Supernatural Investigative Reporter
Susan Rodriguez is a name that is only known to those who care to read about the supernatural. She worked for years at the 'Midwestern Arcane' as one of the tabloid's lead reporters. Then she relocated out west and is the Editor-in-Chief of her own branch, the 'West Coast Arcane.' The papers tell stories about all sorts of things that shouldn't be -- vampires, demons, werewolves, magic, etc. Most people take them as jokes, but to those in the supernatural community, she writes stories that sound too close to the truth. She might be a woman who actually knows what she's talking about and she's trying to tell the rest of the world.
Personality[]
Susan Rodriguez is confident trouble who is too intelligent for her own good. She's not a woman who ever takes no for an answer and, even in her 30s, has that youthful sense of immortality that most people lose after their teens. She will march into dangerous situations without a second thought to get the truth of a story. Also, truth is one of the most important things to her in the world. She'd rather have the truth and barely be able to pay the bills than sell out lies for a bigger newspaper. So, she continues investigating the truth of the supernatural and will do so until the day she dies.
SKILLS[]
ADAPTABLE[]
Competent
Most people do not like change, but Susan has become pretty skilled at adapting to crazy things. When she came to accept that the supernatural is real, it made her flexible to a bunch of other things in her life.
DRIVING[]
Competent
Sometimes, you have to be a get away driver. Sometimes you need to lose a tail. Sometimes it just feels good to open up on the highway and drag race an idiot in a BMW. Susan would never admit to doing all these things on a routine basis, but she totally does and it's made her good behind the wheel.
EMPATHY[]
Expert
Susan can read a person like few others. It comes with being a reporter. She's good at reading body language, words, tone, eye movements, anything, you name it. She plays poker regularly to keep up this skill.
FIREARMS[]
Competent
Susan knows that her work is sometimes dangerous, so she tries to make a trip to the firing range at least once a week. She's pretty good with a pistol and keeps one in her purse at all times.
INVESTIGATION[]
Expert
Susan has been a reporter her entire life. She has her Masters in Journalism and will do almost anything to get a story. She knows how to track down leads, is a super user of the internet, is almost Sherlock-Holmes in spotting clues and has devoted her entire life to telling a story.
LATIN DANCING[]
Competent
The one thing Susan inherited from her parents was a love of Latin dancing. Any weekend she can get free, she's in a club doing the salsa, bachatta, meringue, or any other style of song they may be playing. She's quite good for a non-competitive dancer.
STEALTH[]
Competent
Sometimes, telling a story involves tailing a lead. For a human, Susan is quite good at sneaking around after someone, hiding in buildings, and generally passing unseen. She's not military level, but she's close.
WRITING[]
Expert
Of course, after a story is investigated, it actually has to be written. Susan has a way with words that gets her published even when she's spouting crazy stories about werewolves and vampires. She also writes regular stories on the side freelance to actually keep money in paying bills, because sometimes tabloids do NOT pay well.
POWERS[]
ADVANTAGES[]
2011 MUSTANG CONVERTIBLE[]
It might be a few years old, but Susan saved up and got herself the car of her dreams. She cares for it like it was her firstborn. It also is great at outrunning those tails when she needs to.
CONTACTS[]
Any good reporter has their sources, and Susan is a great reporter. She has a wide variety of sources across the city including someone in government, the healthcare system, the police, two of the universities, the mayor's office, and two crime rings. She keeps them cultivated well by never revealing a source. She'd rather go to jail than betray one of them.
LOREHOUND[]
While Susan still isn't completely lost in the supernatural world, she's learned enough to have a fairly good handle of lore. And, if she hasn't learned it, she'll track it down if she needs to. She's not Bob-the-Skull, but she's dangerous with lore for a mortal.
WEAKNESSES[]
ADRENALINE JUNKIE[]
Possibly part of her pursing such dangerous things is that Susan is a great adrenaline junkie. She wants to feel the thrill of danger and keeps jumping into situations where she'll get that rush. This is also what makes her drag race on occasion.
CURIOUS[]
Part of her becoming a reporter was her constant curiosity. But, once again, the things she investigates are highly dangerous. She doesn't have any sense of where her limits are and her curiosity will cause her to walk into the lion's den more than once.
IN OVER HER HEAD[]
While she's intelligent and capable, Susan is still only a human in a world of supernaturals. She has no superhuman speed, or ability to fight, or to take injury. She's going after things that outclass her exponentially. One of these days, she'll fight something she cannot survive.
OVERCONFIDENT[]
Going after those things and surviving has instilled an overconfidence in her which makes her get into more trouble. She'll walk into scenes and situations way over her head just to get a story. After all, what's the worst that could happen?
Susan Rodriguez was born to Marie and Antony Rodriguez just outside of Chicago in the early 80s. She had, by all accounts, a safe and happy childhood. She was an only child so she was spoiled with choice and selection of activities. She was also constantly curious, getting into things she shouldn't, climbing trees too high, asking every question in the world and spying on adults when they didn't think she was around. Learning things was a game to her - a game she was determined to be the very best at playing. It was no surprise when she went to school that she was at the top of her class. She wrote and read grades higher than all of her peers but never had a taste for math or sciences. There was no doubt she'd be going into some sort of profession involving the language arts.
During high school and college, she found other activities to keep her constant energy under wraps. She ran track then got into Latin dancing like her parents did (it was how they met.) They couldn't restrain her from getting her license exactly at the age of sixteen and then the world couldn't stop Susan. She received at least three speeding tickets in her first year driving and the car was just as quickly taken away from her. She needed to focus on her studies.
She was accepted to Northwestern with a half-ride scholarship to their writing program. For the first few years she thought she may go into creative writing, but it was too boring for her. Instead, she fell into reporting for the university newspaper and realized that's where her future lay. She cracked down on her studies, took any freelance reporting job she could get, and started her career before she ever left school. It was no surprise that she was accepted to Columbia's Masters in Journalism program just after she finished her undergrad. Much to her parent's dismay, she moved to New York to complete her post-grad.
It was in New York City that she got her first taste of the supernatural. On a routine investigation, she ended up in a club that was owned by vampires (behind the scenes, of course.) She sensed something was off and, though she finished her initial tail, she kept coming back to the club. She documented everything she saw over the course of months and, eventually, had to accept that vampires existed. Of course, when she brought this to her professors, they thought she was insane. It was the first misstep in her career which could have ended up working for a prestigious paper like the Times or the Wall Street Journal. But she couldn't give up, so she began two lines of work - one investigating strange occurrences and the other writing fluff pieces to sell for money. Her discovery of the supernatural meant she'd never be a famous reporter, but it also gave her a passion she'd never before felt in her writing career.
Sadly, writing for tabloids about the paranormal doesn't pay all that well, nor does freelancing. Susan ended up moving back to Chicago with her parents shortly after school. She kept writing for tabloids and investigating the things people pretended not to see. This included werewolves, vampires, wizards, demons, a whole slew of things that the regular papers would never print. Eventually, though, it did land her a full time job. She became one of the lead reporters for the Midwestern Arcane, a tabloid dedicated to such things. It was enough to move out to her own apartment and start saving for a car.
Over the next years, she established a life as one of the best tabloid reporters out there. Of course, 90 percent of the readers thought it was all jokes, but if she got through to even one or two of them, she considered it a success. It seemed a stroke of luck when she found a person actually listing themselves a wizard in the phone book. That is how she met Harry Dresden. He became one of her best contacts over the years and one of her better friends.
When the dislocation happened, Susan realized she could no longer protect her aging parents from the things she was doing. Chicago was also becoming a wasteland for anything magical and so her job was going to go out the door. For safety of her family and career, Susan decided to relocate out west with some of the others. She's started a west coast branch of the Midwestern Arcane called 'West Coast Arcane' and is trying to keep readership up.
Logs featuring Susan Rodriguez:
Coming soon!