Carol Weaver
Carol Weaver
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Attributes
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| Intelligence 2, Wits 3, Resolve 2; Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 2; Presence 2, Manipulation 3, Composure 2 | ||||||||
Skills
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| Mental: Academics 1, Investigation (Interviewing) 2, Politics 1 Physical: Athletics (Throwing) 2, Stealth 2, Survival 1 | ||||||||
Merits
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| Allies (Portland City Government) 2, Professional Training (Journalist) 4, Resources 1, Trained Observer 1 | ||||||||
Advantages
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| Health: 7, Willpower: 4, Size: 5, Speed: 10, Defense: 5 (Armor: 0), Initiative: 5 | ||||||||
Integrity
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| Rating: 6 | ||||||||
Current Conditions
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Background
Age: 26
Carol Weaver is the daughter of Mark “Buck” Grayson and Cassie Grayson, born on March 20th, 1950. In January 1959, when she was 8 years old, her father became one of Portland’s City Commissioners, a position he held for 12 years until she was 20 years old, in 1970. She literally grew up in Portland city government. Her dad was a baseball, basketball and football star at Jefferson High School, and was an All-American basketball player at Oregon State College in the early 1930s. He coordinated the world softball tournaments held in Portland in 1949, 1950 and 1963, was a leader in the Oregon AAU boxing program and Golden Gloves Amateur Boxing Tournament, and was an avid dart player, holding a local dart championship title for several years in a row when Carol was a teenager. Buck was a huge influence in the life of Carol and her younger sister Nancy, from encouraging their participation in girls’ softball, teaching and playing darts with them, taking them out on many camping trips, and just promoting an overall interest in health and athletics. Buck also promoted Carol’s interest in politics, and from there, journalism. He was always supportive that a young woman could apply herself and do well at these endeavors.
After highschool, Carol went to Pacific University where she met Martin Weaver. Marty was there training to be an optometrist. The two fell in love almost immediately. Unfortunately, their time together was short, as Marty was drafted into the Viet Nam war shortly after their marriage. Carol continued her schooling in the meantime, and after graduation, used her contacts in Portland city government to write some articles that got her noticed by the folks who were starting up the Willamette Week, a new alternative weekly newspaper. She’s been happy writing articles for them, and also other articles for various magazines and newspapers on a freelance basis, but she really wants to break through to get hired on as a regular staff writer at the Oregonian.
Carol is protective of her little sister, Nancy. When she was a senior in high school and Nancy was a sophomore, her sister was being bullied by another girl, named Tasha. After it had gone on for several months and Nancy ended up with a black eye, Carol decided to do something about it. It turns out that Tasha's mother was a city employee. Carol used her dad's connections as Portland City Commissioner and got access into city government spaces and sneak in places she wasn’t supposed to be and do some snooping around. While an amateur, her snooping was nevertheless able to uncover that Tasha's mother had been embezzling money from the city. Carol paused as she looked at the family picture on the mother’s desk. In the picture was Tasha's mother, along with Tasha, and two young smiling boys. Carol knew that those boys hadn’t done anything wrong, but if she exposed what their mother had been doing they would be shuffled off into a cold heartless foster system. But her sense of justice demanded that the theft be exposed, and Carol refused to sit by as her sister was bullied by this family. She left the evidence of the embezzlement out in plain sight, knowing that it would be found. Tasha's mother was arrested soon after. Tasha was sent off to live with foster parents, effectively removing THAT problem Nancy’s life. Still, there was always a pang of guilt that the young boys were also caught up in Carol’s decision to do what she felt was the right thing.
Carol is willing to go to great lengths to protect those she loves, but even when she was protecting her little sister from Tasha she chose to use her wits and her skills to fight with, rather than resort to physical violence. It's not that she would never use violence ever. She knows that there are probably times when it's necessary to use physical violence to defend oneself, and she likes to keep her body healthy and physically strong, but Carol believes her wits are superior to physical force and thinks that there are very few situations that her wits and her skills can't get her out of.
Shortly before Marty was drafted, both he and Carol were invited to a party up in the Southwest Hills of Portland, at the home of young lawyer. The crowd was mostly other young married couples also, but all from Portland’s “upper ranks,” so to speak. Rich kids. At some point in the night, after everyone was feeling high with laughter and well lubricated, someone mentioned the spooky “witch’s castle” in Forrest Park. “That old thing? We should go check it out! It would be rad!” 6 of them headed off into the nearby park with their beer and party supplies. But Carol is not quite sure what, exactly, happened that night. There was lots of laughter and drinking, and then couples started wandering off into the woods, and then… yelling? screams? something that sounded more bestial? Carol remembers being shaken and waking up in the nearby stream, Marty’s face in hers. “We need to get out of here.” He had a cut under his eye. There were cuts on her own hands and her legs. It was early morning. She and Marty hiked out of the park with one of the other young women who had joined them. She had a large cut on her temple. Carol wasn’t sure where the woman’s husband was, or where the other couple was. She felt like she was in a fog. She instinctively knew not to talk to Marty about that night, and he never really seemed quite the same before he left for the war. Fucking rich kids and their drugs.
By 1969, troops were actually being reduced in Viet Nam. Marty and Carol had hoped that they would be spared the pain of Marty being drafted. Married life was wonderful for the newlyweds for 2 fabulous years until it finally happened. While less and less people were being drafted, Marty Weaver found his name among that number. Neither Marty nor Carol were big supporters of the war, but Marty also believed in duty to country. With Marty gone, Carol busied herself with pursuing a journalism degree. Two years after being drafted, the horrible news was delivered: Marty wasn’t coming home. This wasn’t supposed to be happening. They were already starting to bring troops home, how could Marty have died? Carol was devastated. What’s worse is that the Army told her that due to the “nature of his death”, which they were classifying as confidential, even from families of those killed, they wouldn’t be able to return his body home for several months, even possibly up to a year. After 10 long months, Marty’s casket was finally allowed to return the U.S., but even then Carol was denied her requests to see the body of the man she loved and was married to. To be sure, the Army staff were very sincere and apologetic, but answer remained the same: “Due to sensitive nature of Marty’s death, unfortunately the body cannot be viewed. I’m so sorry that we can’t reveal more details about what happened, but the exact details remain classified.” Thank god her father was there for Carol to rage-cry into his chest.
A year after Nancy’s bully was sent off into the system to live with foster parents, thereby removing her as a problem in Nancy’s life, Carol accidentally let it slip that she just might have had something to do with the resolution to that issue. Nancy pulled the details out of her. But far from being grateful or appreciative for what Carol had done, Nancy filled with anger that Carol had intervened ONCE AGAIN to work things out, and not only that, this time, young children were hurt in the process. The situation brought out years of resentment that Nancy had been harboring that Carol was always manipulating things, always working things out, always fixing things, and never letting Nancy deal with things on her own. It led to a huge fight, where Carol called Nancy ungrateful, and Nancy stormed out of the room vowing not to talk to Carol anymore. It was the beginning of a really rough patch for the two sisters, where the two hardly saw each other at all, and Nancy started hanging out with a rougher crowd. Nancy eventually got married to Harry Olson, a mechanic associated with the Hell’s Angels who then got arrested and then drafted into the war. But even then Nancy remained distant. It wasn’t until more recently, When Carol agreed to share an apartment with Natalie Garner, that things with Nancy have begun to warm up. Natalie was on the same girls’ softball team with Nancy, and was needing to share an apartment in the same complex that Nancy and her husband are living in. Carol, feeling lonely after the loss of her husband, and seeing the opportunity to reconnect with her sister, agreed.
Rumors
Personality
Virtue: Just. Fairness and justice. She wants everyone to get what they deserve, and will stick her neck out to make sure it happens. Regain all spent Willpower when you set your own goals aside in order to make certain that justice is done.
Vice: Impatient. Act first, think later. The time for action is now. Regain one spent Willpower when you press the group to move on the first plan presented or when you force a scene to start by taking decisive action.
Aspirations:
- Get hired at the Oregonian
- Get an article published about the supernatural
- Repair her relationship with Nancy
- Find out what happened to Natalie.
Integrity: 6
Breaking Points:
- When I'm willing to bend the rules to protect my family
- When I am forced to use physical force to coerce information (or participate in a situation that uses physical force) rather than mental or social means.
- When my loved ones become angry or unappreciative when I'm trying to protect them
- Being in the woods at night, and being followed by something I can't see.
- When those I care about are mourned without my having confirmed it myself
Equipment
- Possessions: Typewriter, 1973 Brown Dodge Dart
- Weapons: xxx
- Other Notes: X
Conditions
- Fugue
- Connected: Contacts within Portland City Government
- Day Job: Willamette Week
- Spooked: By Matt generating light
- Obsession: With Natalie's ghost
Merit Details
Professional Training (Journalist) 3: I have training as a print journalist, which offers distinct advantages.
- Asset Skills: Investigation, Expression
- Networking: I've built connections within my chosen field.
- Contacts: Journalists, Police
- Continuing Education: With the repeated efforts in my field, I tend toward greater successes. When making a roll with my Asset Skills, I benefit from the 9-again quality.
- Breadth of Knowledge: I've picked up a number of particular bits of information and skills unique to my work. Choose a third Asset Skill, and take two Specialties in your character’s Asset Skills.
- Additional Asset Skill: Persuasion
- Additional Specialties: Fast Talking, Interviewing
- On the Job Training: With the resources at my disposal, I have access to extensive educational tools and mentorship. Take a Skill
dot in an Asset Skill (Persuasion). Whenever you purchase a new Asset Skill dot, take a Beat.
Allies (Portland City Government) 2: Allies help your character. Each dot represents a layer of influence in the group. One dot would constitute small favors and passing influence. Three could offer considerable influence, such as the police overlooking a misdemeanor charge. Five dots stretches the limits of the organization’s influence, as its leaders put their own influence on the line for the character. This could include things such as massive insider trading or fouling up a felony investigation. No matter the request, it has to be something that organization could accomplish. A character can ask for favors that add up to her Allies rating without penalty in one chapter. If she extends her influence beyond that, her player must roll Manipulation + Persuasion + Allies, with a penalty equal to the favor’s rating. If the roll is successful, the group does as requested. Failed or successful, the character loses a dot of Allies. This dot may return at the end of the chapter On a dramatic failure, the organization resents her and seeks retribution. On an exceptional success, she doesn’t lose the dot. One additional favor a character can ask of her Allies is to block another character’s Allies, Contacts, Mentor, Retainer, or Status (if she knows the character possesses the relevant Merit). The rating is equal to the Merit dots blocked.
Resources (Wealthy Family) 1: One dot is a little spending money here and there. Two is a comfortable, middle class wage. Three is a nicer, upper middle class life. Four is moderately wealthy. Five is filthy rich. Every item has an Availability rating. Once per chapter, your character can procure an item at her Resources level or lower, without issue. An item one Availability above her Resources reduces her effective Resources by one dot for a full month, since she has to rapidly liquidate funds.
Trained Observer 1: I have spent time in the field, catching details and digging for secrets. I might not have a better chance of finding things, but I have a better chance of finding important things. Any time I make a Perception roll (usually Wits + Composure), I benefit from the 9-again quality.
Friends and Family
- Martin Weaver (Deceased) - Husband who died in the war
- Nancy Olson - Younger sister, married to Harry Olson
- Harry Olson - Brother-in-law
- Buck Grayson - Parents. Father is a retired City Commissioner from 1959-1970.
- Natalie Garner - Roommate and friend
Lifestyle
A description of your characters day to day life.
- Money: A little spending money here and there. (1 dot in Resources)
- Clothing & Jewelry: xxx
- Communication: xxx
- Food: xxx
- Housing: Apartment B16 at the Maple Shade Apartments
- Days: xxx
- Evenings: xxx
Experience
- 6 skill points held in reserve
