Laura Archer

Clan	Nosferatu
Position	None
Status	3
Domain	Columbus, OH
Coterie	???
Society	{{{Society}}}
Path	Humanity 0000
Player	Elizabeth Barnett

[[Category:Society:{{{Society}}}]]

Overview

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Alias(es):Laura Archer

Real Name: ᏚᏳᎪᏛᎠᏲᏍᏗ

Apparent Age: Early 30's.

Concept: There is always a deeper truth.

Physical description: Laura is masked at all times unless there is a specific prohibition against using Mask. Further, since she has returned to Columbus, she hasn't been seen except in a wheelchair, being pushed by her ghouls, part of the Marine Company she was embedded with. Laura has adopted the dress of her ghouls, wearing BDUs pretty much exclusively. Other than her use of a wheelchair and BDUs, Laura is fairly unremarkable, and many mortals assume she's just another wounded vet.

Detailed Status:
Acknowledged in 2001
Resourceful in 2004
Useful in 2006; granted by then-Prince of Columbus Mathison
[OOC: in chronicles that allow "Prestigious Sire", this PC has said Merit.]
[OOC: Fame 3; Journalist, 2 Pulitzers, 3 Peabodies, a host of smaller awards.]

Known History

Acknowledged in Sacramento, CA [2001]
Laura is Cherokee, and was raised "on the rez"; the local BIE [Bureau of Indian Education, part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs] agent took an interest in her education. Despite pushback from the BIA, this agent allowed Laura to graduate High School at 16 [1982] and was instrumental in her acceptance to Dartmouth, where she achieved a B.S in Journalism in 85. From there, Laura transfered to Georgetown where she received a Master's in Journalism in 86, and finally Columbia University where she completed her Ph.D in Communication (Journalism) in 1989. As a mortal, Laura recieved 2 Pulitzers, 3 Peabodies, and numerous smaller awards. She has turned down all awards since her Embrace, and files most of her stories under various non de plumes.

At the age of 31, Laura found out she had a rare type of bone cancer, and was told to “wrap up her affairs” - it had already metastasized. She decided to finish one last story, hoping to win a second Pulitzer - Homeless vets around Sacramento had been found, dead or mutilated (sometimes both) and many others found with apparently “crazy” memories of “monsters” and “vampires” toying with them, drinking their blood, and afflicting them with wounds of varying types and degrees. A few months into her investigation, she ran across a puzzling and disturbing scene. A “monster” - literally, a monstrous-looking person – was standing over the body of a very hurt vet, fighting off what appeared to be a Hell's Angels-type gane, trying to protect the vet.

Laura was already dead, she knew it – so she rushed in to help the apparent “monster” protect the vet [whom she had interviewed more than once, and considered something of a friend] against those who were *acting* as monsters.

This so impressed the "monster" - the famous "Mr. Spectator" - that he broke his rule against working with mortals. When Mr. Spectator discovered that Laura was dying, he ghouled her. Laura worked for several years, behind the scenes, aiding her Regent in protecting the Masquerade. He was given permission to Embrace Laura in early 2000, and she was Acknowledge barely a year later - the Prince being well aware of her work to protect the city and the Masquerade. The Prince further rewarded her in 2004, after Laura successfully covered numerous incursions by the Sabbat, with the status of "Resourceful.

In 2006, a Sabbat war-party was dispatched for the sole purpose of destroying Mr. Spectator. He was wounded badly in the attack, but Laura was able to smuggle him out of the city and return him to his permanent home, in Iraq. Since she would now be a target herself, Laura's Sire convinced her to move to another part of the United States. She requested, and was granted by then-Prince Mathison, residency in Columbus, Ohio.

Laura spent most of a year in Columbus, easily falling into a background job doing what she does best - convincing the media that things are not what they seem. After several small but significant "news stories", Mathison declared Laura "Useful".

At this time, Laura was made aware that her Sire was not recovering as he should. She asked Prince Mathison's leave to return to her Sire, and accepted a position "embedded" with a Marine Company. At first, this was just cover - she couldn't go out during the day. It quickly became truth, as the Company she was with became a night-operations only gig, and Laura saved many of them at one time or another with a quick infusion of her Vitae.

In Febuary of 2011, the Company's camp was attacked, and Laura was heavily wounded in the assult, as were several members of the platoon that guarded her. Between the Company commander and Mr. Spectator, all evidence that Laura was "abnormal" disappeared, and she was returned to Columbus, apparantly crippled by the attack, in July of 2011. Several of the Marines who had been injured returned with her, now ghouls to Laura.

Scandals
Has turned down a 3rd Pulitzer, two Peabodies, and several smaller awards in the past 5 years.
Uses a wheelchair - who ever heard of a Lick needing a wheelchair?

Sire

"Mr. Spectator" [Prestigious Sire]

Character Inspirations

One of my Political Science professors, Editor-in-Chief of The Free Press. He and I were talking about my degree thesis one day (ok, ok, we were actually arguing about the Spanish-American War, but we were *supposed* to be discussing my thesis), and he asked me what "a gamer" was in that context. I explained, we got to talking about LARP and how White Wolf interpreted history, and how certain historical personages - like the two men who created "Mr. Spectator" and are widely credited as the first REAL Investigative Journalists - could, and often did in White Wolf canon, have a direct impact on later history, because they became vampires... and you know how you have the conversations of "I'd like to have lunch with X famous dead person" and "I'd be embraced by X clan for X reason"? Bob was all over that idea, and between us we created Laura - and her sire, a ficticious "real" Mr. Spectator - from whole-cloth in less than an hour. She's essentially "What Robert Fitrakis would be as a Vampire", except A) female and B) Cherokee instead of Italian.

Quotes

"What is Truth? Whatever I write is Truth. Do you want a Truth based on mere "facts", or do you want the real Truth? There is always another Truth, one beyond facts and statistics." - Mr. Spectator to Laura

Rumors

Was once a "medicine woman" working with/for Principle Chief Wilma Mankiller.
She didn't just ghoul, but Embraced several Marines.
Is actually a Marine herself, and merely pretends to be unable to fight.
Was never hurt; the wheelchair is a red herring.
Was never in Iraq, but was wounded in a personal vendetta against the Sabbat Pack that almost killed her Sire.
Only feeds on BIA personnel
"Volunteers" at soup kitchens and homeless shelters as a cover for a convoluted Fagin Scheme.