

Then Christmas came, and she didn't know how she was going to survive it. She had long sense given up hope of Damon coming home. He had trained in the Academy, he knew how to survive out there. If he wanted to come home he would. That's not to say she didn't want him to. She missed him terribly. And so when she got a Christmas Card in the mail, with no return address and only the initials D.L. at the bottom, she almost fainted. It was Damon. He was alive. She put the card safe into a box, and put the box away. The next year she got another one, and another one the year after that.

Now she lives for those Christmas cards. The one thing that lets her know that her son is still alive. She has saved every single card, for the past sixty years. It isn't uncommon that she pulls the box out throughout the year to look through the cards. Some of them are simple, "Wishing you joy this Christmas." Some of them are more complex and talked about warm wishes and joy and "missing you." She couldn't help but wonder if the cards reflected how he was feeling. Sometimes she'll pick up cards and hold them to her chest as she morns the loss of her son. Sure, he isn't dead, but she hasn't seen his face or heard his voice in nearly sixty years.

But life goes on. She tries not to dwell on him too much, although a mother never stops worrying about her child. Ever. Not a day goes by that he doesn't cross her mind, but she doesn't allow herself to make herself miserable. Much. She is still Headmistress of the school, and she is determined to stay Headmistress for as long as possible...she figures Damon will know where she is....should he ever decide to come home to her.

YOUR NAME:: Never
EXPERIENCE:: since i could walk
OTHER CHARACTERS:: Tara, Milo, Logan, John, Peter, Meridia, Nessa
ORIGINAL?:: yep.

nope nope nope.