Harlan Fontenot

Important Dates

Born: 23 November 1948
Marital Status: Single
No Children
Embrace: January 7, 1988
Apparent Age: Late 30's-early 40's

Background

Harlan Fontenot was born in 1948 to an abusive, drunkard father and strictly religious mother. He was the youngest of four children. His childhood was fairly miserable, and when he was a teen, the Vietnam war was in full swing. He was drafted in mid-1967, putting him in-country just in time for the Tet Offensive. Harlan faced some of the mortal horrors of war and returned, a bit jaded and haunted by his experiences. His brief time overseas showed him a concentrated course of the evils that men are capable of, and turned him a bit cruel and somewhat tarnished his respect for human life. One thing he did come back with was a hunger for power. His nation had the power to pluck him from his home and make him fight overseas. Harlan wants some of that kind of power...the power to make people do what he wants, for a change.

With his veteran status, Harlan was able to join the police academy in 1970 and became a commissioned law enforcement officer for all the wrong reasons. With a badge and a gun, he had the first taste of power. People started doing what he wanted, or they went to jail. They looked over their shoulders to see that he is not around before they speak. They slow down their cars when he is on the road. Power. Harlan revels in it all.

He slowly learned how to manipulate the system and take advantage of his status as a commissioned LEO. He found out who he could threaten and bully and how to get what he wanted done. He learned how to interpret a crime scene to find a crook and earn some clout or to frame an enemy, if need be. He started collecting dirt on all sorts of people; never know when you might need to extort someone or blackmail them. Finally, he leared how to do all these things and more for money. Face it, not everybody can be a cop, but some people will pay nicely for what they can do. During the 70's and early 80's, he moved around a bit from one area or department to the next in Louisiana, his old stomping-grounds. Sometimes he moved on to keep people from learning his game and revealing the truth of his crimes. Other times he bounced because the well had dried up and he had to move to greener--richer--pastures. He received a call one day to apply for a transfer to NOPD as a detective for the Criminal Investigations Division. Harlan took the chance and moved to the Big Easy, uncertain how his schemes would fly there.

What he found was an easy landing and a ready customer who seemed to know both his game and precisely what motivated Harlan. In 1988, After running Harlan through the trials she had set out for him for a few years, she offered yet more power and influence...Harlan agreed, not really understanding what he was getting himself into. She embraced Harlan so that he could finally peek behind the masks of the Masquerade and begin telling her the things she and her boss wanted to know. The Embrace was a shock to Harlan. For years, he had brushed against the wake of the unexplained so many times that mysteries no longer surprised him. Now, so many of them suddenly made sense simply because the formerly impossible was Harlan's new reality.

Harlan never had much in the way of true friends, and his surviving family, while geographically close, were emotionally distant. A father dead from drinking. A mother who had alienated him so with her bible that the draft had seemed like a lucky break. A sister who had married well and lived in New Orleans, but had long ago started to suspect why he had become a cop and had distanced herself from him. An older brother who had become a priest and might as well be his mother's second mouth. Lastly, the eldest brother who never seemed to grow up and had followed in Father's footsteps; drinking, getting into barroom brawls and trying to get his little brother the cop to get him off the hook...until one day he killed a man in a fight and got sent to Angola where he died from something that Harlan never bothered to find out. Stepping away from his old life was not hard. No one particularly missed him.

Sometimes this bothers Harlan--how easy it was for him to be forgotten. This might be a motivating factor as to why he is approaching a coterie of other Kindred these days...

Attributes

Intelligence 2
Wits 3
Resolve 2 (+1 Ventrue bonus)
Strength 2
Dexterity 3
Stamina 4 (+2 from Resilience discipline)
Presence 3
Manipulation 2
Composure 3

Skills

Investigation (Crime Scenes) 3
Occult 1

Athletics 1
Brawl 2
Drive 1
Firearms (Handguns) 4
Larceny 1
Stealth 1
Weaponry 1

Expression 1
Intimidation (Interrogations) 3
Persuasion 1
Streetwise 1
Subterfuge 1

Disciplines

Dominate 1
Resilience 2

Merits

Acute Senses
Feeding Grounds 2
Covenant Status 1
Language (Creole)
Resources 2
Haven 1
Status (Police) 1
Trained Observer

Derived Characteristics

Size 5
Speed 10
Defense 4
Initiative 6