A.D.A. Calvin Donloe

Concept:  Slick Ass Persian Bazaar Assistant District Attorney

AKA: Most know him as “Cal”

Desc: Winning smile, capped teeth, Voice that he’s worked with a singing coach to be more musical. Nice blue eyes. Insolent hair but just this side of presentable for court. No Ink. Wedding ring. Totally at home in a suit. Lean with just a hint of muscle. Still on the young side, Medium tall. 

History: Calvin is a pretty typical guy in some respects. Born to middle-upper class parents. 3rd son of 5 siblings. Never the brightest bulb in the marquee, but he knows people and has a good intuitive feel for dynamic situations. Did lacrosse in high school but only enough to letter.  Did extracurriculars, but never full court press. Although. he did like Speech.  Extemp, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, all that stuff. He had a real flair for it. Took home more than a couple of trophies. Went to a good school out of state, came back home and got into a good law school here.

      While Calvin was in law school, he met Amanda. It’s a bit of an opposites attract kind of deal. Amanda is a lawyer for the E.P.A and regularly takes her vacation time to help build schools in Haiti. How he fast-talked her into marrying him, none of their friends seem to be able to dope out. (It was easy. She loves him. and if you asked her exactly why she gets tongue tied. He has a similar problem. This is not normal for either of them.)

   While Calvin is a bit more conservative, he’s not an asshole about it. He’s all but disowned his own party for most of their economic policies and a few of their social stances.  But he’s seen all manner of ethnic and white trash people come through court and he’s got some case hardened attitudes about “Those People”  Occasionally, he gets his conscience agitated and bounces something off of Amanda, usually causing a dropping of charges.  But as he gets older, that conscience of his tickles less and less.

    To say that Cal’s rise in the DA’s office is “meteoric” is overselling it a bit, but he keeps their win/loss ratio fairly healthy. He is a master of talking people with few options into taking a plea bargain deal. He’s not amoral or anything, but many times, he has trouble seeing the other person’s side. And it doesn’t matter to him that the person on the other MIGHT be innocent...Well, not every time. Truth be told though, he’s more likely to give the benefit of the doubt to some white kid from the burbs. And he’s completely oblivious to any kind of passive racism on his part.  After all, he has Black and Latino friends in his office.

Attitude: “Listen, Don’t talk to me about SODDI. Your guy is guilty as fuck. Now, I don’t think he needs to swing for it or anything like that. But if you fight me on this, I’ll walk you into court and I'll mow you like the spring grass. So let’s talk deal...”

Skills: Physically, he’s okay. His habits and metabolism will catch up to him eventually. Intellectually, he’s fast on his feet, but no great shakes at sticking to the program, and never the best student. His dots in Academics never exactly came easy. He still trips up occasionally. Socially, he’s an utter monster. Good with names and faces. Not eidetic, but NEVER forgets a phone number and rarely forgets an email address or URL. Plentiful dots of persuasion, intimidation, subterfuge, streetwise, and expression. (He’s something of a nerd about Greek History and the great orators of old. Does a great impression of John F. Kennedy.)

Also, he’s got an Expression specialty in Piano, and he sings a bit too. He’s got a pipe dream of opening a little piano bar when he retires. He could probably do it too. He’ll have very decent dots of Professional training. 

Gear: Cal carries a very sleek laptop bag for his Mac Air. He has a top of the line smartphone with a bluetooth ear piece. He also has two passport outboard drives. One containing law books and music, one half full of fairly vanilla porn. He doesn’t carry a weapon, although many people in his office do.  He keep a bottled water and snacks in his bag. He’s partial to gummy bears.

Home: He and Amanda have a beautiful home in Stillwood Oaks. Neither spend enough time there to really keep the place up so they hire a maid/gardener service from HOA directly. Stilwood Oaks is a gated community with security. relatively competent security too.  No kids so far, but they’re still trying.

Circle: Cal has a good number of dots plowed into social merits. Obviously status: lawyer and status: DA’s office. In addition, he’s got contacts. A fairly good spread of them. He’s politically connected and he’s always on the prod to expand his social circles because you just never know. He’s got Police allies.

Story Uses:

“So, you’ve done some unpleasant things, but apparently you’ve got friends...”

An A.D.A gets to see a number of sketchy things. Calvin has seen some. Some of them bother him. Some of them don’t. It could go either way with him.

“So, I’m going to put you in prison. And I’m going to slam dunk you like Jordan.”

Yeah. If you are CLEARLY in the wrong, and you catch Calvin, AND Judge Mattarazzo. You’re going to have a hard road to hoe.

Connections:

It's not unusual for nearly all of the cops, crooks, or lawyers to have had contact with Calvin. So I'll just be hitting the highlights.

* He's tangled with both Roderick Holmes and Ilyana Baker of Holmes, Gillis, Baker, Savage, North, and Dean Ilyana is interested in banging him but he's not interested in cheating on Amanda. (Oh don't get me wrong. He's THOUGHT about it.) Both of those lawyers have managed to make him look dumb in court, so he has some respect for them.

* He's also tangled with Christine Horowitz obviously. Christine doesn't HATE Calvin exactly, but he makes her life harder than it truly needs to be.

* Put Jamal Cooper in the jug once. Jamal would like to "thank" him for that. "Thank" him quite vigorously actually.

* The Vermillion House has their eyes on him right now. No one has extended an invitation to him, because they're keeping track of his trial record and they see that occasionally, he's still got something of a conscience. But should he desire an invitation to one of their soirees, then he'll be brought in and love-bombed like a prospective cult member.

* Teflon John Galloway "This fucking guy! I am serious. You'd better have crossed all the "T"s and dotted all the "I"s on the fucking paperwork. This guy is like the great white whale of this department."

* Went to high school with Clarinda Hale and had it pretty bad for her. Every so often they fall into one another's orbit and get close only to go in different directions again. Of course, that was all before Amanda came along.

Charlotte Wilson

Concept: Pagan Queen Bee

AKA: Insists that people call her “Morrigan Brightsong” which IS her craft name, but she takes it a bit far. She has other names that certain other practitioners call her, but these are less than complimentary. Please note I have made an understatement of some depth.

Desc: Average height and slightly above average weight. Which is not to say that she unfit at all. She does yoga very regularly, and in fact, will take any opportunity to stretch if bored or forced to wait. This isn’t so much a problem, but Charlotte will do her stretches in line at the bank. Child bearing hips, and a great rack. Flowery colorful ink on her flanks and upper back. interspersed with the occasional eclectic mix of occult symbology. her hair is down past her shoulders and is honey blond. Piercing green eyes, which she ought to be wearing reading glasses for, but she’s too vain for that and she’s allergic to contacts. One of these days she’s going to mispronounce something serious and it’s going to be ON like barbecue sauce. Most days, she bums around the house in sweats, t-shirts, and her hair up in a ponytail. But if she leaves the house for any reason, it’s eyeliner, corsets, high boots, and using the back cover of nearly any Heart album as a roadmap.

History: You know, Charlotte grew up in the burbs. And she was a good kid for the most part. she was an only child. And her parents had a little money. They were Unitarians and leaned a little towards the Pagan side of their community church. For the most part they were fairly liberal folks, but not militantly so, and for the most part, Charlotte still has a lot of those attitudes or at least pays a lot of lip service to them. Sometimes, she’ll even put her money where her mouth is, but it’s not the way to bet.

     Charlotte is like a lot of people who haven’t really had a serious challenge or actual hardship in their life. She’s spoiled. And while this probably would have been manageable under ordinary circumstances, as Charlotte entered her teens, she got very pretty and she got better tits than any other girl at school.  The sudden massive influx of male and some female attention was the emotional equivalent of a serious cocaine habit. Once she’d gotten a taste, she wanted more.

This led to a number of questionable choices. A brief flirtation with the theater, some singing in a rock band, (She’s actually a pretty good singer.) A fairly serious amount of alcoholic misadventures in college, and a certain level of promiscuity that became near legendary at her old school. (For the record, She’s Hetero-Flexible.) 

This also led to delving a bit further into pagan practices while in college and getting a little further into the Magical praxis end of things. She has some actual talent in this realm, but not nearly as much as she thinks. She’s also a fan of Thelema and keeps a framed photo of Aleister Crowley by her bedside. In other people, this might be something of an affectation, but Charlotte considers him something of a patron saint. She also likes the idea of boning someone in her bed and sending a little “Master Therion’s” way.

    After getting her English degree, Charlotte worked a little of her magic in order to get herself a nice cushy job as a proofreader and the company allows her to do almost 90% of her work at home. This means that her time is mostly her own and she is, therefore, able to involve herself in the Occult Community in a way that a regular person with an interest and a regular job can’t. Naturally, when she’s trying to get someone to exert some effort on behalf of the coven or whatever, she can’t understand why it’s like pulling teeth sometimes. “I mean seriously, Don’t people WANT to be part of something bigger than themselves?  I think all that whining about jobs, and kids and whatever is just laziness really.”

   Charlotte is the sort of person who always gravitates to power. If there is a ritual honoring the goddess, she wants to god-body the goddess for the purposes of the ritual. Whereas other people might be a bit more modest about getting “Skyclad”, Charlotte always seems to make a big production out of it, almost to the point of requiring a stripper’s maypole.

Anyone she meets with any real honest magical skills becomes a potential bedmate unless they’re gross or something, in which case she’ll still see if she can’t get them to hand her their leash without screwing them. If you tell her this is what she’s doing, she’ll deny it...and believe it too.

     She’s not the sort of person who HAS to have a certain amount of drama going on around her at all times, but she does seem to be completely blind to the consequences of her choices.  To the point where the few people who still call her a friend goggle their eyes each time she repeats some cycle and then says something like, “I had no way to know that was going to shake out like that!”

     Look, it’s not like she’s a completely bad person. She gives money to causes, votes regularly and helps organize things with her coven and the local U.U. Church.  But she has a Queen Bee’s attitude. Which makes for drama with all of those people. With men, She wants them all to love her even if she doesn’t want to love them all back.  With other women, she wants them to serve, or GTFO. Sometimes, the sexual tension at an Esbat is so thick you could cut it with a spoon.

Attitude: “Look, I recognize that I can be a bit...Mercurial. In fact, I think GreyClaw once said that trying to get me to commit to anything was like trying to nail jello to a tree. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not an integral part of this community. I mean. I choose to be here. Know what I mean?  So...Who’s the hot guy with the dark hair? Friend of yours?”

Skills: Physically, she’s fit enough but completely average. Maybe a little extra stamina. Mentally, she’s got a little extra. Some Academics and Occult with a couple of specialties. She’s good with nearly any discipline where actually ability isn’t dependent on any practice.  She can write a dissertation on magical themes in Shakespeare but knows fuck all about putting oil in her own car. It’s a good thing most of the boys know that stuff.

Socially, She will grind you into dust. She seems to sow bad soap opera everywhere she goes and yet, she seems able to keep all those plates spinning somehow. And even the various people in the various groups she belongs to, realize on those rare occasions she doesn’t show up, that the meetings are deathly dull without her.

If you are using Second Sight as a resource or a CoD equivalent, Charlotte would have the Ceremonial Magician template. Remember she’s still youngish and not as serious a practitioner as others, but her natural tendency to gravitate to people with actual power means she’s picked up a little more from the bench than most people think.

Gear: Charlotte carries a “Big Bag” which is a disorganized mess. The only thing she can ever find in there with any degree of facility is her phone and her keys.

Home: Charlotte owns a home in burbs with a high back fence so she can sunbathe. It’s a smallish place. But she lives alone and spends the bulk of her time in the semi spacious bedroom. Charlotte goes through cyclical periods of extreme slobbishness and then getting fed up and deciding to clean everything in sight.  This usually lasts until she gets tired...and then she promises herself that she’ll devote an hour each to tidying up the place. Cue Rocket J. Squirrel saying “But, that trick NEVER works!”   She badly wants a kitten, but it’s probably a good thing she is terribly allergic to pet dander.  She would likely be bad a cat mommy.  There is a suspicious amount of hooch in her cupboards.

Circle: While Charlotte IS a known name in the occult community, and not necessarily someone anyone wants to mess with, She’s not terribly well liked either. She has a few friends who are actually close friends. Some people from work she gets along with, and the vast panoply of ex-lovers and would-be lovers that are likely to help out or jump to her defense.

She has SOME magical skill and SOME actual scholarship, so it’s not out of the realm of the possible that she might end mentoring someone in the arts. 

Story Uses:  “I don’t know what you’re talking about Sarah. I have not fucked your husband.”

Psh. You know she did. Charlotte can’t seem to help herself, if there is someone she should not, under pain of death, crawl into bed with, she might have to end up dying.   One wonders if she’ll ever learn her damn lesson short of a case of aids or herpes.

“Tonight. I am the Goddess. Come... and receive your blessing”

Charlotte tends to take the obeisance to the “Goddess” offered by ritual practitioners for stroking her own ego. This may be part of the problem.  For someone, who’s magical practice is all about controlling luck, Charlotte seems to have awful luck in some ways. Maybe some Goddesses resent Charlotte as their stand-in.

Connections:

*Shops regularly at The Grimoire Flirts with Bear. Chat's with Penny like an old friend. Treats Noel like he's invisible. Has some weird case of nerves about Luna. As if Luna has some ability to crush her that she may not know anything about yet.

* Went to college with Gilbert Savage of Holmes, Gillis, Baker, Savage, North, and Dean. He had some mojo back then. They were almost right up next to serious with one another. And then Charlotte got a close look at Gilbert's true face. Fortunately, it was late in her last semester and avoiding him was relatively easy as they had no classes together.

* While they've not met, Charlotte has heard of Lillian Penobscot as the woman to go to when you've got some occult knick-knack you either want or want to get rid of.

* Ok. This is pretty simple. She and Schuyler Lavey have something of a volatile relationship. Each has something the other wants, and they have a great time in the sack. But they both have HUGE egos and so they meet, transact business if they have any. Fuck passionately for about a week and then have some kind of nuclear wasteland style fight and then don't see one another for a few months. The amount of harsh gossip between them is enormous. Each time they get together, people in the know start a pool on how long it will last this time.

* She used to be one of the "Special Protege's" of Frederick Wyngarde. So far, since that time, neither has run across the other. But if they did, it's likely that some bad luck would be passed between them fairly vigorously.

* Considers Collette Reeves to be a "No Talent Whore". Collette, for her part, hasn't risen to any of her bait.

* Naturally, If she has the opportunity to bone Dr. Paul Bickford to stick a spoke in Collette's wheels, she will take it.

* No one has it ALL wired. So sometimes it means strategic alliances. This was the case with Charlotte and Blaise Newkirk. About once a month, they meet, have a lovely brunch, Have freaky circus sex and go their separate ways with a list of things to do for the other person. Blaise knows that Charlotte is good at a soft or subtle approach. And Charlotte knows that Blaise is good making horrible things happen to people she doesn't like. in idle moments, each wonders if the other might be capable of the long haul.

Judge Paul Allen Mattarazzo

Concept: Your Juridical Nightmare

AKA: Judge Mattarazzo is not the sort of person who usually has a nickname. Only people he grew up with are still allowed to call him “Peewee” without getting punched.

Desc: Topping out 5’2” and 220 pounds, Paul is still fairly strong for his size. He goes to the gym, and he does not skip leg day.  Most of his hair on top is gone but what remains is still as black as a raven’s feather.  He sports a USMC tattoo on his right bicep which is how a poor kid like him got to go to law school in the first place.

He’s got glasses for reading. He wears black pants, a regular white shirt, his robe, and bright green Chuck Taylor All-Stars on any given day he’s in court.  He’s in his 50’s and is still in pretty good shape.

History: A poor kid from the neighborhood back in the day. Pretty smart, if a bit short, kinda scrappy.  As soon as he’s old enough he follows in his father’s footsteps and enlists in the corp, over his father’s strong objections. While being one of Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children was no day at the beach, it concretized a certain amount of toughness the young man already possessed. When he mustered out, he took his GI bill and his ridiculous LSAT score and went to Harvard Law.

They have a saying about law school. “A” students end up teaching law. “B” students end up on the bench, and “C” students end up practicing.  Paul was an “A” student, but teaching didn’t really appeal to him. So he went to the bench.

Paul is the sort of man who knows that he doesn’t have an unerring sense of right and wrong. But he also is the sort of man who never ever stops trying. He works very diligently to uphold the public trust as a circuit court judge (Which is an elected position) and reads voraciously to stay abreast of things. (Truth be told, he’s wrecking his eyes.)

While most of his constituency may not know anything about him, he takes his responsibilities very very seriously. He’s the sort of blessing in a community that is almost completely invisible to most folks.

And here’s the other end, Paul, unbeknownst to himself, has been gifted. Nobody seems sure when or how it happened, but he seems to be proofed against mental and emotional tampering of a supernatural nature.  Oh sure, if you kidnapped his wife and kids, you could probably get him to do something out of line, but try to put the whammy on him and it slides right the fuck off.  Certain people have run up against this already and the word is starting to get around.

And you know, it’s not even to say that he’s NEVER done anything shady. He’s fixed a ticket or two for friends. But on the whole, he’s as clean as they come. and if you AREN’T, then it’s likely to be a bad scene for you if you end up on his docket.

Attitude: “Mr. Holmes, I’m sure your client is paying you an exorbitant amount of money for this elaborate song and dance routine. And I certainly understand that it is in your best interest to stretch that out as long as you can, but MY time is being paid for the by the state taxpayers and I am DONE with you wasting it. Call your next witness.”

Skills: Socially, he’s solid, not remarkable mind you, but solid. It should be noted that when he’s got his robe on, he’s effectively using equipment that bumps up his presence rolls by +2  Physically, he’s also solid. He gets in some running and a bit of racquetball each weekend. When he was growing up he got into a lot of fight because of his size, and his pops got him into golden gloves. So he’s got some dots of boxing. He hasn’t thrown a punch in a while, but he hasn’t forgotten how either.

Mentally, Paul Mattarazzo is a flying steel fortress. he has academics 5, and a few specialties in that, as well as Politics 4 and Investigation4 with few specialties each. He subscribes to over 200 RSS feeds on various sites. His wife allows him the iPad but refuses to allow him a smartphone of any sort. “If I did that, Your children and I would never see your eyes again.”

It should also be noted that Paul has both a resolve and a composure of 4. This, as far as anyone can tell, is entirely natural.

Gear: Aside from the aforementioned iPad, and the normal stuff you find in a man’s pockets, The Judge’s everyday carry is pretty normal, except for one thing. He carries a 357 magnum under his right armpit. He runs some shells through that thing every once in a while, but not as regularly as he thinks he ought to.

Home: He and Veronica and their 3 kids have a lovely place up the Heights. Plenty of space, lots of light. Big backyard with a pool. His eldest, Anthony, is usually there doing laps. Swims like a fish that kid.  The house is nestled in a gated community for extra security. The HOA is a total pain in the ass, but knowing that no one can just wander into the neighborhood offers Paul some much-needed peace of mind.

Circle:  Being an elected official, and a scrupulous one. Paul holds very few people dear. Veronica is much more social than he. If Paul thinks he ought to know someone a bit better, he’s perfectly capable of running the public records and/or using the software on his computers to do the same. As it is, The only people he really knows outside of court are a few people from his diocese and an old Marine buddy or two. Of those people, almost all of them think Paul is the smartest and most practical person they know.

Story Uses:

“I’ll allow it.”

If your character happens to be on the shady side of the law, Judge Mattarazzo is your worst nightmare. He’s practical, competent, proofed against most forms of tampering, and almost completely immune to being fast-talked. If you find yourself on his docket, you could be in for a rough ride.

“Good luck with that counselor, Call your first witness...”

On the other hand. He’s a decent man, it’s almost impossible that he’s in someone’s pocket, and he knows the law inside and out. If you’re on the side of the angels and up in front of him. You might just stand a chance.

Connections:

* All of the Police in Painted Corners town have been up in front of the Judge at one time or other. Detective Bob Greider is the only one he actually considers a friend. (Dude, it's Bob. C'mon.) At various points, they either love the guy, or hate the guy, or are scared shitless of the guy.  Officer Honus Brightwater gets cotton-mouthed at just the mention of the Judge's name.

* Considering how often she gets arrested Reverend Dr. Miranda Goines has been up in front of the judge more than once. While he empathizes with his various concerns, he's not a fan off going outside the system to seek redress. So often, he fines her stiffly. Then turns around and makes a personal donation to whatever charity she was working toward at the time of her arrest. Randa has noticed this, and for her own reasons, keeps her mouth shut about it.

*Some of the hardened criminals have been up in front of the judge. These would include: Krieger, Ezekiel Stubbs, Jamal Cooper, Drago Velikovski, William Lee Travis, (Big case that one...) John Joseph Staglione, "Dr. Coulton Bennett" (Many many years ago.) Esmerelda Duschene and a few of the other girls over at Bryson Import/Export, and of course, Teflon John Galloway. Galloway seems to be the great white whale for Judge Mattarazzo. There always seems to be something wrong with the evidence, or the arrest, or the witness. He'd like to wipe the smile off that redneck's face.

* The high point of any day in court is if Charlie is on the docket. The Judge actually likes the crazy old man and likes listening to his half-crazy stories.(Assuming, of course, he can keep his pants on.) Sure, he's going to arraign him pretty quick and remand him to county, so that the old man can get 3 hots and a cot for the foreseeable future...and Charlie seems to understand THAT much at least. So it's a win-win.

* The firm of Holmes, Gillis, Baker, Savage, North, and Dean usually has something of an axe to grind with the Judge. This stems from the fact that Roderick Holmes VASTLY underestimated who he was dealing with in his first case in front of him and Paul, after finally losing his patience, which was not a usual occurrence, dressed him down in open court for a full 20 minutes. From this point onward, Dealing with Judge Mattarazzo was dealt with like defusing a bomb with a mercury trigger. The only member of the firm that the Judge actually respects is Ilyanna Baker (Always on time, always prepared. aggressive and smart. A top notch litigator.)

* While most of the PD's can be unbearable whiners and poorly prepared and sleep deprived, The Judge is inclined to give slightly more latitude to Christine Horowitz. His heart breaks for her a little. He sees what she's trying to do, and empathizes, but there ARE times when Christine's clients are guilty as fuck. He wishes she'd get off the Heartbreak Train that is the P.C. Public defenders office. 

* As you can well imagine, the idea of an incorruptible and unbendable Judge is something that gives certain members of the inner circle of The Vermillion House a collective case of the night sweats. There are plans in place, of course, should anyone with real standing face prosecution, but most of those plans involve incredibly suspicious acts. The timing of them and their nature would likely make anyone in the media ask additional awkward questions.