Bess Marvin

Name: Bess Marvin
Door: Door Pass: Submissive
 
Canon: Nancy Drew (CW)
Canon Point: Immediately following season 3, episode 8 (The Burning of the Sorrows)
 
Age: 19
Appearance: here
 
History: Wiki Link
CR AU (Optional): N/A
 
Personality:
 
Positive Trait: Resilient.
Bess Marvin has not had an easy life. Thrown out of her home by her mother at thirteen, she ended up tied to a man who taught her how to lie and steal. After she finally breaking away from him (by planting forged money on his person), she makes her way to America to chase her dream as a lost heiress in the Marvin family. After losing her first job as an au pair, she ends up living in a van and waitressing to make ends meet. She is eventually accepted into the Marvin clan, and has a few, blissful months at their side. However, she ends up being outcast after being blackmailed into stealing from her Aunt Diana. She is the first of the Drew Crew to be attacked by a Spirit. In her love life she doesn’t fare much better. Her first on-screen relationship ends when she has to lie to her girlfriend, Lisbeth, about not loving her in order to save her from the Marvin family’s manipulations and her own impending death. Her second relationship ends when she literally has to destroy the soul of the woman she loves. She has not had it easy and YET, through it all, she has kept her optimism and positivity. She still believes the best in people, still throws herself into relationships (as seen in season 3 with Addi), and still fights to establish her place as a contributing member of the Drew Crew. Even though no one would hold it against her for laying down and giving up, she refuses to retreat, throwing herself into learning how to be a Woman in White and making sure the people she cares about are taken care of.
 
Negative Trait: Insecure.
While Bess will loudly tell everyone in her life how amazing she Is, when pressure comes she often retreats into a place of insecurity. She is confident in dating until someone asks her out and then she panics about what to wear and where to go and makes all of her friends look over every text she wants to send. She can run an excellent con, but when asked to lie, panics and often oversells  the moment. Around the Marvins she constantly worries if she’s enough or if she is going to be able to fulfill their expectations. In the Drew Crew she worries if she is contributing enough and if anyone will take her seriously. Overall, she is a incredibly nervous person who is desperate to find a place where she fits, and that insecurity throws her in situations where she will give up or do more than she should, trusting people she shouldn’t and giving in to opportunities she should avoid just to feel validated.
 
Negative Trait: Vain.
In tandem with her insecurity is the fact that Bess often compensates for her unsteady self-worth by over-presenting herself. Even when living in a van, she wears designer clothes, makes sure her hair is done, her make up is perfect and her nails and skin are done to perfection. As a Marvin she works to make sure she is the best dressed, that she presents herself as beautiful, and is always perfectly manicured. When exploring the various places that the supernatural takes them, Bess is often found complaining about the dirt or grime, complaining about her shoes or clothes being messed up. The vanity leads to some self-centeredness and demand that attention be paid her way, and can lead to her avoid situations where her friends or others might need her so she can avoid getting messy.
 
Negative Trait: Kleptomaniac.
While Bess’s kleptomania is rather mild, it is definitely a compulsion if which she has no control. Mostly she steals shiny trinkets. (They calm her). But with the lack of control comes questionable choices. She steals a pocket knife from her best friend, an engagement ring from a dead woman (who she is suspected of murdering), and a watch from Nick’s best friend who she accused of being a murderer. It’s a trait and habit that often complicates her life; making her have to confess to her friends when she’s given in to the urge, making her a suspect in crimes where she would otherwise be exempt, and eventually being the reason she’s ousted from the Marvin clan.
 
Powers and Abilities:
·       Beginning Witch Powers (able to create spells, hexes, protection charms with the use of a grimoire and materials)
·       Con Artist
·       Theft (mainly pickpocketing)
·       Sleight of Hand
·       Social Media Savant
·       Poor Waitressing Skills
·       Make up
·       Fashion knowledge
·       Overthinking

Magic in the series is somewhat inconsistent. Most of the time it seems rituals/spells can be performed by anyone. All they need are the right materials, circumstances, and words. Later it is indicated that some innate ability is required and that Bess possesses some of that due to her Marvin blood. It can be theorized that some of the rituals/spells in the early episodes only worked because of Bess’s prescence. However, that is never explictly mentioned in canon so it would be conjecture at this point.

In the series we have seen Bess:

- summon a vengeful sea spirit (along with her non-magic friends)
- perform a seance (along with her non-magic friends)
- perform an exorcism (along with her non-magic friends)
- use a soul-splitter to separate the soul of her friend from the spirit that had become entangled with it through magical means, she saved her friend’s soul but had to destroy that of the spirit
- perform a spell that made everyone (including herself) tell the truth
- cast a protection spell (her first attempt was bungled so badly that it threw the person she was trying to protect into harm’s way repeatedly)
- transfer an unknown hex from a group of teenagers to one person
- perform a lucid dreaming spell to walk through her friends’ dreams and bring them all together so she could conquer the sleep demon trying to kill them all
- if she knows the nature of a hex, she could theoretically undo it
- counter various supernatural beings (mostly of the spirit-variety)

Everything requires some kind of spell work, and specific materials, and most of her more ”powerful” spells/hexes were guided by a fellow witch who was both powerful and old. A lot of spells/rituals require blood. Often blood from very specific people or lineages.

She will be interested in learning more magic from others in Duplicity. But right now she’s a baby witch and still finding her feet and finding out what her magic can do. If you are interested in Bess practicing a magic on you, please use my opt-in post!
 
Inventory: Grimoire of spells given to her by Temperance Hudson. Ace’s pocket knife (named Madeline), her cellphone
 
Samples: one and two