Reverend Doctor Miranda Goines

Concept: Professional Agitator

AKA:  Close friends call her Randa.

Desc: Skinny and muscular. Cafe au lait skin. Super smart eyes with spidery thin glasses. Glossy black short curls. A little bit on the short side. Sneakers, or engineer boots, but usually never heels. Goes in for the kind of look that makes her look like an exotic student rather than a doctor herself.  Can pull off funky ethnic jewelry

History: Here’s what you need to know. Like many things, Political correctness is a continuum and not a binary state. On one end of the spectrum, you find Nazis. Klan members. Misogynists and the like...Over on the other end, you find people like Randa Goines.

   Look. I’m not going to say that it’s a bad thing to major in Women’s Studies. It’s not. But when you decide to acquire a doctorate in it, Well, your only career option is to teach Women’s Studies. Fortunately, Randa is fairly damn smart and was able to not only get her doctorate but to snag a berth here at the University teaching. She’s essentially the only member of the Women’s studies faculty, but she’s always on the prod to either create a chairmanship for her department or wrest control of the rest of the Liberal Arts Studies from the entrenched white male patriarchy.

   Yeah. Randa’s the sort of person who uses the phrase “Entrenched White Male Patriarchy” at least once a day.

Miranda, grew up in the burbs. Her parents both had good jobs and as a result, she grew up with advantages that not everyone had. She was always fairly empathetic but as she got into college, That empathy of hers got...Weaponized.

     Oh sure, It’s easy to fall into the trap of the Ivory tower. But Randa has less excuse than most. She’s out and active in the community following or supporting dozens of causes and looking for ways to publish her books on philosophy (which are interesting, if a little dry.) and to pimp her blog,(worth a look)  and her poetry. (Which is terribly florid and awful.)

Randa can quote Maya Angelou, Queen Latifah, and the Bible at the drop of a hat. She has the ACLU on speed-dial on her phone.

She has no sense of humor because she considers humor to be micro-aggression.  She self-identifies as a bi-sexual even though she’s never been with a woman.  Mainly because she thinks she OUGHT to be Bi-sexual.  It’s not as if she’s gotten any lately anyway. She’s either writing, teaching, or working at activism. and that’s a pretty full day. The faculty is already full of people who’ve tried to make an approach on Miranda and found themselves on the receiving end of a lecture on feminism and gender roles that isn’t exactly designed to kill any boner within 50 feet, but that’s the effect.   Her idea of flirting is opening with something like, “So...What do you think about the Somali refugee problem..Crazy, right?”

Privately, Randa also considers herself an Atheist, but she keeps that pretty quiet. Her family wouldn’t understand and as many times as she’s used the bible for justification for arguments, well...She wouldn’t take it well to be called a hypocrite. Please note that I have just made an understatement of some depth.

Look, while Randa may be as arch-liberal elite as they come, one thing can’t be denied. She fucking means it. She’s gone into her own pocket more than once to help out a promising student. She’s organized dozens of rallies, spoken at dozens of funerals, officiated a fair number of weddings of all sorts. Gotten her head cracked open more than once at protests that have gotten out of hand and has been tear-gassed often enough to keep a water bottle full of a mixture of Water and Maalox in her purse at all times.  This may be her saving grace that keeps her from being some kind of caricature...She considers all that a small price to pay for building a better world. 

Attitude:  “I swear if the next words out of your mouth are how it is all about ethics in games journalism I'm going to smack the taste out yo mouth.”

Skills: Not to put too fine a point on it, but Miranda has ALL the academics dots. and about a half-dozen specialties. She’s also got a fair wodge of points socked into Politics and a couple of specs in that too. Expression, Persuasion, Empathy, and Subterfuge are well filled out.  Mentally, She’s a powerhouse. Heavy resolve.  Socially, she has a good amount of juice, but she has some blind spots. No one ever invites her to a party where they hope to have a really good time.  Although she occasionally has moments where she’s talked both students and faculty into seeking help for alcoholism or depression...So maybe they ought to.  Physically, she stays in shape by running and doing Tae-Bo in her apartment when it too cold to run.  Combat wise, She’s been in a few real scraps in her life and she’s got the dots in Brawl to show for it, but she’s largely untrained in any fighting style...  One of these nights, raw ferocity isn’t going to get it for her.  She would be likely to have a number of the Carthian social group merits, especially, “Current Events Discussion group”

Gear: Usually has her laptop bag with iPhone and iPad safely ensconced within. Carries jerky, trail mix and bottled water everywhere. Keeps a Mace sprayer in her left pocket and brass knuckles in her right.  Her keychain also sports a kubotan and she keeps a taser and a baseball bat in her car. Randa believes in being ready.

Home: Randa has a nice 1 bedroom apartment that is biking distance from campus. She’s filled it with books, curios from her trips to Africa and the Middle East, and large comfy furniture that occasionally plays home to a student or two. Rand also has a false back at the back of her bedroom closet where her pistols and her rifle are concealed. Randa believes in being ready. Her “office” looks as if a tornado hit it, but she knows where everything lies...usually.

Circle: Miranda is a known name in activism circles. She’s has pull and juice with a number of people in various strata of political life.  She isn’t shy about trading favors and doesn’t mind having markers out there to cash in on various things.  It’s kept her from losing her job on more than one occasion. While Miranda is never likely to have Tenure at the university, the University Chairman has seen fit to turn a blind eye to her many arrests.

Story Uses:

“These people have grown so used to our obedience that they have forgotten to fear us. Let’s remind them!”

Miranda is driven by causes it is her life’s blood. It is her mother’s milk. Pity the poor PC who run afoul of her and her small army of acolytes. They can cause more bad press than most major corporations are able to deal with.

“Hey HEY! Ho HO! These Corporations got to go!”

On the other hand, If you were to put Randa in your pocket, or, better plan, make an Ally out of her, you could point her at any target you wished to cause some serious trouble for.  She would be the Quintessential Carthian Movement/Brujah ghoul.  And if you happened to have deep enough pockets, she’d make a dandy candidate for public office.

“Lord...If you’re listening at all...I am so tired.”

It is, of course, possible that Miranda’s keen sense of injustice is more than that.  It might be that she’s a lost cub of some sort. Wouldn’t that be something?

Connections:

*Has had more than one run-in with Alex Mahoney and weirdly enough he seems to get the upper hand every time. Randa seems to get weirdly tired or dizzy when trying to debate him. It's starting to concern her. She thinks she might be developing a complex, and the therapist isn't exactly all that helpful to begin with...

*She said some lovely words at Chris Murphy's funeral. Chris would like to repay her somehow, but they don't exactly cross paths all that much.

* Has met "Dr. Coulton Bennett"  on the charity circuit. Thinks his cause is a righteous one. They've been emailing back and forth on a possible university rally of some sort and he's been picking her brains a bit about how to organize those sorts of things.

* Used to go to school with Special Agent Owen Maccready The joke was always that since they were almost the only black people in the neighborhood that they'd have to get married or something.  Both of them didn't like that idea, although they liked each other, but dated white kids out of some sense of perversity. Now they call one another occasionally and catch up, especially if someone from the old neighborhood is in the news.

* She and Grace Cook were roommates at undergrad together.  Room 317 if I'm recalling correctly. Randa was sitting in a jail cell from a protest the night before, otherwise, she'd have been at the wedding...

* At least once a week, she and Clarinda Hale go running. Each thinks the other person is impossibly glamorous and can't believe they are friends.

*Has been interviewed by Patricia "Carnie" Pitt more than once. As a matter of fact, If she sees Randa at some news event, she'll opt for her over someone else, because she knows Randa is a pro. Keeps Randa's card just in case.

* Knows Dr. Dennis McMurtry but only just in passing. His daughter is taking one of her courses and she's happy to report she's doing well.