Marta Reyes

Concept: Maid by day/Torch singer by night

AKA: Marta’s stage name is Lana Valdez

Desc:  Long glossy black hair that is past her shoulders which she normally keeps pony-tailed. Pleasant features and a nice smile. She’s got muscle from long years of working as a domestic both privately and in hotels. She still bears the tattoo on her wrist promising her heart to Julio. Has a subdued gray uniform that she normally wears on the job,  It should be noted that when she is being Lana Valdez, she wears make-up that is fairly dramatic and wears her hair down and a push-up bra. People don’t generally recognize her, and she’s perfectly okay with that.  “Lana” cultivates an air of mystery which is helpful in forestalling much conversation offstage. This is useful because Marta is painfully shy.

History: Marta has been working hard since she was 12 years old. Papi died when she was little and Madre was working as a domestic and as soon as Marta was old enough to be helpful, she was right there beside her mother doing the work. And that was the case until lung cancer ate her up from the inside about 10 years ago.  Not too long after that, there was an incident at work involving a manager who seemed to feel that hotel was his personal plantation and that Marta was his own personal brown sugar.  Marta grabbed him by the balls, and as mentioned, She’s got some muscle.  That asshole still feels it.  Not only did he fire her but he used his connections to get her blackballed in the hotel industry.

    This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. She’s got cousins in a latin/jazz band who needed a singer, and Marta had been singing all her life. Marta had never really thought much about being a professional singer. Well...That’s not entirely true. She had but, Madre had been particularly ruthless about stomping on any dream that might rob her of her extra pair of hands. A girl like Marta needed to be hard-headed and practical, or so Madre told her nearly every day of her life.  But her cousin Eugenio encouraged her to give it a try and when she auditioned for the band, she flatly knocked their socks off.

    Sadly, a life as a professional singer is one of many ups and downs, and Marta had been a hard worker all her life. But the boost to her confidence was enough to get her out of the dumps and re-brand herself as a domestic for hire to rich people. Now she’s remade herself as an independent businesswoman. And the Asshole manager got caught with his dick inside someone who didn’t like it and had a lawyer.  See. Sometimes justice triumphs.

Attitude: “Listen Ninã. The world is very rough and you can see a lot of horrible things, especially if you keep your eyes open. But you have to keep your eyes open, or you can’t learn anything. And life is so much harder if you are stupid or blind.”

Skills:  While it’s been a long time, Marta still knows how to throw a punch. She doesn’t have a lot of social dots, but her Expression is quite high with a specialty in vocal music. (She also plays a little guitar.) Her other main skill is the ability to seemingly fade into the woodwork while remaining in plain sight. She’s got a few dots of crafts because she’s had to learn a bit of jack-leg plumbing and carpentry on the job. She's got muscle and plenty of raw stamina from a life in the service industry. Her resolve and composure are also pretty decent. She’s not completely unflappable, but damn near. If she wasn’t so cripplingly shy in some ways, she’d be a force of nature. She’s fired a gun before...But that was a long time ago.

Gear: Plastic milk crates of cleaning supplies live in the trunk of her Camry. She keeps a notebook, phone, and rolls of lifesavers in the pockets of her apron. She kids herself that the Lifesavers are for the little ones in the various households she services. Sure they are.  On rough days, the flask in her glovebox makes an appearance.

Home: Marta lives alone in an apartment. Eugenio sometimes crashes on her couch. Her home is particularly spare and doesn’t really have much in the way of keepsakes or mementos. This is by design. When she lost the baby, she lost Julio too. She couldn’t have anything around her that reminded her of either one, and she just got used to not having a lot of stuff. Her best friend, The drag queen from down the hall, keeps telling her she needs to breathe some life into this place. 

Circle: Marta's family is quite large and she is weirdly, an only child of her branch of it. The good thing though is that although she is fairly shy, they love her unreservedly. She just is one of the sorts of people that people find themselves liking even in spite of her social awkwardness.  This goes for her bandmates, her public, and the clients she works for.

Story Uses:

“Dos mio. Not this again!”

You know, it’s quite possible that Marta knows a LOT about the various skeletons in people’s closets. She keeps her mouth shut about that stuff because you’ll find yourself out of work if you start telling about the things you’ve seen...And some of the rougher things she’s seen may have been supernatural in nature. Marta may be in a position to know all sorts of things.

“Don’t you worry about me. I’ll be fine.”  

While it’s possible that Marta might make a good friend or even girlfriend for a PC, She’s not exactly a stranger to the rough aspects of life, as such, she’s not likely to be a damsel in distress. You may bust in the door only to find that she beating the guy to death with the remnants of the chair that she’s still handcuffed to.  I’m just saying.

Connections: 

* She works for Eldon Hawkins who is the son of Miss Virgie Hawkins. She's met the rest of the PRS people and considers them all fairly harmless. She's TOLD Mr. Hawkins this, but he just doesn't seem to listen.

* The high point of her week is going to see Payton Breckinridge and having him cook her breakfast and chat her up. If she could allow herself to believe that maybe Payton has feelings for her TOO, then maybe they could get somewhere. As it is, it's exquisitely painful for the both of them, and they never want it to stop.

* Lillian Penobscot is another one of her rich clients. Weirdly the two women have become friendly in a way that wildly dissimilar people can be. 

* Doris Badenov is the drag queen best friend. When Marta first began singing she knew she'd need some kind of make-over. So, screwing up her courage, she went and knocked on his door and they've been fast friends ever since. She IS afraid that his drinking has gotten out of control, because when he's terribly fried he starts raving about "Los Vampiros".

* Clavo Hernandez did the ink on her wrist. Julio was a friend of his and he did it as a favor.

*Cullen Gillis and Victoria North of Holmes, Gillis, Baker, Savage, North, and Dean are also clients of hers. They've talked her up to the other partners and at some point Marta may collect the entire set.

*It should be mentioned that Marta has a client or two that are members of The Vermillion House. But most of the time, any sort of deep depravity tends to be hidden from "The Help" this might change if Eugenio ever gets a Vermillion House Party gig. Because while they may not recognize her, she will definitely recognize a number of them.

* Is a distant cousin of the Hernandez sisters from  Caligari's. Marta gets along with Bonita fine, but even after all this time, still has beef with Dolores. That puta knows what she did...