Jacqueline O'Brien

art by PixelWayve

Jacquline (Jackie) O'Brien is a protagonist in The New Albion Radio Hour. She is voiced by Courtney Ellis.

## Biography

Jacquline was a Voodoopunk in the early years, along with Byron and Amelia, and she took part in the campaign to elect Jasper as mayor. She was at the center of the ritual scene and one of the first to try out new ceremonies and possessions.

Jackie met Dorothy in her mid 20s. They were both voodoopunks, both interested in art and when Jackie ran into Dorothy yet again at a lodge meeting for gothic Rosicrucians she knew she was smitten. The two of them fell in love quickly and utterly.

Jackie moved into Dorothy's mansion, and together they thew the wildest soirees in town. Their parties were legendary.

She would often bring her doll to her parties, a doll named Vicky. “Thiccy Viccy ” as the doll was nicknamed, was enormously popular and Jackie brought her to all the rituals and Vicky was a fixture at the coffeeshop the Vooodoopunks congregated at, the coffee shop known as the Maniken.

When the crackdowns began, the police raided Dorothy's mansion one day when Jackie was away. When they discovered Thiccy Viccy, Dorothy claimed that the doll was hers, and the police carried her away.

Instead of heading underground with most of the Voodoopunks, Jackie led a double life. She continued to live in the wealthiest district of New Albion and maintain a superficial appearance in regular society. She inherited Dorothy’s house and fortune, and Jackie used her wealth and position as the person who knew everyone to keep various groups funded, running, and in touch with each other.

She and her brother John were never close, out of simple disinterest.  When John’s wife was killed by the rebel bomb he showed up at his sister’s mansion with Constance. He proceeded to fall apart and disappeared mysteriously soon after. Jackie then found herself with a very troubled teenage girl to raise.

Jackie would find Dorothy again years later, following a lead from Cora. Dorothy had been lobotomized and was working sewing clothes. Dorothy did not recognize Jackie.

### New Albion Radio Hour

Jackie was waiting for Mark to bring the stolen MCG from a soiree, when happened to come across Constance, who was carrying the MCG Jackie was looking for. Jackie revealed that she was aware of Constance's thieving lifestyle and tried to convince her to bring the MCG to the rebels. Constance, caring more about her boyfriend Thomas, ran off to try to save his life.

After Constance finds Thomas and he revealed that he was working with the police, the two escaped to the underground, where Jackie found the pair. Upset that Thomas had broken her neice's heart, she conducted a Voodoopunk ritual and used Thomas as a vessel for spirit possession.

Constance went to hand off the MCG to the rebels, and Jackie and Thomas wait in an isolated substation beneath the city for the effects to take hold from the surface. While they're waiting together, Thomas asks Jackie if she's ever been in love, and she tells him about Dorothy.

As part of the narration of the story, Lloyd tries to convince Jackie to hand Thomas over to the Voodoopunks to be executed. She refuses, saying that he's misguided but doesn't deserve to die. Jackie takes Thomas to the surface, where they discover that everyone in sight is swaying mindlessly to the hypnotic song of the dead that the MCG had boradcasted into the soldier's helmets. The only sane people are Constance and John, and the three family members unite. John and Jackie share regrets that they haven't kept in touch.

Constance sings Storyville Station, and dispels the effects of the first hypnotic song. Lloyd is upset that Constance has ruined his epic tragedy. Jackie tells the narrator that she's not interested in his epic tragedy, and besides, the most striking tragedies are always the most intimate ones. Lloyd coincides that Jackie has a point, and that it would be beautifully heart wrenching if Constance dies instead.

Jackie calls out a warning to John that the soldiers are going to come to and fire on Constance, to which he replies: no, they're not. John orders them to run away, promising to keep them safe. Jackie refuses to run, staying at John's side. John and Jackie both die giving Constance and Thomas a chance to escape.

## Personality

Jackie was wild, artistic, free thinking and free spirited and a social butterfly who grew into a attraction point for various artistic and esoteric cliques across New Albion. She was a precocious teenager and well immersed in the exciting voodoo punk subculture.

Jackie’s social nature was a hunger for diverse and wildly entertaining viewpoints. In fact Jackie was fast gaining the reputation as the one who knew everyone. If there was one person who had their hands in every colorful group you could think of, from painters to musicians, radical scholars to circus performers to Voodoopunks, it was Jackie.

After Dorothy’s arrest Jackie gained a dark side. To be clear, she was still, as always, an amazingly generous person, open and eager for new and intriguing ideas and people, but there was a dark tinge to her now. Her heart had been broken. Her dislike for the establishment turned to cold, dark hatred and anyone associated with it she could felt only disdain for at best if not full out vile hatred.

Jackie was not really cut out to raise an angry, troubled teenage girl like a parent, but she was cut out to be a source of love and comfort. She did not provide discipline nor did she constrict Constance’s movements which might have been wise as Constance was out of control, but she did provide Constance with a source of unconditional love and was there for her at key times and circumstances, always without judgement.

## Trivia

* Cora had a definite crush on Jackie, calling her "the gold standard of "fascinating mature lesbian"" and the Cigarette Girl had tried seducing Jackie once before being cut off cold. Jackie told Cora about Dorothy, and after Cora discovered a lead on Dorothy's whereabouts, Jackie became a highly valued informant for the spymaster.
* As a young girl, Jackie rescued Pepper the Dog from being captured by dog catchers. She gave Pepper food from the goblin summoning tea party the little girl was hosting, and kept Pepper safe and well fed for three days until John tattled on her and their parents kicked the dog out
* Jackie flowered at some unspecified point, though never realized that she had. Paul has stated that everything at the end of The New Albion Radio Hour (after Storyville Station, which Constance did) was her doing, though she wasn't consciously aware of it. She realized that she had a sort of heightened sight, so to speak, but would have written it off as a spiritual thing rather than a posthuman thing. This would make her and Constance the first pair of posthumans to be related.
* Jackie plays piano, and she can play slow jazzy blues real good