Darcy Vance

Darcy Vance^[1] was a bio-engineer scientist who worked alongside Michael Brangwen and Damon Eddington in order for Damon to fulfill his desires to create his Symphony of Hate using the sounds of Xenomorph Mozart.

Biography

Early life and job at Synsound

Once entering college, Darcy and her father had gone their separate ways. There she became indebted in student loans. With no father to bail her out, she was forced to take a job at MedTech where she would mainly experiment with ways of trying to find a more economical way of providing an inoculation serum for newborns.

With bills, rent, food and sleep generally being the main aspects of her life, Darcy had been tempted by a recruiter for a job at Synsound for an extra 20% salary and promotion of bio-engineer. She decided to take the job, effectively losing all chance of returning to MedTech, which was Synsound's rival company. She later regretted taking the job, thinking that she would be working in the genetics engineering department. She was instead an android repairman, a position which she considered insanely dull.

Darcy knew she was not allowed to return to Medtech as she effectively "betrayed" the company in favor of joining a rival business. After hearing of Damon Eddington's desire to use an Alien for music, she took the job in hopes of making her drab life more interesting and obtaining a greater knowledge of the Xenomorph species.

Beginning the project

Alongside Michael Brangwen, Darcy meets with Damon to begin Eddington's project and present to him the Xenomorph egg that Ahiro and his men had procured. After Michael introduces himself to Damon, expressing his appreciation for his music, Darcy was less than complementary and admits to him that she did not really listen to music.

Darcy tells Damon that there is no more funds for a clone use as a host, concluding that they would need to use a live human host. Damon was reluctant given the ethical issues of it but Michael told him that there are cultists that would volunteer to be impregnated by a Facehugger.

Soon after, a former guitarist and associate of Damon's, Ken Petrillo was brought in by Ahiro and impregnated by a facehugger, the resulting Xenomorph being dubbed Mozart by the composer.

Once Mozart was fully grown, Darcy suggested to Damon that he get some rest, as he had stayed by the creatures side ever since it was born. In his absence, Darcy begins discussing the possibility of "attachment" with Xenomorphs to Brangwen; she talked about "the woman" who originally discovered the Xenomorphs had claimed that she and her crew were responding to a beacon sent by a derelict ship, suggesting that the creatures may have possibly built the spaceship. Michael is hesitant about the attachment suggestion but denies Darcy's story, regarding the woman as being merely a myth and that it was never proven.

Brangwen brought a cat and a dog to be slaughtered at the hands of Mozart, to which Damon was unsatisfied with. This later led Ahiro to deliver a sheep, a cow, a bull and even a panther to Damon for Mozart to fight with. Although Mozart began producing the sounds he desired with the bull and panther when the Xenomorph became injured by them, the battles were too short-lived, with Damon demanding something even greater for Mozart. Before Ahiro had revealed to Damon the Panther, Darcy expresses her concern for Damon with Brangwen, whom she thinks is addicted to Xeno-Zip. This proves to be true, to which Brangwen shrugs off, believing that it was his choice.

Over the course of the project, Darcy develops a closeness towards Mozart, constantly talking to him and caring for him.

Ahiro later brings an increasingly unstable Damon a group of humans brought from the street to be used as specimens, armed with electrostun rifles. Brangwen enraged with the idea, objects to it with Darcy remaining neutral.

After finally getting the sounds he desired, Damon felt like one last thing was missing; the sound of intimacy and sadness from within the creature. Damon sees Darcy as a target as she was the one to constantly care for and feed Mozart and he knocks her out with a keyboard.

Darcy was forced into Mozart's cage. Mozart recognized her and gave a momentary pause before attacking her. Darcy seized the moment and was able to retaliate with an electrostun rifle and retreated into a secret tunnel, too small for Mozart to fit, that only she and Brangwen had known about. She escaped, but not before getting her ankle slashed by the creature.

Mozart had later escaped and killed Eddington and began a slaughter at a concert where the Helltones were playing. Brangwen was able to find Darcy, who had lost a lot of blood and get her medical help, but not before Darcy faintly told him about Mozart's hesitation.

Three months later, Brangwen performed Eddington's piece, re-dubbed the "Rage Symphony" which he had completed posthumously himself. Darcy had attended with crutches and a drastically changed appearance.

In the Church

In the epilogue of the novelization of the comic, Darcy Vance becomes a member of The Church of the Queen Mother. Its first female preacher, renamed Jeriah. Though not blitzed out by royal jelly herself, she constantly misses Mozart. The novel suggests an "unaccountably erotic" connection between Mozart and herself. When attending the "Rage Symphony" something awakens in her. Initially, she is able to drone it with work.

However, a stranger one day in the street, a royal jelly junkie, tells her he can offer her more. This "more" is translated by her leaving her old life as a scientist and becoming a cultist herself. She believes she will be able to emulate and experience the strong connection she felt with Mozart. Her ankle which have been bitten and apparently tattooed over is much talk amongst the other junkies/culties. They are never far from the truth as the bite mark says it all. She has also been nicknamed by them as "The Limping Woman." Her downward spiral closes the novel as she hungers for the connection she once experienced with Mozart.

Personality

Darcy was incredibly fascinated with Xenomorphs, and although she admitted to Damon that she wasn't very into music, she expressed her excitement in studying a specimen. Initially, it seems as if Darcy didn't seem to hold human life in high regards, as she watched Ken's slow and agonizing fate with relative ease, as well as the other kidnapped humans getting slaughtered. This was in great contrast to Michael who was horrified and greatly objected to the use of the later human specimens. However, this is just due to Darcy's stern attitude, as she did not allow her emotions to interfere with her work.

Darcy grew quite attached to Mozart and she developed quite an obsession with him, although not nearly one as unhealthy as Damon's. She was the one to care for and feed him and she was seen numerous times by Damon and Brangwen talking to him and she later expressed happiness in witnessing Mozart "hesitate" before attacking her, despite the creature almost critically injuring her.

Appearances

• Aliens: Music of the Spears/novel

References