Kate Goodman

Kate Goodman

Hungry Streets

Played by Irina

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Denizen of The Hungry Streets

Appearance

Kate grew like a weed during her early teen years, and developed her mother's stature at 6'0. Had she gone into the military, it would have been excellent. As it is, she uses her looming status to good effect when conning customers. When conning people, Kate goes for the "Gypsy Petulangro" attire. That is, she curls her hair, wears large hoops earrings and a long dress, gloves and a bandana. It's an updated version of the clothing she bought from the costume shop as a teen; but it appears foreign and authentic to the people who want to believe that she really is psychic.

When she's travelling or booting around the shops, she wears normal attire. Boots or trainers, pants or a skirt depending on the climate and whatever top isn't in the laundry bin. She has blue eyes, brown hair and once had a light tan after a lot of outdoor time in Nevada, which only returns when she uses the Blush of Life.

History

For Kate, her early life meant a lot of travelling around from place to place - occasionally to other countries, but mostly states within the US. She was a "military brat"; her mother being the parent who was in the Air Force. She saw little of her mom when she was growing up, but this didn't affect her unduly. Her father, as if to offset her mom's career, was a completely normal postman.

This wasn't his only job though; her dad was a bit of conman. He was pretty good at it too, and it brought in a little extra cash on the side. Her dad spent some of it at the betting agents, with his preference being greyhounds; but mostly he spent it on his daughter. Kate's early years were spent being a daddy's girl, no doubt. She never really noticed that he ever got into trouble for what he did- although there was a brief stint where she spent three months with her maternal aunt and uncle. Kate didn't question what her father got up to back then.

Her school life was unremarkable. She made some friends easily enough, however being a pretty shitty pen pal meant that long-lasting friendships were lost upon moving to the next base. Kate didn't seem to care very much, because new short-term pals were always around the corner and about to be discovered. Despite her lackadaisical attitude in regards to other people, Kate was quite a social kid. She adapted to suit others' attitude and seemed to have a knack for tall tales that amazed the other kids; mostly Kate developed the tag of "class clown". She didn't do amazingly academically, but did enough to get by. Kate wasn't a stupid kid, she just didn't have to overwork herself in order to understand the classes.

Any time that wasn't spent in school, or doing kid or - later - teen stuff, was spent with her father. It was pretty unsurprising that she learn how to con from him.

It was when she was sixteen that she reaped a small reward for her efforts. She got the idea of being a fortune teller for the day when a small fairground rolled into town. Several hours later, after paying a visit at the local costume shop, Kate sat down at a table near the exit to a mall and pretended to read tea leaves. It was fun making little shapes out of the swirling remains - it reminded her of lying on beaches and making animals out of clouds. The only difference was, this time she created a little story to go with the shapes.

The teen girl was foreseen to go on a date with "that cute boy she'd been looking at". The businessman would "succeed with his next big deal". It didn't take a genius to play the people who passed by; although the fortune cookies stashed under the table made things a little more amusing.

Naturally, Kate told her dad what she'd been up to that day when he asked. She wouldn't forget the prideful expression on his face either; especially when she handed over the cash.

It was sad that she wouldn't see the money again. When Kate was younger, her dad never mentioned that he was starting to become a little too into betting on the races. He certainly never mentioned that his gambling debts were creeping up. He never told Kate that she was becoming his cash cow either. Occasionally, as she got older, she would see her father looking at her with a...guilty? look on his face. Kate never questioned it.

When she was about to leave school, her mother was marked as MIA. After that, her dad seemed to spend more time with "his dogs". On some level it hurt; but what did it matter? She spoke to hundreds of people everyday! They came to her, imploring her to give them some direction in their pitiful lives - and she spun stories to make them happy. So what if she overcharged? They came to her to hear the predictions. And the beauty of it was that they believed her.

Kate kept aside a little bit of money to put down a deposit on a little apartment to rent, close to her dad's place. She intended on visiting frequently, but it started to get to the point where he was never actually in. To pass the time a little bit more for herself, she got a waitressing job. Her gift of the gab got her a lot of tips, and between that and her side job, Kate made enough to get by. Things were never going to end too well though. A few years later she came home one day to find that her little flat had been ransacked. Her money had been stolen, of course - there hadn't been anything else in the apartment to steal. She called the police, and her dad. The cops showed, but her father never did.

In the end, her father had conned her. He'd used his key to her apartment, stolen her money to pay off his debts, and hit the road. Kate hasn't seen him since.

She left town not long after, and drifted from place-to-place, taking on occasional jobs. Kate was happy though; because she was in the type of job that brought in brand new people everyday. She was a bit of a storyteller, a bit of a blagger, a bit "psychic". She read peoples fortunes for money! What could be better than that? She headed to Vegas to cash in on the gullible tourists - they always had way too much money, and a big intent to throw it away. Kate earnt a reasonable amount.

It was on her way back to Vegas that Kate was Embraced. While on a Greyhound she spotted a creeper staring at her for the better half of her journey; it wasn't too unusual; there were several people on the bus, and out of the variety, a sleaze was going to be one of them. When the bus stopped over at a gas station, Kate stepped out too, to stretch her legs.

She didn't even hear the guy sneaking up behind her - he just...dined and dashed. Fortunately Kate had a fair bit of in-built common sense, and she knew enough that if she was going to survive she had to keep her head; and stay out of sunlight. She tried to find her Sire, to no avail. He hadn't left a name, let alone a handy forwarding address.

She drifted to L.A, where she stayed for a while. But she quickly had to leave town after problems with the mortal authorities, for her....habit of petty theft and conmanship. Kate now finds herself drifting into Sacramento.