Archived-Connie Gambrell

Personal Information

Appearance

Connie Gambrell, aka Miss Connie, aka Sister Connie, is conservatively pretty. Her long, perfectly neat dark honey-blonde hair is streaked lighter in places from the sun, but has obviously never seen the touch of dye or any styling more extreme than a monthly trim. She has a big, friendly smile, a graceful frame, large blue eyes and a propensity for simple, floaty dresses (and it's always dresses). She also has the telltale indicators of a once-tan now faded by the physical touches of the Requiem, but retains a general rosy, active effect that suggests an outdoorsy fitness. She doesn't look like a movie star, but the revelation that she was once Miss [Whatever Small Town She's From] wouldn't seem far-fetched. Observant characters may notice she wears a purity ring.
Mechanics: Blush of Health, Striking Looks 2.

Personality

Friendly, upbeat, and completely accessible, Connie Gambrell is what most people would consider "a sweetheart". She's a devout Tollisonite, and also what most people would consider "a bible-basher". She's compelling, though; there's a charisma, there, an unexpected force of personality that makes it hard to walk away when she's talking. She's the missionary who, if she showed up at your door, you would find yourself inviting inside for tea, not quite understanding how it happened. She has a soft, Louisiana drawl, and a megawatt smile, and it's a beguiling combination. She seems a little ignorant, at times, but not stupid so much as naive; her occasional comments of a startlingly racist or homophobic nature are invariably accompanied by wide-eyed conviction, sugar-sweet tones and smiles that wouldn't melt butter. If you're not Sanctified, then Connie thinks you can be saved. And she means to save you.

Information Known by Kindred Society

Timeline

OOC knowledge, posted for the purpose of links.

• 1976 - Born in Baton Rouge, LA to devout Baptists Nick Gambrell, a labourer and returned Vietnam vet, and his schoolteacher wife, Debbie.
• 1979 - Brother, Elijah, born.
• 1983 - Brother, Daniel, born.
• 1985 - Brother, Caleb, born.
• 1990 - Father is deployed to the Gulf, for Desert Storm.
• 1991 - Six months and five weeks later, father returns with PTSD. He takes to drinking heavily.
• 1993 - Connie falls in love with Jesse, a former schoolmate who joins the Marines. Jesse is deployed to Iraq as part of the peacekeeping effort; he and Connie become engaged before he leaves.
• 1994 - Miss Baton Rouge.
  • 1994 - Jesse is KIA, when his vehicle runs over an IED. Connie is heartbroken.
• 1995 - Debbie diagnosed with sickle cell anaemia, at age 40. Within six months, she is dead.
  • 1995 - Nick determines that his wife's death was due to vampiric predation. He withdraws his entire family into the swamps, pulls his younger sons out of school and into homeschooling, becomes far more fundamentalist in his religiosity, and becomes a Hunter. Connie assumes the role of junior mother to her brothers, and carer for her father.
• 1996 - Nick starts conducting daylight raids on a local vampire nest.
• 1997 - Local pastor visits the property, to determine why Connie hasn't been seen in town in two years. Glimpses the guerilla fortifications, and the stockpiled armoury, before Nick drives him off.
• 1999 - Caleb, now 15, is possessed. Due to Nick's distrust of the local Pastor, the secretly-Kindred Woodrow and Audrey are summoned to perform the exorcism. It goes wrong, and the possessed Caleb slaughters his entire family. Woodrow Embraces the 24-year-old Connie, as she lies dying.
• 2000 - Traveling with her new "family", Connie meets Alexi Stukov in New York. Spying the Eastern Orthodox roots of Catholicism under his Acolyte heathenry, she determines to "save" him, and makes quite a project of trying - much to Alexi's bemusement.
• 2001 - 2012 - Undetermined, traveling with Woodrow and Audrey.
• 2013 - Leaving the family unit for the first time, she undertakes a mission to Kenya to help with famine relief. In mid-December, she leaves to meet her Sire and his wife in Sydney, Australia, where they are now resident, for Christmas. For her first Court, she is entrusted to the supervision of Sister Fatimah bint Tariq al-Rashid ibn Ahamd al-Qedyem al-Mu'allima, the Iblist. Many things occur that night, including a Praxis change from Jack Wolfe to Sawyer, and the insidious presence of a painting that seems to live, with its subject moving within. By mistakenly referring to the Governor as Prince, Connie accidentally runs afoul of Tobias Mol, who threatens to sever her hands for the offense. In addition, she befriends the sad and lonely Maker, and reconnects with Alexi - whose evident enthusiasm for refreshing their acquaintance draws the stink-eye from Fatimah.

Lineage

• Bernard Estera
  • Woodrow
    • Connie Gambrell

Known GrandSire

Connie is aware of the Brood traitor, Bernard Estera. She is yet to be made aware that he is her GrandSire, however. One doubts she will take it well.

Known Sire

Connie is the childe of Woodrow (whom she calls, "The Reverend"), the Seneschal of Sydney, and often referred to by other Sanctifed as the "daughter" in the family unit of himself and his wife, Audrey ("Mrs Reverend"). She seems to idolise him.

Known Siblings

Connie has no known siblings.

Known Childer

No known childer.

Quotes

Quotes By

"Are you ready to let Longinus into your soul? Are you ready for your true purpose? Are you ready to re-enter the Lord's plan? I said, are you ready to re-enter the Lord's plan? I can't hear you! Are you ready? I said, louder! Are. You. Ready? DEUS VULT!" - Connie, whipping up the crowd before a Bishop's sermon.

Quotes About

"Does she think we don't see her, Mr Hobbes? Does she like what she sees?" - Mr Hobbes

Conversations

"Quote" - reference

Rumours

• Has been propositioned by Kaida.
• Actually gave the Maker a kiss on the cheek for his mistletoe-dangling ploy. Ew...
  • Better than Mr Hobbes, who threw him down the hallway.
• Yegor seemed awfully friendly towards her...

Inspirations and Soundtrack

• The Southern Gothic genre
• Nell Sweetzer, The Last Exorcism
• Sarah Newlin, True Blood
• Gwynneth Gage, Hellblazer: Highwater
• These girls
• Never To Know by Lene Marlin - Alexi: Have you seen the way he acts sometimes? And when you ask, he'll say that he's okay. Have you seen how well he pretends? Laughs out loud before he looks away
• Copperhead Road by Steve Earle - Daddy: "I learned a thing or two from Charlie, don't you know - you'd better stay away from Copperhead Road."
• Down In The River To Pray by Allison Krauss: Oh, sinners, let's go down, down in the river to pray
• World On Fire by Trading Yesterday: There is a hope beyond this night, there is a Saviour in the sky giving us life to set this world on fire. So, as the darkness closes in, know that the sun will shine again, bringing salvation to this world on fire
• Preacher's Daughter by Maggie Rose: Oh, what's become of the preacher's daughter?
• Lake Pontchartrain by Ludo: That's the story, why would I lie? There were no bodies, I've got none to hide
• American Girl by Tom Petty: Well she was an American girl, raised on promises; she couldn't help thinking that there was a little more to life, somewhere else. After all, it was a great big world, with lots of places to run to, and if she had to die trying, she had one little promise she was gonna keep
• Blood On The Bluegrass by Legendary Shack Shakers: Blood-red blood on the blue bluegrass; it cries from hallowed hunting ground - 'twas the midnight curse of that bloody black patch, that took another poor boy down
• The Legend Of Wooley Swamp by Charlie Daniels Band: Now that's been fifty years ago and you can go by there, yet; there's a spot in the yard in back of that shack, where the ground is always wet, and on certain nights if the moon is right, and you're down by that dark footpath, you can hear three young men screaming, and you can hear that old man laugh
• 99 Problems by Hugo: Tip my hat to the sun in the West, feel the beat right in my chest - at the crossroads a second time, make the Devil change his mind. It's a pound of flesh, but it's really a tonne

Boons

• Trivial boon owed by Character to Character for details (date).
• Major boon paid by Character to Character for details (date).

OOC Information

Member Information
Player:	P. Saunders
Number:	2003100615
Domain:	Sydney