Jessica Smithson

Welcome to the JJourney's YouTube channel! New videos coming out real soon! (I promise!!!)

## Background

Jessica, better known as Jessie to her friends, grew up with a pretty average, normal life. She was never really one to intentionally seek the spotlight; in fact she spent most of her school years hanging out with friends and was eventually convinced to try out for the high-school hockey team. It turned out she was rather skilled at this, becoming the teams star player in her first year and eventually becoming team captain by her senior year. This all lead to her gaining a scholarship to college to study sports therapy where she managed enough to get by in class but knuckled down when it came to her sport. She had planned to take some time to travel around Europe after college and had already been approached by a couple of teams looking to bring her on after completing her schooling.

Unfortunately, tragedy struck for her in her final year of college. On their way back from an away game at a college two states over, the teams’ bus was struck by an oncoming big-rig. Jessica was left with multiple injuries; fractured arm, lacerations, dislocated shoulder and worst of all a comminuted fracture of her left leg. After a lengthy recovery she was finally able to walk and even run to some extent again. But one thing was clear; her hockey days were over.

During her recovery her parents tried to help her find new things to distract herself with, and she eventually fell in love with making videos. She would vlog her physio sessions and recovery path, as well as do detailed analysis of various matches she could get footage of. While her online profiles never really went viral, she did enjoy sharing her experience and knowledge with those that did stumble across her videos. And so, with her recovery completed and her plans to travel still on the cards, she decided to take it one step further and document her travels, wanting to take her viewers and friends with her as she searched for where life would take her next.

## The Night It All Changed

Their first meeting came at a bar downtown in Harling, Jessica had been hanging out with some old friends from collage after getting back to the States from her latest trip abroad. After dealing with a couple members of her group that had indulged a little too much that night, and with her bad leg starting to play up from being on her feet for so long, she decided to head to the bar to get herself another drink. That was where she met Gabrielle, the younger looking woman sliding up next to her and offering her a drink that was already prepared instead of having to wait. Of course Jessica declined, knowing better than to accept drinks from strangers that hadn’t been prepared in front of her, but accepted the offer of being bought one instead.

The pair chatted for a while, Jessica during that time having to admit to herself that she was rather intrigued by the attractive woman that was giving her such attention. Then the thought popped into her head, that she should finish her drink and go with Gabrielle to the ladies room for some alone time. It was strange, while she would admit she’d found her attractive and more than a little alluring, she wasn’t quite sure where that thought had come from. Little did she know it wasn’t even her thought to begin with but one that had been implanted in her mind by the other woman by some unknown force.

Eventually following through with that thought, the pair ended up in the bathroom and what happened next Jessica could never have been prepared for. She found herself pinned against the door with surprising strength, but with no reason to fight it since this was **her** idea after all. She relished in the attention Gabby gave her, too caught up in the moment and the alcohol to notice the coppery taste in her mouth as they kissed. This would be her first taste of the woman’s blood and the start of her fall. Soon after, Gabby fed from her, the sensations as the vampire’s fangs pierced her skin being something akin to euphoric to her; nothing like she’d experienced with any other partner that was for sure. After they were done, Gabby departed, but not before inviting her to visit her bookshop soon and handing her a business card with the address. Jessica had no way to understand just what had transpired between them, but one thing was for certain, she was going to have to take a trip there soon.

## Turn The Page

Now a ghoul under the Thrall of Gabrielle, Jessica could be found working within the Tremere's book store Turn The Page during the daylight hours. This was a far cry from the continued travel plans she'd had previously, though all in all the young woman seemed happy to be settling down some; believing she'd found someone to potentially spend the rest of her life with. Sure, there were some hang ups about having a relationship with vampire who was many centuries older than her (even if she only looked about 19), but that never seemed to bother Jessica too much.

Between working at the store and spending much of her free time next door at the infamous Dream Bean cafe, Jessica was introduced to the greater world of the supernatural. Encounters with other Kindred, Mages, and eventually even a Wraith... she was far from leading that dull, settled down life. However, not all of her experiences were so bad. Through a chance meeting on the street on her way back to the store, Jessica came across two young women apparently dicussing Magick. While the situation was played off, this meeting became pivitol in events to come. Not least because of the friendship it blossomed between herself and Melody Binari.

## Operation Nightlight

Many months had passed by the time that something terrible happened to Melody's adoptive father Carpenter. Jessica had never properly met the man until that evening. And it was as she was reaching the tail end of her shift that he walked in to the bookstore, a cigarette between his lips, and without any care other than a meeting with her Mistress.

Of course, a lit cigarette in a shop full of paper certainly wasn’t something Jessica wanted to actively encourage! And so, she asked the unknown man to please stop smoking inside the building. He refused. So, she urged him again, wanting to protect her girlfriend’s business. Unfortunately for the young ghoul, giving the instruction to put out the cigarette whilst actively getting into the man’s reach was a rather unfortunate error on her part. As she promptly found said cigarette put out… using her face as the ashtray.

Fortunately for her, Jessica managed to avoid any major damage to her eye; though she struggled to be able to wear her contacts for quite some time after. However, she would make one more error in judgement that night… informing her friend Melody that her father was in the store. She would later find out that Melody had tried to stalk him upon leaving only to get caught and beaten for her trouble.

Finding out about this made Jessica blame herself, given that if she hadn’t told Melody about him being at the shop then she wouldn’t have been put in danger. That feeling however, soon turned to anger towards the man that had hurt her friend. And when she spotted him one night skulking down an alleyway not far from the bookshop, she promptly did what any sane and rational person would do in that situation… She punched the Wraith in the head!

Naturally this didn’t end so well for the poor ghoul; soon enough finding herself battered, bloodied, and forced to relive the most horrifying moment in her life… the night of the crash that changed her life. Carpenter by this point had figured out who Jessica was to his daughter; and attempted to use her as bait to lure out the young Binari so he could abuse her again. Little did either of them know that a plan involving multiple different active groups in the city was already in motion to attempt to subdue the Shadow Wraith.