Nora Beaconsfield

Concept: “My Secret Weapon” "The Governor's wife."

AKA: Nor, or Nor-easter if she’s pissed

Desc: Petite with a lovely bob that frames her face perfectly. (for serious, her personal stylist Reynaldo has it down to a science.) pert and relatively fit, she has a well engineered and genuine smile. intelligent eyes favors dark colors and has the legs for a predilection for pencil skirts. Wears a wristwatch because hunting for the phone all the time bugged her.

History: Nora grew up in a political family so it wasn’t exactly a shock that she majored in Poli sci in college. But she also took a journalism minor which has served her very well over the years. her first job was writing political analysis for the local paper and it was something she was actually quite astute at. She met Ben Beaconsfield on the campaign trail and liked what she saw. he wasn’t an empty suit. He had his own money. and he had his own mind. he probably would have lost that first city council election had not Nora come bouncing into his life, and his heart.

        Which makes it all sound so much more cynical and calculating than it actually was. Nora saw that Ben was a decent guy in an indecent biz and she saw that he had miles and miles of potential. That’s what really got to her. His simple raw charisma and intelligence. she had opportunities to see him at his absolute best and her cool calculating side simply caught fire, So she quit the paper and threw every single bit of her talent behind his campaign. Nora Beaconsfield is not just the governor’s wife. She is his de-facto chief of staff as well. And it doesn’t hurt that she’s telegenic as hell and so polished that the electorate in this state loves her to pieces. Nora is also hella good with campaign finance and has an intuitive feel for how far ben will go to get an endorsement. She has successfully sued opponents for libel during campaigns for the temerity of stating that she or anyone else had appropriated funds. Her books were a model of efficiency and record keeping for forensic purposes. She’s noticed that the Democratic machine in this state will crucify you for small things, while the GOP round these parts are famous for large long con-corruption and finding small shit that the Democrats do that will cause the democrat's party machine to eat itself. So Nora takes it upon herself to keep a tight ship.

So it’s a little weird about how much Nora is into understanding the occult. It came about as the result of seeing something peculiar once while following a story for the paper. it made Nora realize that maybe her understating of the world wasn’t as “Holistic” as it needed to be.  This led to reading up on horoscopes, and when she found that following that stuff actually helped their numbers to the tune of about 9-14% improvements. she started learning how to read tarot.  She reads every single new person who gets added to the staff and it hasn’t steered her wrong yet. Nora’s still relatively new at this and isn’t aware of the Vermillion house, although they are well aware of her. She hasn’t run afoul of anyone yet who’s willing to hire someone like Walter Blevins. But she doesn’t have a mentor or a coven willing to run interference for her or anything like that. She is however on the lookout for something like that

Attitude: “I was always told by my parents that “with great power comes great responsibility.” I don’t know as I always believe that, But I always see how the really rich and powerful abuse that idea and how it ALWAYS causes needless suffering.”

Skills: Physically, she’s fit but nothing terribly special nor is she some kind of secret combatant. She's got more juice on the social end of things. strong presence and composure and has middling Manipulation.  She works hard at the social skills because they truly aren’t as natural to her. She’s honestly more of a bookworm.

Intellectually, she’s fairly tough. She’s strongest on Resolve but isn’t so intelligent that she intimidates people. or at least is wise enough not to do so... She’s got a ton of dots shoveled into academics including specs in accounting, journalism, and psychology.  Strong dots in politics to the point of being able to read the room or crowd with nearly subliminal speed. her knowledge of the occult is more, “I read it in a book” based than experiential.  her current project is to find someone skilled in making protective talismans for her and Ben, Which may be how she crosses paths with the characters.

Gear: Smartphone, tarot deck, a panic button that summons the governor’s security staff on the hop.

Home: The Governor’s mansion naturally. Although she can always lay low at her families place. Not that that will protect her from the Vermillion House should they be the problem. people with that sort of wealth all know one another really and few can keep their mouths shut. Nora’s mother sure can’t.

Circle: Nora’s reach is actually pretty long. she is professionally friendly with a number of people, and she seems to have a knack for figuring out who the hub of a particularly influential group is. Moreover, she is pretty good about checking in with them regularly and offering favors to stay in their good graces. She’s still tight with enough of her former fellow journalists that they occasionally still invite her out to drink.

Story Uses:

“SO I’m told you have something of a reputation around these parts.”

Nora already knows she needs someone who can backstop her some. the omen for the next election look particularly dire. So she may be casting around in Occult circles looking for real help or muscle.

Options: 

Probably any of the hedge magic templates would serve except for Apostle of the Dark one. it’s even possible that Nora might awaken in the course of traumatic events.

Connections:

*Shiri McSwain "they met at a fundraiser and she and her husband have become fast friends with her and Ben. To the degree that Nora will look for excuses to go round to the PCPL.

*Merl's "heard about this place but Google maps are not very helpful."

* Reverend Dr. Miranda Goines One of Nora's "Hubs"

*Alex Mahoney  I keep seeing the tower coming up in conjunction with the 5 of Wands.

* Dr. Dennis McMurtry  He's one of the best. taught me a LOT.

* Patricia "Carnie" Pitt  "I kick Trish any work I can. I've heard she's had a hard time in recent years. She's still wire tight though.

Officer Dolores Chavez

Concept: psychic Cop

AKA: Lots of her fellow street officers call her “D”

Desc: Middling tall for a latina, not an ounce of fat on her. No ink. she has the musculature of a hardcore swimmer. Hair like black glass and dark eyes that have seen a lot.

History: She doesn’t remember it all that well, but Dolores was possessed once. They went out and got someone who could yank the spirit out. and when he did, he called for a guardian to keep an eye on her. That guardian stayed with her and taught her much. and when he bid her goodbye, he gave her a gift, Well...She already had the gift but he helped her to learn how to use it.

Papa Chavez had been a highly decorated cop in his day, and he had a smile ten miles wide when she graduated from the police academy.

And now, she walks the streets trying to walk the straight and narrow. but her gifts actually make it harder for her in some ways.

Attitude:  “You’re Lying. I can smell it on you. Now I can run you in, shine a light in your eyes and keep you awake for a few days, or you can tell me what’s happening down the street...”

Skills: Physically. She is well skilled. Plentiful dots of athletics, weaponry, and Brawl. Plus dots of dirty fighting FS. She is in great great shape.

mentally, she’s no slouch. She paid attention to her “guardian angel” and got good grades in school. Also, she knows more about the spirit world than most people OUGHT to. She has dots in occult with a specialty or two.

Socially, Dolores is a bit of an introvert, loves to read with her kitty curled up on her lap. Can spend an entire afternoon dicking around on Twitter. Has a lot of fun going around to psychic fairs and outing the charlatans and keeping an eye on those few who are the real deal.

In terms of her abilities. she has the ability of aura reading and she has the ability to sense nearby disturbances in the fabric of the veil between words. Portals opening and closing and stuff like that.

Gear: Standard issue police gear obviously. Also, a number of holy symbols on her keyring that have proven useful in the field. A metal flask which carries holy water, refilled every sunday when she goes for mass.

Home: Dolores and her sister share a spacious two bedroom apartment in a relatively decent part of town. They live close to Scamps and Gloria chavez spends enough of her evenings there after her shifts at the hospital that Dolores has had to post a sign on the fridge that reads. “Get your own food manwhore! Pick through my fridge at your peril.”

Circle: “D” knows some cops, a few of her neighbors and most of the people at her church.  Her natural tendency, in spite of her ability to aura read is to want to believe the best of people. hopefully this won’t get her killed some day.

Story Uses:

“Stop! in the name of the LAW!”

Sometimes, you just want to know that there IS a hero cop out there fighting the good fight. Dolores gives people that sort of impression and it’s true, she means it.

“i may know a thing or two about destiny and having some courage.”

having supernatural merits doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t change into something with more juice. Dolores would be a natural as a Hero chasing beasts. Beasts would be wise to steer clear of her. 

Connections:

* Sgt. William Donnelly Toughest white man I've ever met, never seen him lie.

* Detective Dana Crowley She's likable and all. But If I tell her what I've really seen, They'll be fitting me for a straight jacket next.

*Detective Bob Greider Brightest aura I've ever seen. And funny as hell.

* Officer Wesley Ullman  "he's a seething vortex of unpleasant emotions and such. I wouldn't go anywhere with that guy."

* Special Agent Owen Maccready "I met him once on a crime scene. Totally out of his element. poor bastard."

Detective Jimmy"James" Harkness

Concept: “that One Dick”

AKA: People tend to whisper about James harkness behind his back rather than nickname him properly. Often times his most common moniker is “spook show”

Desc: A large black man in his mid forties. He’s got good wind and goes and hits the heavy bag whenever he’s trying to noodle something out. if there’s anything that’s a little bit off-putting about  Jimmy Harkness it is, that his sense of humor has become so gallows black that even the other homicide dicks often look at him with stricken “DUDE! Too Far!” looks on their faces. He’s already been officially reprimanded for a bad bout of church giggles he got at a crime scene within earshot of the grieving wife, who also turned out to be the perp by the way.

History: Jimmy has seen some shit. he’s worked as a cab driver, a corrections officer and then eventually got a gig with metro PCP. He’s been in a scrap or two in his life. He grew up in a part of the state where you worked in the mines until you coughed out your life in a hospital bed. So he’d rather do ANYTHING else than go back there and die like his pop did.

he came to the big city and started working as hard as anyone can. because Jimmy had seen some shit already and knew a few things that they don’t teach you about in big city public school. Nor in big city community college.

   Like knowing a few things about Haints, and a thing or two about hoodoo. and then the actual flesh and blood predators out in the night.  It didn’t take too long for The Union to come around and recruit Young Mr Harkness. and he’s been working with them all this time.  It explains a bit how his career has been somewhat checkered and how he’s moved around laterally. He’s also pretty good at it, The Hunting AND the Homicide detecting. He has a good grasp of psychology and while his schooling isn’t great, he’s got great people radar and isn’t lazy as fuck like Blanchard and Skiggs.

Granted it’s not all chili and hot dogs. his sick sense of humor comes from being triggered in the field a few times. His work and his hunting make it difficult to keep a girlfriend (Even though Jimmy is something of a catch. He’s not hard to look at and in decent shape. Occasionally, during hunting there are cash windfalls and Jimmy always invested them well.)

Attitude: “Keep your eyes open kid. Pay attention to the big stuff going on around you and the little stuff too. Remember to keep your eyes open and your head on a swivel and you just might get to die in your bed at an advanced age. I certainly hope to.”

Skills: mentally he’s pretty fast on the draw. he might have a number of investigation specialties and streetwise specialties too. He’ll have a dot or three of occult. and might even have encyclpodic knowledge. He’s always buying books with strategies on how to become a math wiz or do that “memory palace” shit, but he tends to get bored midway through and so he’s never really managed any of that.  But he is GREAT at reading people (Give him a five in empathy, which makes his inappropriate jokes even worse.) He’s got great radar for people and almost always know when you’re lying. ESPECIALLY TO YOURSELF.

Physically, he’s in good shape. Plenty of dots of brawl and some boxing FS. He’ll have decent brawling dodge too.  Isn’t anything special with his gun but CAN hit the broad side of a barn.  He’ll have some athletic dots but is probably not going to have enough flexibility to ever do anything like Parkour.

Socially, he’s a decent guy and most people like him even though he has a bad habit of speaking his mind and being terribly honest. It hasn’t endeared him to some in the department. His size and frame can make him a bit intimidating and if he decides he don’t like you he will invade your personal space.

Gear: he’s got cuffs and obviously a service piece. he’s also got a very large holdout piece which has a kick on it like a mule. he’s also carries a large tool bag for evidence handling and field testing. When on the hunt. Jimmy prefers a rather large shotgun and/or a big baseball bat.

Home: Jimmy has a lovely houseboat which he intends to retire onto. It’s on board arsenal is non-trivial. It is also booby trapped and in case of heat from monsters, he can always pull away from shore. 

Circle: He knows most of the people in the department of course, a subset of criminal folks, and the people around the marina. He’s not terribly outgoing from there.

Story Uses:

“Did you or did you not see these markings? Seriously Skiggs. DO you not know what a clue looks like?”

As I may have mentioned Jimmy has seen some seriously fucked up shit in the line of duty. He’s not one to stop listening when the witness says, “OK. Now this is going to sound crazy....” I’m not saying that James is going to become your own personal captain ahab. but anything weird is GOING to be passed up the chain to his people in the Union and lord only knows what will come out of that.

Options: 

If you want to juice up Jimmy Harkness, you can always give him psychic merits, a Second Sight hedge magic template of some sort. or have him be unwitting wolf blooded or an unwitting Dhampir.

Connections:

*Has a nodding acquaintance with the officers of  The clean-up crew. If they meet in the field, on the hunt, it's going to get very awkward very quickly.

* Shawna Bishop "Real shame what happened to that girl. real shame."

* Sgt. William Donnelly "You got a problem with Big Bill. Then you got a problem with me. And if HE's got a problem with you, Then I don't think I want to know you kid.

* Thomas Jones Rutherford  "yeah I know TJ. He's my boy! Dude would have made a pretty good cop himself I think. He asks the right questions.

* Paul Castellamarese "Id love to nail him on that thing from two years ago. But he lawyered up real good and the goombas closed ranks.

* Detective Marty Bennetti "That man is complicated to talk about. Errybody KNOWS he's crooked. But He also saved my damn life once. Don't partner with him if you're career minded.

Detectives Blanchard and Skiggs  "the Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy of PCPMetro.

* Sheriff Hank Settles Probably the only other lawman i can count on in the field. man I wish he'd transfer to metro. While I'm wishing I might as well as for lotto numbers and a blowjob.

* John Joseph Staglione "Love to find that dragunov of his and close about a dozen cases, but the man is out of the game and I hear for good. Besides i've seen him with his grandkids. I couldn't toss him in jail NOW."

* Miss Virgie Hawkins " i think she knows more than she lets on."

* Norman Cayce  "I think he's right and I help when i can.

T Morgan Barlow

Concept: Pillar of the Community

AKA: Most know him simply as mister barlow, few are familiar enough to know him as “tommy” 

Desc: Big and broad and barrel chested. White hair, capped teeth. Looks good in a cowboy hat and a string tie.Also tends to go for cowboy boots, but nothing overly adorned, plain black and/or brown is just fine. his suits tend to go the same way.

Drinks a bit and it’s starting to show on his face.

History:Thomas Morgan Barlow tells people he was raised on a farm. Which is technically true. His family OWNS a number of factory farms and many times they wintered there. and he did enjoy his time on the farms, but it wasn’t as if he was exactly stuck there. His father encouraged him to explore all aspects of the agribusiness consortium they owned and so he’s shorn sheep, and milked cows and all the folksy stuff that he likes to talk about at public events. But he also played polo and golf at the local country club.

T. Morgan Barlow

 started a widely successful chicken shop franchise called “Winner,Winner,Chicken Dinner” or Winner’s Chicken for short. PC town has 14 shops and they’ve just broken ground on a new rendering and processing plant in one of the bedroom communities adjacent to PC town.  While Millersburg needs the jobs, they have no idea how utterly filthy a chicken rendering plant is and how badly it will affect the local environment. Mr barlow has made certain that doctored studies have made it into the hands of the Millersburg city council.

As you might imagine, the whole plan was designed and directed by the higher ups  of the Vermillion House. They intend to put the plant squarely on a large piece of land seized by eminent domain that was the largest locus in the area.

Attitude: “Son. If you want to get ahead in business You’re going to have to get tough. No one is going to give you anything in this world. No one ever gave anything to me.”

Skills:  he’s made some very savvy moves in business over the years, but not because he’s super smart. but because he’s at least smart enough to recognize smart and hires the best bean counters that money can buy. Physically, he’s Ok. but nothing special. He’s got some size, some reach and a little boxing in his pockets. He’s been in a scrap or two in his life so he doesn’t get rattled easily in a tough situation.

Socially, he’s a shark. Like most sociopaths he’s gravitated to the top of his company because it’s where the power is.Also, he inherited it,  He’s always convinced himself that it’s necessary to be the sort of person that can order a plant closing and then sleep like the dead that night.

Gear: He doesn’t like to carry anything in his hands so he’s got two men who follow him everywhere who carry his stuff. His iPad, his phone, his wallet. and the like.

Home: Palatial and with the kind of security you only see in a Ocean’s Movie. Massive pool. Spends much of his time in his personal study. otherwise he’d have to deal with his wife and his 8 children.

Circle:  Unless you are rich, white and an evangelical christian, T Morgan Barlow doesn’t know you and doesn’t want to. In fact, he tends to abstain from most of the reindeer games at the vermillion house, not because of any real belief in God or any guilt of any kind, but because if ANY of it ever got out he’d never live it down.

Story Uses:

“Don’t you worry your pretty little head none. I’ll take care of the whole thing.”

Thomas makes a good target or antagonist. He’s a “pillar of the community” with all that that implies. He’s a good tool and probably even a good person to have in your rolodex for business related purposes. he’d very likely make a decent mentor for a person with similar attitudes as his.

Options: Obviously he’d make a decent ghoul for someone. he might be a part of some conspiracy outside of the Vermillion House. He might also be bankrolling one of the more christian flavored hunter groups.

Connections:

 Judge Stephen Warren Golf Buddies for life

Klaus Dietrich "Smartest man i know. Best banker I know too."

Blaise Newark "Never fails at what he does. Glad he's in my wallet."

Ralston Van Doren  very interesting guy, but SO intense.

"Dr. Coulton Bennett" Thinking very seriously about donating to this cause.

Meredith Shaw "Known her since she was knee high to a grasshopper. Mean as a snake. just like her momma.

The Vermillion House A big contributor to the House general project fund. But not going to be considered for the inner circle because of his churchy leanings.

Holmes, Gillis, Baker, Savage, North, and Dean There was some unpleasantness some years ago with some widespread wage theft chicanery. Fortunately Roderick holmes was able to clear all that up.

Mike Welch

Concept: Head of the Public Defenders office.

AKA: “bleeding heart” and snowflake are some of the kinder epithets that he’s been called by some of the DA’s staff

Desc: Tallish, flyaway hair reminiscent of Jake Busey. Clean well engineered smile. tired eyes. Hits the gym every other day, still. Eats like a horse. Needs glasses.

History: By rights he shouldn’t even be here. He’s a privileged kid. a B+ plus student in law school. he ought to be on the partner track somewhere. But He’s not. He’s working in a cramped little office for precious little money and his job is coming perilously close to consuming his entire life. It’s not like he’s planning to die working this job or anything, but he never seems to get off the dime when it comes to working on his own life.

Mike may have self esteem issues, but it is at least clear that he takes his job and the lives he quite literally holds in his hands very very seriously. Some think maybe he’s got some guilt over something big, like he skated when someone else did not. But so far no one has dug it out and and some have certainly tried.

   He drives himself very hard, and while he’s never said as much, he does so in order to let the other lawyers in the PD office know where he stands on the work itself. It breaks his heart a little every time one of his people leaves and gets a gig somewhere else. even though he’s outwardly happy for them.

Attitude:  “Ok. Stop. You’re approaching this like some mental exercise. Like some Gendankenexperiment or some bullshit like that. If you do that, a man goes to jail for a portion of his life.

Skills: Mike is in decent shape but isn’t truly a combatant. He could throw a punch maybe and he  actually HAS a small light pistol which he’s not bad with. But in a fight he’s liable to go down fast. Although he may keep trying to get up...He’s got a little more stamina than anything else in his physical suite. Long nights working on cases, and he runs a bit at night in order to clear his head. Socially, he’s pretty adept with a little more manipulation than anything else. he’s also solid mentally with more resolve than anything. More than most of the people in his office, truth be told.  He’s loaded with dots in academics (Spec: Law) and he’d make a pretty decent investigator from working with the PI that the PD office occasionally has to hire. he’s not genius brilliant like some other litigators, but he Always DOES THE FUCKING WORK and if they haven’t, brilliant or no, he’ll crush them.

Gear: his attache is home to a laptop, His pistol, his smartphone, and bottled water. he’s normally got a breakfast bar in there and yellowjackets, or stacker 2. Mike does not sleep much. Although he has been found nodded off in his office.

Home: He and his wife Joyce live in a modest little brownstone in a decent neighborhood gated community. Mike is still occasionally embarrassed by the privilege they still enjoy, but he tries to make up for it by being involved in the neighborhood watch. Mike wants kids, but Joyce refuses to have them as long as he’s still wrangling the PD’s office. He’ll never see them otherwise.

Circle: If you aren’t some sort of habitual lowlife or an officer of the court, You probably won’t get to know mike at all. Sorry.

Story Uses:

“i’m sorry, Christine is right. This is a loser of a case. My advice to you is plead it out.”

Mike is going to be overseeing things in the PD’s office and if something goes sideways, he may step in and try to head it off.

Options:

Mike may have suffered some sort of transformative event. Like a mastigos awakening or something like that. Or he may be wolf blooded and working closely with his kin. He may have something extra in his pockets.

Connections:

 Judge Stephen Warren Quite possibly the worst jurist I have ever seen in my life.

ADA Calvin Donloe Kind of a cock. Still sort of a friend of sorts.

Judge Mattarazzo  I'd like to work for this guy someday maybe.

Christine Horowitz Naturally, this one is kind of complicated. Mike and Christine have a thing, and there's a certain amount of tension between them and it tends to rear it's head occasionally, but he didn't meet her until after he was already married to Joyce, and it doesn't matter what HE wants. He's already made a commitment. So...

Scamps

To put it lightly, Scamps is a fuck bar. 

I mean, not like people are practically humping on the tables or anything like that.

Scamps is situated in a small strip mall adjacent to a  number of apartment complexes. And the main demo of this neighborhood is young urban professionals. HORNY young urban professionals.  People who work long hours and don’t really have the time to actually look for a relationship.

Scamps is such a meat market that the expectation is if you’re there, it means you’re looking to bump uglies tonight and you aren’t terribly picky about who with. Doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed at all but you’ve got to be some kind of misanthrope to not get laid if you go in there to drink and relax a bit.

One might be tempted to think that there is something supernatural going on here. But there isn’t. Although there ARE spirits that congregate here for the outpouring of emotional and sexual energy on display. For some spirits this place is like an endless buffet. In fact, the place is like a regular watering hole for those sorts of creatures that trade in lust and there seems to be a sort of unspoken covenant about not upsetting the applecart. If there is any that the creature who come here for sustenance DON'T Want. it's open warfare guaranteed to scare off the people. But if you turn up here and start making waves, or worse, leave an untidy corpse out to be found, they will come for you. And you likely won't see them until it's too late because they'll come at you sideways.

There's really nothing supernatural going here. it's not some ley line thing, or greater demon aspected towards lust. It’s simply a central location for many of the locals to get loose and their apartments are within walking distance so any kind of hijinks are possible on a friday night.

The bar isn’t terribly well stocked. The most popular whiskey they have is Fireball. They’ve got a few flavored vodkas and dazzling selection of light beers. But nothing artisanal. The tiny kitchen does pub grub and every bit of it is fried.

Most of the TV’s are tuned to ESPN or local sports.  They have darts and pool and Karaoke on the weekend evenings.

Casey runs the bar. She’s cute in a kind of ravenesque way. Her ink is quite impressive. She runs the bar and programs all the music.  She does a whole night of rockabilly on wednesday, not because she likes that shit but because it draws in the hipsters. When the place is all but empty, she kicks over onto her personal play list and sings along with the Cure. Casey is the de facto den mother for the other Bartenders and keeping them on a straight and virtuous path is not easy when the clientele is clearly ready to go. 

The place opens at 5pm and stays open until last call at 2am. 7 days a week except for certain holidays. 

Connections:
Dr. Laney Reese and her roommate sometimes turn up here on the weekend nights. She's made friends with Casey and is considering some ink herself as result. Casey's offered to do it for her.
ADA Calvin Donloe is often in here with friends of his from the office. While Calvin likes to look, he's not interested in fucking things up with his woman. But he'll play wingman any night for his bros.
Blaise Newkirk Brought home a Daeva one night and she gave it to him so good that occasionally he comes around hoping to see her again.
Christine Horowitz "Oh sweet god, what am I doing here again? This guy is worse than the last one mom tried to set me up with. I have to be out of my mind..."
Rick Deluca  It's not a party until Quinn the Eskimo gets there.
Collette Reeves "C'mon. my apartment is right over there.
Darla Grumman "Still crushing on Casey after all these years. It's not helped by the fact that Casey is heteroflexible and tends to like to kiss girls when she's got a few drinks in her.
Lara X  SO many of her articles have been written right at this very bar.

"Nikolai"

Concept: Master of disguise
AKA: As the man has passed into espionage legend, he has garnered a number of nicknames, most notably, The Chameleon, And Mr. Can’t Miss

Desc: Brown eyes, brown hair, average build. The musculature of a martial artist.

History: “Nikolai” was a spook. A pretty good one too. He found that he excelled in the field of disguise and impersonation. He had some talent as a natural mimic and he put that to work for him. If he could procure an audio sample of the person he was impersonating, he could many time ape their speech patterns well enough to fool those who knew them for short to middling long intervals. He’s quite adept at dialects too.
Like many former KGB operatives, he is very disciplined and when the USSR came apart he went private and salted away a decent amount of cash for himself. Then he simply disappeared.
“Nikolai” is essentially retired. He doesn’t take on contracts anymore unless they are particularly fat or offer an interesting challenge to him. In which case, he’ll often go to the extent of telling the target that he is coming for him and give the target a time when he is going to meet his maker. This often has the effect of making the target do terribly stupid things out of desperation. 
   Often, if Nikolai is on a job, he’ll take on the identity of someone close to the victim and wait for the proper time to strike. He can be very patient when he has to be.

Attitude: I don’t bother judging people. I leave that to others. However, when the money is right. I’ll go after someone. Invariably I see something about them in doing my research that makes it okay for me to erase them. if you’re IN this world, you’ve done something terrible...That’s not really up for debate.

Skills: Quite a bit of points salted into languages. Intellectually, he’s fairly strong and a sharp student of people. Socially, he’s also pretty strong with a bit of emphasis on Manipulation. Physically, he’s not terribly strong. But that’s because by the time you know it’s him and that you’re under attack, you look down and realize you’ve already got two knives sticking out of you. He may have some points salted away into some kind of gunfighting/sniping fighting style as well. He’s got a decent spread of dots in academics and various other skills that indicate the kind of life lived traveling all over. He has plenty of dots in Crafts (Specialty: make-up) and expression(special: improv/acting)  

Gear: He has an old beat-up steamer trunk that doubles as his make-up workshop it can be unpacked and he can be working on a project in ten minutes. it can be re-packed in about the same amount of time. There is also a non-trivial amount of plastique in the bottom of the case, in case he needs to leave it behind for any reason.  His everyday carry involves a smartphone and an attache case which is home to an SMG, A silenced pistol, A garrote, and 3 sets of combat knives. He tends to wear a layer of thin kevlar underneath whatever else he might have on.

Home: In addition whatever house he has decided to hang his hat in, he’ll have a gulf stream mobile home that he can be on the road within under 6 minutes. This gulf stream is loaded with cash, salable items, and bogus papers. just in case, he needs to leave the country in a hurry. he keeps a satellite phone in there and a very heavily encrypted laptop. Just in case of a rainy day.

Circle: As I mentioned, Nikolai is retired from the game, but it does mean he can do now what he always wanted to do. And so, he’ll find himself doing community theater and doing it fairly damn well. Most of his friends know him this way. The people who truly know him know him from his espionage days and they know that he can be prepared, tricky as fuck, and ruthless as a top rated assassin can be.

Story Uses:
“Who am I? I’m just a man who is in his element and if you want to live through this, you’ll do what I am telling you.”
Nikolai makes for an unlikely hero. He’s done bad things. Taken lives and so on. But In the right circumstances, he might turn around and out-clever the bad people who might be causing you some trouble. He doesn’t rattle easily and he’s not one to fog up in the middle of a conflict.

“Kid. I have to hand it to you, You made this one interesting. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got money to collect....”
On the other hand, You might come up against Nikolai. He IS an espionage legend for a reason. Mainly because he never takes any of it personally. He’s not invested in revenge or anything that might put him off balance emotionally. He leaves that to other people. Targets, and clients usually. he plans meticulously and can improvise on a moments notice. He’s tough to come up against. The KGB made sure of it.

Connections:
*Dr. Dennis McMurtry (They used to tangle back in the old days. Nikolai has one habit that occasionally has given him away, He tends to be fidgety with his hands. If there is anyone who could spot Nikolai while he is in disguise, it's dennis.)
* Aldous Church ( Each has the other in their professional rolodex. Each rarely has need of the other based on their respective specialties.)
* Clarinda Hale  (Used to know Clarinda's father, thinks of himself as a kind of uncle. Has taken a number of her language classes in various guises.)