Description
Jane Elliot Bell
Female
Age 27
5’11”, 140 lbs, auburn hair, blue-green eyes, outfitted in deerskin sleeveless tunic, breeches and calf high boots, and owns a rabbit fur coat and lined boots for winter.
Human
On Ancient History
The Bells were originally from the Midwest. Jane's dad slowly moved his family northwest, trying to reconnect with friends and family his parents told him about on the West Coast. He died in the Kirkland suburb when a house roof collapsed. Jane's mom refused to move on from the strip mall they were camping out in when it happened.
But that is ancient history. Jane doesn't remember her father, and her older sister didn't try very hard to keep his memory alive.
Years ago, her mentally ill mother (what, did I forget to mention that earlier?) invited strangers into the stripmall they’d been living in. The strangers plied her mother for information, and decided to wait for Jane and her sister to return home. Unbeknownst to the vampires lying in wait, Jane and Dana were already there, hiding in the janitor’s closet they used as a pantry. Jane wanted to sneak out the narrow window, but her sister believed they could fight off the terrible toothy trespassers. Jane left, trusting if she made the first move, her sister would cave in and follow. She didn’t. Jane didn’t run far, trapped by her own fear and denial that she was going to lose her entire family, her home and her meticulously gathered supplies in a matter of seconds, all because they didn’t have survival instincts.
The vampires were patient. They didn’t leave the building; confident Jane was somewhere nearby and would return. Eventually, Jane did leave. She promised herself to return in one year, when the vampires were sure to have moved on.
There was no evidence of her loved ones. No signs of struggle either, despite her sister’s eagerness to fight them off. The pantry was bare. The power generator gone. The freezer was still there, but the power cord had been cut off. The loss of the power generator and food stuffs she’d meticulously gathered hit her hard, but she rationalized that if she’d stayed in the area, the food would only have been used as bait. She didn’t cry then over the loss of her mother and sister: they’d made their choices.
She was on her own for another season before she stumbled on signs of other people in hiding. She joined them and immediately began doing what she’d been doing since she was little: gathering the forgotten supplies from the woods and the cracks in the pavement. She doesn’t join scavenging parties that go into the open areas in the city and suburbs, but she has no reservations about making odd requests for crochet needles or new cooking pots.
On Jane
Jane is naturally a nurturer, and after abandoning her family, guilt drives her to prove she’s apt at keeping the community alive. She has a hard time allowing others to help her when she’s deep into her woodcraft, but strangely doesn’t mind the company if someone is eager to learn her skills. Flirting is awkward and puts her on the defensive; all the vampires she’s encountered were smooth talkers. Romance is a foreign concept due to everyone’s messed up childhood, and she’s too busy to give intimate relationships a fighting chance. Her perspective is deeply negative, pessimistic, and stubbornly(read: arrogantly) bent, but life isn't too shabby for the most deeply persecuted species on the planet, if you can manage to stay off the menu until you die.
On Prophecies
Mrs. Bell was a big fan of the prophecy, and Jane, she is not her mother, at all. Dragons, time travel and destiny--- don't exist. There are only humans and vampires, and a chasm-wide difference in their life expectancy. "Plus, have you seen their Chosen One? Would not be my first choice for world wide salvation. Wouldn't make my top 100 either."