Harriet Daley - SuspireWiki

From SuspireWiki

1 In the Beginning
2 The Second Beginning
3 Gallery
- 3.1 Havens
- 3.2 Body Mods
  - 3.2.1 Tattoos
  - 3.2.2 Piercings

In the Beginning

Harriet was lucky to have been born into a family of intellectuals. Her father was the Dean of the political science department at Atlanta State University, her mother worked research in the Science department. So to say that Harriet had a normal childhood would be stretching the truth a little. Where most girls were playing with makeup she was playing with a chemistry set. Where most girls were reading YM she was reading War and Peace. Obviously her parents had hopes that she would follow in their footsteps but early on Harriet knew that wasn't where she was headed.

She had found something of a hero in Harriet the Spy. She was also born privileged, she was also raised by a nanny, she was also smarter than those around her, and they had the same name! So inspired by the children's book she started to keep a note book and wrote down everything that she thought and saw. And while she didn't get caught in a dumbwaiter and didn't lose all her friends her spying did earn her a seat at the Police Station while she waited for her parents to come pick her up for a little breaking and entering (really, what did they expect a curious 11 year old to do when there’s a sign that says keep out on the door of an old and abandoned manor home?).

Despite the tendency for trouble at times, Harriet progressed quickly though school as she was gifted with a photographic memory and an ability to absorb new information like a sponge. Against the advice of the administration she skipped several grades in elementary and high school. As a result she graduated from ASU at the age of 18 with a degree in Journalism. After a short stint in graduate school she dropped out, realizing that being a student just wasn't very much fun and she'd been missing fun in her life.

She lived off a trust fund and traveled for a year. Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia. She went, essentially, around the world with nothing but a book bag and a notebook. Her parents thought that she would calm down after her travels, that she'd come back to settle down, finish school and get a proper career.

Harriet had different ideas.

She started to write, first creating a series of small zines covering topics from mundane things her neighbors did to conspiracy theories to supernatural stories that made Weekly World News seem like a credible news source to travel stories. Eventually the zines were combined into a single entertainment magazine called Random which was an advertisement driven and freely distributed magazine that was somewhat popular in the greater Atl area. Random became known as a good, funny, and sometimes incredibly interesting read covering everything and anything - at times whimsical with recipes for the perfect cookie, at times hard hitting with serious articles on the issues of homelessness in the city.

It was through Random that Harriet caught the attention of Mick Weiss, a Mekhet who'd been living in Atlanta for a just a few months. Inspired by the popularity of the movie, based on the novel, Harriet penned a series of short stories for the magazine called "Interview with the Vampire, the Werewolf, the Ghost and the Wizard" and while it was a riot, it was also a little too true to life. Mick, ever the joker, broke into Harriet's apartment at the completion of her series and gave her an actual interview, the end of which she was given the choice of death or unlife. It was all very romantic... or something.

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The Second Beginning

Unfortunately it wasn't the most legal of embraces since Mick wasn't really supposed to be in Atlanta. It was dangerous to stay in town, illegality aside the Hound was sniffing around Harriet, the article having caught the attention of no small number of local Kindred.

So they hit the road and for a couple years Mick and Harriet were nomads, traveling through smaller cities while he taught Harriet. Better, he would tell her, to come in released than to be a slave of the title, unreleased. They talked about politics and philosophy and he trained her in the art of the Auspex, pushing her to become an expert as quickly as she could.

In 2000, after 6 years of travel, Harriet braved her return to Atlanta. Was she popular? The illegal embrace of a nomad? Of course not. But she was a Carthian and this was a Carthian city. So though she spent a little longer unacknowledged than most did she was eventually accepted.

Ever the brilliant student she progressed quickly with the Carthians, known as the go to girl for information, and the best bet for lessons in lots of stuff. She seemed shy though preferring to stick in the background and watch and listen and, of course, write. And though she sold the magazine she's been known to contribute an article here and there still on top of writing a regular column of bad advice for bad people. She also uses some time every night researching, hiring out her skills to local universities and authors.

In 2005 Harriet turned her attention to other things that lurked in the world of the vampire. She went out to get an interview with a werewolf. Knowing of none in the city Harriet did what everyone told her not to - she ventured outside of the city on her own and ended up rather worse for the wear and incredibly lucky to have only been put in torpor.

She woke from Torpor early in 2007 and swore off werewolves forever. She went back to Atlanta and found that it wasn't the city that she'd left just two short years ago. The city was ruled by the Invictus now, the former Carthian Price was now one of the two Invictus Princes. The Carthians that Harriet had looked up to were now members of the Ordo Dracul, the ones that were still in town at least. There was nothing but new faces and new names and new rules. Harriet tried to soldier through, to deal with the new city but in the end she couldn't. She fled without saying a word to anyone where she was going or what she was doing.

She searched SouthEast for her sire, longing to return to the seemingly simpler days of nomadism. She found Mick in Miami, Florida where he'd settled down for the long haul. She was confused, still hazy minded from her two years in Torpor. She stayed with Mick for a few months, trying to get her head back on straight. They discussed her history and the life that she'd led before she'd been Embraced. It was in Miami that she began correspondence via email with an Atlanta man named Lenny Buckley. They had different politics to be certain but they shared an opinion on a lot of other things. Between stories of her past and her emails with Lenny, Harriet became home sick for Atlanta so she packed her bag, steeled herself and returned home where she'd found the city had again renewed itself.

She quickly met up with the local Carthian Movement. Within a week she was acknowledged by the Prince, Caesar Vaughn, and had developed a quick rapport with Simon Shea and his childe Morgan O'Hannigan, she'd reestablished her friendship with Eveline Carre and embraced Lenny.

She was home.