Name: Malcolm "Colm" Davies

Appearance:

Gender: Male

Age: 34

Occupation: Plainclothes detective, Seattle PD

Place of Residence: Seattle, Washington

Bio: Malcolm Davies, born to a respectable middle-class family, knew early on that he wanted to be a police officer. He possessed a strong protective instinct, even as a child he would try to fight bullies who picked on other kids or feed strays. Close to his family, they encouraged him to follow his passion. Though his talent for baseball did briefly cause him to consider pursuing a career in professional athletics, ultimately he stuck to the path he had chosen for himself, graduating from UW Bothell with honors and a degree in criminal justice in 2002.

Clean-cut, sincere, and well-educated, Davies was able to find work for the perpetually understaffed Seattle Police Department. At first, serving as a uniformed patrol officer in a quiet suburb, he approached his job with relish. He took the time to get to know the people on his patrol, becoming friends with many of them, for which he was lauded.

However, after four years of cushy suburban detail, Davies tired of small marijuana busts and breaking up teen parties. He didn't feel like he was making enough of a difference. So, he sat the detective's exam, passed without much difficulty, and requested a transfer to a higher-crime district.

There, working for Narcotics, Colm Davies saw the ugly truth of Seattle's seedy underbelly. In working various cases, Davies saw the aftermath of horrific and pointless violence, the ravages of drugs on communities and the human body, the vicious cruelty of men. Some nights, tired or depressed or drunk, Davies felt like he wasn't making any difference at all, that he was putting Band-Aids on a corpse. His optimism slowly seeped away, But still, he soldiered on, trying to make things just a little bit better.

In 2010, eight years on the job, he met Maureen Costello at his local coffeeshop. The two started a casual relationship that soon turned into something more serious. Suddenly, Colm felt like his work meant something again, that it was important to play by the rules, that every arrest, every bust, helped even a little bit. Colm and Maureen eventually moved in together (although her family didn't care for the idea of her moving in with an African-American cop). His ambitions were simple: take the Sergeant's exam, request a transfer to a slightly safer district (though one where he could still make meaningful cases), then ask Maureen to marry him. Davies would have been a happy man indeed if that had worked out.

Complications came in winter of 2013.

Davies first saw it while staking out a meth distributor's home in the middle of the night. Due to the way it was dressed, he first assumed it was an officer on the beat, and mentally cursed the man for making his job more difficult. But it kept coming, and then bent to peer inside Colm's car. He recoiled, horrified, at the sight that greeted him, shut his eyes like a child as he slowly slid his hand towards his service pistol.

But on opening his eyes, there was nothing there.

He sat in the car, trying to calm his racing heart, coming up with a dozen different rationalizations. He was tired, overworked, had eaten nothing but greasy fast food throughout this entire stakeout. Most likely he had dozed off for a couple seconds, long enough to have a short but vivid dream. Nodding to himself, he decided not to mention this to anyone.

The incident slipped out of his mind until a week later, when he spied it again standing atop a moving Central Link train.

And then again, peering from behind the front window of a locked pawnshop.

And once more, standing out in his apartment building's parking lot as he took out the trash.

Davies kept the sightings to himself at first, secretly fearing for his mental health but not wanting to tarnish his professional reputation by mentioning it. It only ever seemed to be when he was alone that he saw the thing he sarcastically dubbed "the Great Mouse Detective". Maybe, he reasoned, if he just got a little rest, decreased his workload, he might stop seeing it.

On the first day of his vacation, Maureen shook him awake at three in the morning, sobbing hysterically that someone was looking through the window. Davies sleepily looked up to see his old friend peering through their third floor window. It was gone by the time he was fully awake, but he now had a thoroughly spooked girlfriend to contend with. Colm spent most of the night trying to calm her and explain what this thing was (not that he really knew himself).

Maureen took the news poorly. The two of them were visited on a more and more regular basis, even on the patio of their favorite cafe. She insisted that Colm do something, without going so far as to actually blame him for the haunting. They moved to a new apartment, had their home blessed by a priest, adjusted the feng shui, hung up garlic, took photos of the stalker. Nothing worked.

Finally, just a week ago, Maureen had had enough. She couldn't stand to live in fear any longer. Davies arrived home from another late shift to find all of her things gone and a note stained with drops of what may have been tears. Not to mention that thing, standing quietly in a corner.

Heartbroken, Davies drank most of a bottle of Evan Williams. Drunk and maudlin, he began looking at engagement rings online. Something in him just snapped, and his melancholy turned to rage. Snatching up his issued Glock, Davies emptied the magazine at the thing, to no effect.

Luckily, no one in the building was harmed by the wild shooting. Even so, Colm landed in serious trouble as a result. Unlawful discharge of a firearm, conduct unbecoming of an officer, dereliction of duty- even if he beat the criminal charges, his career had pretty much stopped cold. Davies' superior officers were sympathetic when they learned of his long-time girlfriend suddenly leaving him, and cancelled most of the charges. Colm was suspended with pay for four months.

Unsure of what to do now with Maureen gone from his life, Colm got in his car and drove blindly east, with a vague idea of going to New York City, but mostly just wanting to clear his head. He was disappointed to see the Great Mouse Detective sitting calmly in his backseat, but just sighed and moved on, driving in no real set plan, just away from Seattle.

Eventually he found himself in Rainey.

Name: Colm occasionally thinks of his stalker as the Great Mouse Detective, though frequently it's just "that fucking asshole".

Appearance: The "detective" part of the nickname comes from the way this thing dresses. It's similar to what a policeman might have worn fifty years ago- black slacks, a double-breasted leather jacket, white shirt, black necktie, and of course a dark peaked cap with no insignia. However, on closer examination, the body is actually hundreds of living mice, both brown and white, piled into the clothes in the shape of a person. The mice constantly move about, so while the overall body maintains the general shape, it constantly appears to bulge and squirm. Davies has no idea if the mice need to eat, or might potentially scatter, or what the deal is.

Name: Sebastian Penrose

Appearance: Sebastian is tall and extremely thin with bedraggled blond hair. He has light grey eyes and numerous small scars on his forearms. He inherited his father's strong jaw and well-defined features; combined with his height he could easily cut an intimidating figure. Unfortunately, not only is he nowhere near built enough to accomplish this, but he also tends to stoop, making him look like a hunchback. He tends to wear T-shirts and jeans with sneakers.

Gender: Male

Age: 19

Occupation: Student

Place of Residence: Portland, Oregon

Bio: Sebastian had always been an imaginative child. He was terrified of the dark, but most five-year-olds were. And if he said there was a shadow monster with red eyes in the corner of his room...surely it was a natural consequence of the above. His parents were certain that this was the case, and after several months of this his father threatened to beat him if he continued to use the monster as an excuse not to go to bed. So he learned not to tell his parents about it.

Over the years, Sebastian would occasionally try to confide in a friend or one of the pastors in the religious schools he attended. This resulted in teasing from his classmates, and when he was older, a visit to the school counsellor. He learned not to tell others about the monster either.

In high school he began to realise that he wasn't attracted to girls. He tried to ignore it at first, but that worked about as well as it had with the monster. Everyone else knew him as the uncoordinated loner who was scared of his own shadow, except one. Tim had been his friend ever since bible studies in kindergarten; he'd never joined his classmates in teasing Sebastian, and always included him among his own group of friends. Sebastian had long since learned not to mention the shadow which followed him to others, but maybe he could tell Tim about this.

As it turned out, Tim told his parents, who told Sebastian's parents. Word spread to the rest of the school as well, and the bullying started in earnest. Tim distanced himself, and his parents treated him like a stranger, only grounding him and forcing him on an intense study regimen when his grades began slipping. He started self-harming, despite the fact that it seemed to make the monster appear more often. One night, he couldn't take it anymore and went to get the knife he'd hidden in his desk, intending to make one final cut.

Except the shadow was there, looming directly in front of the table. Its eyes seemed to bore into him, flaring brighter when he stepped closer and fading to its usual glow when he moved away. Orange light flickered in the depths of its body, brighter than it had ever been, and eventually Sebastian began to cry. The shadow only tilted its head and melted away.

Sebastian's fear of his stalker has gone down somewhat since then, and he has even named it. He thinks it's a fitting name given its shape; it even has a nickname, though he only uses it when he's particularly confident. He did extremely well on his exams and the SAT; his parents wanted him to apply to Ivy League schools but he packed a rucksack, withdrew all his savings and boarded the first bus out of the city he could find. It took him to Rainey.

Name: Antigonish/Mr. Gone

Appearance: Antigonish looks like a silhouette of a man dressed in what appears to be a long coat and hat. Its face is covered in shadow and its arms and legs appear hidden in its "coat". The only thing visible of its face is a pair of glowing red eyes, and the rest of its body occasionally flickers with a faint orange light. It can also take this form as an additional shadow behind Sebastian, which is always well-defined and clearly visible under any kind of light. Needless to say, Sebastian is the only one who can see this.

Name: Parker Grace

Appearance: A girl of slim and tall stature, Parker makes up for her lack of feminine grace with exceptional height, landing her at a solid six foot. Her hair is kept short for easy maintenance, a natural brunette. Her skin is neither too pale nor too tan, though it is a hint on the dark side, patches of skin dotted with darker freckles whether or not exposed to sun. There is an elfishly androgynous allure about the young woman whose sharp nose and chiseled jawline could make for an easily mistakable male's silhouette. The fact that Parker chooses to dress in more androgynous attire only emphasizes her features more, as her stick like figure is usually graced with loose tees and faded and worn jeans. Her eyes, a chocolatey sort of brown, are dulled by the shadows of her bangs, given she tends to look down more than up, even despite the view her height gives her.

Gender: Female

Age: Twenty-five

Occupation: Novelist and Illustrator

Place of Residence: Originated from Manila, Philippines but resided in Yardley, Pennsylvania since eight years of age.

Bio:
Born somewhere in the many islands of Philippines, Parker was a mixed child of a loving white man and his young housekeeper. The family stayed in the islands for a good few years before the mother earned enough money to buy her own ticket to the Americas. Her father, who was quite content in the islands, said he'd follow after he took care of some business. As far as either she or her mother knows, however, he still resides at the islands. So, at the age of eight, Parker and her mother departed for USA.
The following years were pretty decent for her- she had a fair understanding of the school's lessons given her homeland's teachings were a bit more advanced, and she was always the playful sort so she never had a shortage of friends. Her mother went to school as well, for nursing, graduating and getting a job around the time Parker started her second year of junior high.
Her first meeting with her stalker occurred then, though she doesn't recall it. She was playing manhunt at night with a few friends, when she caught the faintest hint of an owl glaring from a tree. Considering owls were a sight to the young girl's eyes, she rushed to show her friends, only for it to be gone and all the children disappointed.
The time Parker does remember as her first encounter with her stalker was when she was seventeen- a junior in high school. Her schizophrenic symptoms had shown up even earlier that year, hearing voices, and her mother was trying to find a suitable doctor. Parker's sudden irritability as well as her high school's absurdly large size caused her once large circle of friends to dwindle out quickly.
Upon making solid eye contact with her stalker, it was on that day that her mother introduced her to her first psychologist. This psychologist then recommended her to a psychiatrist to which she received her first ever bottle of pills. It wasn't until a month after three more sightings of her stalker did Parker tell both her psychologist and psychiatrist about the situation, to which the latter answered by amping up her doses.
At first, Parker thought it worked. She got by two weeks without hearing voices- which was her schizophrenia at work- or seeing Miss Fortune- a name she'd come up with her stalker which is both a pun and demeaning. Miss Fortune appeared again, however, a week later. And once more, the day after that. Parker, stressed out not only because this was all happening during the final stretch of her senior year but because she didn't know what else to do, took a little more than her usual dose one day.
What ended up happening was buckets. Buckets of vomit and blood, most on the floor of her bedroom, but some managing to land in the toilet of the bathroom. Her last memory was that of the dirtied bathroom mats, but when she awoke, found herself in the hospital. She was released two days after.
Her psychologist started asking more heavily about Miss Fortune, and after much talk about the stalker, told Parker that considering it didn't seem to do much, to simply accept it's existence. So, Parker did just that. She continued her life trying, and failing, to ignore and not indulge in Miss Fortune's appearances.
At the graduation of high school, she went to a nearby community college where she continued to fill out her requirements while taking a side time to write and draw- most of the drawings being of Miss Fortune. Parker kept all of her art displayed on an online blog, which gradually worked up quite the fanbase. The fame spread, it seemed, as she got job offers to draw for other people. She finished community college but didn't move on to a university, instead staying home and continuing her growing career. Parker even got a job offer somewhere in California, which offered her a nice office of her own as well as a solid budget for the starving artist. She jumped on the job, as well as on a plane, making her way to the other side of America.
Misfortune and Miss Fortune greeted her upon landing when Parker found out that she was not, in fact, in California, but Iowa. Not only that, but received an email /and/ a voicemail explaining that the company had made a mistake, and that her skills weren't exactly what they were looking for and how sorry they were for the inconvenience and please have a nice day. Which was a bit hard, given the fact Miss Fortune had decided to show up daily upon arrival, and she was stuck in a place she didn't know. Her travels led her to the next town over, where she decided to stay at a hotel, hoping to somehow sell enough quick digital art online to get fare for a plane home. Even part time jobs would do, she was that desperate. Meanwhile, however, she made a temporary home of Rainey, Iowa.

Other: Parker has been a bit on and off with her medication lately, and in no part at all to her psychiatrist's wishes, but instead due to the fact she found herself not needing it so much. She seems to be doing decently too, you know, except for the whole Miss Fortune thing. But it's not as though he does much anyways, so.

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Name: "I call him Miss Fortune. Dunno what the gender is, but it looks male, so the term aught to be real demeaning. It's also ironic, given the fact he shows up at times that are not at all fortunate."

Appearance: (A picture I shall provide hopefully asap)
Miss Fortune's appearance could be laughable to some, or if put in a different context, to many. Simply put, the stalker's most prominent features are that of owl and man. His(assuming it's a he) head is that of an owl, with eyes larger and as ominous as a normal one. Sometimes Miss Fortune opens and shuts his mouth that release a repetitive clacking sound that, no matter his distance from Parker, always echoes loudly in her ears. He continues to snap at her until his upper beak snaps off and his lower part of the face is riddled with spit- which looks like a suspicious shade of red. Because Miss Fortune has done the thing many times, it almost comes to no surprise when Parker reunites with him the next day that his beak is back and ready for more action. Usually he stays pretty quiet, however, and that usually gets Parker more than the sounds.
Past Miss Fortune's head continues that of an owl body, but is stopped at a part by the sudden appearance of a white collar and a black bow tie. A powerfully long suit continues downwards, shielding the rest of the presumable owl body, but Parker's not too sure given Miss Fortune has never taken the attire off, nor do bulges show any sign of hidden wings or the like. Not that the possibility of fat owl being hidden in the suit being impossible given that there were much more impossible things to take note of.
For example, /if/ Miss Fortune truly was an owl, then either he was always flying, or standing on stilts. The suit pants are terribly long, even for a normally tall man, shooting the owl at the impossibly tall approximate height of between seven to eight feet tall. His torso portion's arms are quite the sight as well, given that the sleeves are so long that they usually fall slack to the side, even when Miss Fortune moves.
And Miss Fortune does move. It's a peculiarly disturbing sight, however, as the owl man tends to wobble, as though anything past the head was air and the owl was merely trying to move the large outfit through sheer willpower. It would be comical if the lower body part was only not attached to the disturbing head. Whenever Miss Fortune chooses to move, and it's usually minimal in Parker's experience, he leans forward in a hunch and his body shakily wobbles to the destination, his arms slack and devoted to gravity. What's unnerving is that his head stays in a hypnotizing situation in that, no matter how fucked up he walks, his head stays in the same general area without moving, eyes always directed towards Parker.
What's even weirder than his walking is his standing still. At first, Parker thought it was due to his large size that Miss Fortune stood at an angle, because if he stood straight he would hit roof. After a few outdoor sightings, however, Parker noticed that him standing erect was only once in every five sightings, his body usually contorted in squiggles or odd angles. Owls are said to be able to rotate their heads at a full circle, and Miss Fortune is no different. In his odd standing positions, his head always stays properly right side up, moving only to turn upside down, the position of his eyes staying at the same spot they were in, if that makes sense.
Parker has always made a policy to stay a distance away from her stalker, though is sometimes unfortunate enough to realize too late that Miss Fortune was only a door over. Whenever he gets too close, Parker is filled with a feeling similar to that of drowning, in which her lungs seem to close up and in seconds, her throat and chest seem to burn. She is still well able to breathe, but the disorientation is enough to trick her out of it, solace received only in passing out or in Miss Fortune deciding to take leave for the day/find another position in which to observe.