Alaska character backgounds part 2, Hone and Chris
Please read and make suggestion on these character backgounds if you have already played or are unlikely to play So Cold in Alaska (running at Kapcon in rounds 2 and 5)
Hone Meade
Detective Constable, Homicide unit, Wellington Central
You have a BA in Māori Studies and Psychology, and joined the police because you want to give something back to your community and make it a safer place. Your partner Chris is a good cop but a bit old fashioned. Off duty, you are a Youth Group Leader at Porirua Baptist Church:
“I was 17 when I experienced the first major challenge to my faith. I’d been engaged to Harley for a few months when she got pregnant. At the youth group I went to engaged was a euphemism for sexually active, as if the Lord would turn a blind eye to our promiscuity as long as we intended to get married at some point. Harley had been ‘engaged’ to a couple of other guys, but she was my first. When she told me, I assumed we would keep the baby and just get married a bit sooner than we planned. Anything else was unthinkable! Even though this sucked, if it was God’s plan for us to have a baby (or if he was punishing us), I was going to do the right thing by Harley and my kid. But Harley just wanted it all to go away... She didn’t want her parents or the pastor to know we’d been sleeping together; she wanted to be a nurse and figured she couldn’t go to uni with a baby; as far as she was concerned, the easiest thing to do, the only sensible thing to do, was to kill our baby and pretend it had never happened.
Obviously I tried to talk her out of the abortion. I said we’d go to our parents together and tell them, and sure, they’d be mad but they’d get over it, and it’d be so much better than having the sin of killing an innocent baby on our souls for the rest of our lives. I held her hands and prayed with her and hoped that God would soften her heart. Harley begged me not to tell anyone, but I needed to share the burden she’d laid on me. I told her best friend Amber, who brought round some SPUC leaflets and the three of us prayed together, but even the pictures of unborn children didn’t soften Harley’s resolve. Amber and I talked about it, and decided that the only thing to do was tell Greg, our youth group leader, which we did. He came with me to tell Harley’s parents and mine. We had a big family meeting, with Amber and Greg there too, to support us. The wedding was all arranged, but then Harley snuck off and had an abortion anyway. Her folks kicked her out and she went to live with her nana in Nelson. Amber still keeps in touch with Harley, who is back in Wellington now and a staff nurse at Kenepuru. Apparently she loves her work. Amber and I have asked God to help me forgive her, to have mercy on her and welcome her back to his grace. But she’s left the church and wouldn’t even come to our wedding. Amber’s my wife now, and we have 3 beautiful kids. Our family is strong in the Lord, but I still think of my first child, the baby that Harley murdered. I hope she thinks her precious career is worth it!”
Chris Wakely
Detective Sergeant, Homicide unit, Wellington Central
You’ve been a cop for 30 years, been passed over for promotion by young kids with degrees and smart mouths, even though your clearance rate is the best in the section. The job has changed too. There’s more paperwork all the time, and you have to type up your notes yourself on a word processor. Fortunately Hone, your partner is good with computers. You’ve thought about quitting, getting out, but you love the job, and you’d
“Sometimes I’ll arrest a drunk, a wacko, and they’ll be struggling and hurling abuse, and I’ll look in their eyes and just know they’ve seen or experienced something too weird, too terrifying for the human mind to cope with. Me, I try and steer clear of that supernatural stuff. If you get too close, let it touch you, you’re screwed!
When I was a kid I sometimes used to go and stay with my Nanny and Uncle Matt out in the boonies near Hawera. There was this one place, a stand of bush near a creek, where none of the local kids would go. They reckoned it was tapu or something. Well, I was a townie kid, and didn’t believe in that shit, so I bet my friend Aroha five bucks that I could spend the night out there.
So that evening, I snuck out when it got dark and I heard the grownups shutting their bedroom doors... I untied Uncle Matt’s dog Queenie, a placid affectionate border collie, and took her along for company. To tell the truth, it was kind of creepy out there... It had been a hot day, and the air was still warm, but the wind had got up. The clouds ripped across the sky, backlit by the nearly full moon. I crossed the paddock of rustling silver ryegrass and entered the chilly shadows. The copse muttered and whispered and white specks flitted amongst the trees. Suddenly Queenie sat back on her haunches and howled. I grabbed at her collar, but she nipped my arm, and with an unearthly whine, shot off across the stream. That was enough for me! I tore back across the paddock, scrambled over the fence and trampled Nanny’s tomato plants in my eagerness to get back through my window. I slammed the sash down behind me, and despite the heat, pulled all the covers over my head.
During the night the rain came and washed away my footprints, so Nan figured the wind had broken down her tomatoes so I missed out on the hiding I deserved. We never figured out what had happened to Queenie though. Next morning Uncle Matt and I hunted all over, but there was no sign of her. I reckon whatever was in amongst those trees with us that night took her, and if I’d gone after her, it’d have had me too.