Joseph Cartolano

Concept: Donut Delivery Guy/Vampire Killer

AKA: Goes by Joey or Jojo.

Desc: Joey used to be pretty heavy, and diabetes ran in his family. He’s not exactly lean, he’s too broadly framed for that and likely he’ll never completely get rid of his pooch. But he’s in phenomenal shape. Mid-thirties, Losing his hair on top. Thoughtful eyes. Changes his facial hair whenever he gets bored. Has that kind of face that is utterly forgettable.

History: Joey’s been lucky. He may not recognize that...But it is undoubtedly true. He’s been lone wolfing it in the vampire hunting business and has been able to succeed by dint of superior tactics, well thought out use of intelligence, extreme dedication to his physical fitness and sheer dumb luck.

Joey used to be like a lot of dudes. Kind of a slacker. A bit of a stoner. Really smart in some ways, but not really involved in the world. Hanging around and hoping that his Party DJ business takes off. He got a job on the third shift delivering donuts to pay the bills, but also because he’s always been something of a lone wolf. The loss of any real social life seemed like a small price to pay. 

Joey found that delivering donuts suited his temperament for the most part. He would load up the van with boxes of donuts, breads, sheet cakes, and a few other things, stacking them and bracing them carefully. Then he’d set off on his route, delivering to gas stations, Hotels all over town, multiple hospitals, and then reload for delivering to the university and the county schools. 

One night he walked into a Gas-N-Go to find a vampire feeding on the prone body of the clerk on the floor. She looked up into his eyes...and that was the last thing he remembered. An hour later, it all cleared off and he was sitting in his truck by the side of the road.

Had to bust ass to get the deliveries made after that, because it went without saying that he couldn’t explain to his boss what had happened.

And frankly, that should have been that. But Rhonda left a hook in. Some nights later, she called him, he responded, not really knowing why, and she put the whammy on him again. This time she fed him her blood.

Rhonda wasn’t stupid. She decided that the donut delivery guy might be useful. and it turned out he was surprisingly useful. He could go anywhere in town, the third shifters and over-night cops all knew him and didn’t look at him twice. He was useful transportation on some nights and he turned out to be strong enough to help lift a body and dump it later. Rhonda was careful not to use him too much, as he explained, “My boss doesn’t really give a fuck what I do, as long as all the stuff gets delivered and isn’t late.”   Rhonda was even helpful on the route on occasion.

Joey, for his part, was smitten and happy. and Rhonda owned him for a good two years. She’d even climb on top of him every so often and let him do things to her in exchange for little of the red and sticky. Sure, she had times when she could be a total bitch, but he never took that personally. 

Then, one night, He dropped her off at a Holiday Inn Express out near the interstate, she said she was going to meet some emissary from out of town. Less than a half hour later, Joey had a terrible premonition that something had happened.

By the time he’d finished the school deliveries, it was all over the news. Some kind of terrorist attack or some bullshit story like that. The front desk clerk was found catatonic. He never saw Rhonda again.  He called her phone a hundred times. Eventually, her voicemail filled up.

He went through what could be considered lightly as a “bad patch” He started drinking. He became a recluse in his apartment. Even his mom thought he was in a bad place and sat him down to ask him if something happened between him and Rhonda. He broke down crying and got up and walked out without explaining anything.

Eventually, it might have worked itself out of his system. He didn’t crack completely as some ghouls do.

But he was delivering to a gas station when he saw some dude gassing up his Lexus, and...goddamnit just KNEW that that guy was a vampire.

A quick talk with the clerk confirmed it. That guy had his hooks into the owner and so he’d come in and get gas or whatever and the owner told him that the guy was never to be charged. Came in every Thursday, more or less like clockwork.

A plan formed.

Joey ended up jumping the guy, Staking him and then taking him to a remote location. He didn’t get the whole story of course, but he did get it confirmed that Rhonda had been taken off the count.  He was tempted to take the vampire’s blood, missed that horrifying strength that came with it, but it was their thing.  He only wanted Rhonda...So he set the asshole on fire and split.

The next day, he enrolled in Jiu-Jitsu classes.

Attitude: “Look. I got no kick with other supernatural types. Most of them are just folks trying to deal. And if I check out some vampire, and he’s just looking to get fed and not make any trouble...Then I’ll likely give him a pass too.  Oh. I’ll still keep tabs on em. But you know, I don’t have a hard-on for it, like some. But if some vampire is causing trouble. I’ll come looking for them...and there haven’t been too many to get away from me.

Skills: As mentioned above, Joey is in pretty great shape. He’s not the most social guy, but he’s learned a thing or two. He IS pretty damn smart. Always best at Wits, but over time he’s case hardened his Resolve too. He’ll have dots in martial art and weaponry dodge, disarm, strong back, and quick draw on nearly all of his weapons. He’s also developed Unseen Sense: Vampires.

Gear: Joey has a long black leather coat which he bought on sale one year after Christmas. He also has a black hat. These are his normal rain gear, but he’s taken to wearing them all the time now. He made a deal with a guy he knows who made him a harness out of chain mail interspersed with sections of ballistic ceramic trauma plates. He can get that rig on in seconds now. Joey has made a jackass rig for each arm that holds stakes. He keeps a regular long hunting knife in a sheath on his right hip. His primary weapons of choice are a pair of mail-order Hook Swords. Hook swords aren’t exactly easy to conceal or even sheath, but they are goddamn excellent for beheading vampires.  Joey keeps a laptop in his van primarily for music selection, but also to take notes and receive calls at his skype number. Joey also wears a pair of goggles which have inserts inside that cut down his actual ability to see out of them. Joey fights largely blind. He’s pretty good at it. It’s prevented him from being dominated, majestied or nightmared. It’s also turned out to be a rude shock to vampires who expected to obfuscate and decided to attack rather than run.  Celerity is the only thing that Joey ain’t got nothing for.

Home: Joey’s efficiency apartment is in a building in a kind of poor neighborhood but aside from a little gang activity, the neighborhood is pretty chill and the neighbors look after one another. It would be difficult for anyone to approach Joey's apartment without being observed unless they were Obfuscated or in an animal form. Joey’s unit has all of its window blacked out with gorilla tape and black poster paper that’s been cut to fit. (Had to get special permission from the landlord to do it.) He’s done this because he’s got to sleep in the daytime.

Circle: Joey’s not the most social guy. But over the course of time, he’s picked up a few friends on his route and he’s pieced together a rough collection of third shifters who have SEEN some stuff and are willing to kick him a little intel when they run across it.  This intel has led to a few daring daytime raids in hotels and other spots. But if nothing else it’s kept Joey from feeling like he’s in this alone. Matter of fact, he’s dating a girl who works the front desk at the Microtel on his route.  Woe betide any vampire who tries to get at Joey through his girlfriend. She’s looking to join the FBI someday and is studying counter-terrorism in school.

Story Uses:

“Hey you...Dead man.”

Joseph has a real gift for turning up on the worst night of a vampire’s life. This is because he understands a few basic principles:

*Speed beats Strength

*Surprise beats Speed.

*Tactics beats Surprise

So, many times, Joey has scouted the vampire in question for a while and has an idea of where and how to hit him to maximize his chances. And he’s got a few places that he’s noted make it more difficult for vampires with Celerity and Obfuscate because of their hemmed-in nature.  He’s smart. and as I said lucky.  

“Yeah. I’m not crashing that party unless I can bring friends.”

Joey is more confident going after lone vampires. He’s not going to attack a group. He’s also not going after some kindred with highly paid ghoul security forces.  As a result, most kindred who even know there is hunter out there think of him as a bottom feeder, not reckoning that he’s actually got a pretty respectable body count going. And every single time he has time to interrogate a victim, his picture of what is going on in the kindred world gets clearer. 

Connections:

*Has heard of, but not yet met Dr. Ronnette Franklin. Knows a little about her from one of his third shift friends. Has already decided that he might need to meet her if he can because it goes without saying if he gets badly hurt, he can't really go to a hospital.

*Used to game with T.C. Mitnick and his girl Suzanne.They met at Donut Hut back in the day. Allied Business Data still gets donuts and a sheet cake about once a week, (Because there are a lot of business drones that have trouble making it through Wednesday without a 3o'clock sugar bump. They'll look for reasons to order a cake.) So they still see one another from time to time.

* Doris Badenov is actually living in the same apartment building. But they've not met one another at all. This is not shocking. Both are introverts and have weird hours. 

* Donut Hut, (Don't let the name fool you, it's a full-service bakery) supplies buns and rolls of surpassing quality to Rory O'Halloran. Rory thinks Joey is an odd little squirrel but alright for the most part. He was in a better humor when he was fat and had that girlfriend of his.