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straight_shot (82504)

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Kathryn 'Kate' Byrne

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| Just the Facts |

Character Name(s): Kathryn Rose ~~Laughton~~ Byrne

Nicknames/Aliases: Kate

Gender: Female

Race: Gifted Human – Claircognizance (Weaponry)

Actual Character Age: 22

DOB: May 5, 1985

Physical Description: Kate stands at 5’6”, her figure one of leanly muscled athleticism from nearly a lifetime of archery practice. Her arms are especially toned, obviously, from years of practice with a bow. Her hair is a dark brown, nearly black shade that hangs just passed her shoulders, usually in loose ringlet curls. Coupled with her pale, ivory complexion and her stunning ice-blue eyes, Kate can make quite the impression. Her lips are the perfect bow shape, a soft red that rarely spread in an amused smile; when they do, a pair of dimples peeks into view from each cheek, making it a surprisingly endearing sight to see.

Distinguishing Marks: Dimples, small bow and arrow tattoo on left ankle.

Birth Location: Brighton, England

Personality: Kate’s focus is perhaps her most stand-out personality feature. Her life has and does revolve around her archery – it’s been that way for some time. She practices with the passion of a truly addicted athlete, disappointed in herself for giving it anything less than her absolute best. This is true, secondly, of her academics. The two A’s, as her father would say, the most important things in her life…and so that was how her life had shaped into what it now was. At the same time that her exterior seems icily detached, it hides a truly passionate core. Easily drawn into a cause, Kate often fights battles for those around her that she perceives unable, though she prefers to keep her charitable efforts on the down low to avoid what she sees as unnecessary attention. She is honest in her compassion, in her need to help others, though it often gets her into trouble. Like everyone, she has her short-comings: a quick-to-flare temper that is sometimes rather childish in its manifestation, a predisposition to holding a grudge and a distinct inability to express herself easily emotionally. Through it all, Kate exudes the persona of an ideal British rose…she is polite, well-mannered, schooled in all the best aspects of etiquette and yet completely able to defend herself in almost any situation. She prides herself on being more than just an average girl.

| In-Depth |

Personal Background: Kathryn Laughton entered the world in Mary of 1985, in a hospital not far from Brighton, where she would spend much of her life following that day. Her father, Joseph, was an Olympic champion archer – the kind of man whose life was consumed by his ability, by his need to master it and make it work for him instead of posing simply as its vessel. Her mother, Adriana, who died in child-birth had been a nurse in the local hospital. The loss of his wife to gain the tiny bundle of pink was an abhorrent trade for Joseph and one that he could not let go unpunished. So he chose to remind Kate, quite often, that without her there would have still been an Adriana – and how could she disappoint her poor father when she was all he had left?

It was this stunning guilt trip that kept her archery practice going long after it was introduced to a girl little more than two. It was Joseph’s intent to raise a child who was better even than he was, to leave a legacy that would shine and would somehow tie to him, to make him better remembered in the record books. From the start Kate seemed to be a natural; what other five year old shot arrows in their backyard upon returning from primary school and so often hit the center mark? Her father was alive with excitement for the first time in years, recognizing now what a true talent his little girl was. He wanted her to further her skills with a bow as much as her education and so Kate was sent to a boarding school in London, one known in many circles for its front-running archery team. She nearly flourished there…made a few friends, took classes that interested her and didn’t simply satisfy requirements, chose French as her foreign language and visited the country on holiday twice. But through it all, Joseph saw to it that archer was her primary focus; she shot both before and after school with a private coach that he’d hired and often for so long on the weekends that her fingers cracked and bled and her arms ached from holding her bow aloft. She knew that such efforts were worth it, had been conditioned to believe that she owed her father this glory, if nothing else.

While away at school, Kate learned that it wasn’t simply a bow with which she seemed to have such prowess; she was also extremely good when it came to fencing and she had an impressive record at the firing range. She could never quite explain why it all came so easily to her, why holding a weapon in her hands felt so completely natural. And she never told anyone that she suspected there was something more at work than simply good luck or a quick mind…that sometimes she just knew where to aim without understanding why, that she’d never been trained to shoot a gun but had picked it up one day and just known what to do. This was how Kate knew she was different from the other girls she shot with, the others that graduated academy with her.

Following graduation, Kate returned home for summer holiday. She was to attend Oxford in the fall, on full scholarship as long as she shot for their archery team. This left her father even more over-bearing, more insistent that she not show up and fail those who were giving her so much; each day become one long training session after another, filled with hours of not simply target practice but with bow repair and maintenance as well. After all, how could she expect to be the champion archer she was without the proper care of her equipment?

The accolades started early at Oxford…and Kate wasn’t simply an archer now. She’d begun to fence when a coach had asked her to simply fill in for an injured athlete. Between the two, she’d earned herself a wall full of medals, of ribbons and trophies. She would pack each prize up as it was received, mail it home to her father. With each box in the mail he became more and more positive that she was fulfilling her potential, encouraged her to continue. So Kate practiced whenever she had the chance and often after classes in the afternoon. It was there one day that a scout came up to her and introduced themselves, said they were curious to see just how far her talent extended. There was the bow demonstrated first, then the sword, the handgun, the staff…even a few weapons she’d never seen before. So how then did she know how to use them, he’d inquired. Kate answered honestly that she didn’t know, that it was simply something she’d always been able to do. It was then, after such a confession, that he told her of a place called Halcyon, a school where people with gifts like her own came to learn about their capabilities as well as to expand their education. The chance to leave England for a bit, to be away from her father and the mountains of expectations he’d heaped upon her proved too great a temptation to bear. In spite of his angry protests, his declarations that she owed him this, Kate left the following day for Halcyon.

Family:
- Joseph Laughton {father, human}
- Adriana Laughton {mother, deceased}
- Rufus Byrne {husband, weretiger}

Weakness: Grows easily attached to people though she hides such emotional bonds; personal failure; disappointing her family; a good ‘charity case’. As a gifted human, she suffers all the typical weaknesses of her race, as well: illness, injury, limited strength, etc. Her gift is somewhat limited as well - though her knowledge of the bow has become a permenant fixture, she tends to only retain the uses of a weapon for as long as she holds it. The more she uses a particular weapon, the more her knowledge base builds, the longer it stays. (i.e.: Her bow ability is permenant because of nearly lifelong practice, whereas if she only touches sais once she may not remember how to use them.)

Magical Abilities: Claircognizance – “knowing”. In the field of parapsychology, claircognizance [presumably from late 17th century French clair (clear) & cognizance (knowledge)] is a form of extra-sensory perception wherein a person acquires psychic knowledge primarily by means of intrinsic knowledge. It is the ability to know something without knowing how or why you know it. For Kate, this applies to any and all forms of weaponry; though she is exceptionally skilled with a bow, she can almost as easily wield a sword or take aim with a firearm.
Any Training: Archery since she was 2, along with various weaponry over that same time period.

Special Skills: Speaks French fluently; makes a mean cup of Earl Grey; is surprisingly good with sewing/embroidery/knitting.

House: Fire

Start Date at Halcyon: Brand new (late March/early April 2007)

Classes:
- Early Morning: Traditional Medicine
- Mid Morning: Languages: Other Languages
- Late Morning: Defense Against Magic
- Late Afternoon: Supernatural Races: Fact and Fiction
- Early Night: Weaponsmiting

After School Clubs: Fencing

AIM Name: xAnchorPointx

Rooming with: Her husband, Rufus

| Behind the Curtain |

Characters Greatestjournal Name: straight_shot

PB: Lucy Griffiths

Your Name: Erica

Your Email: crowchick [at] gmail [dot] com

Your Messengers:
- AIM: almightyarse
- Yahoo: almighty_arse

Layout profile code thanks to ReversesCollide

"Archers in your arches
Raise your fingers for one last salute..."
-- Funeral for a Friend

Schools:

None listed

Friends:

	124:	9over1, _altus, _ferox, _ice_princess, a__musing, a_fiend_in_need, acinonyx, ada_crowe, adamwildman, akin_to_sin, bearyourteeth, bite_the_system, biteme, blackened_star, blood_noir, bloody_katrina, calculated_fate, castledown, charlie_changed, cissysaidso, clouded_dove, cloveillusion, conflicted, creed_of_flight, crowchick, dannywfangs, divaboheme, double_trouble, dreamscraps, earthbound_, east_winds, enslaved_heart, eternal_dancer, fatebites, finlay, geminana, geminava, gentile_fiend, give_a_damn, greenphantasm, grey_area, grumpypants, halcyon_mods, hecatomb, hell_inher_eyes, herbrokensmile, high_times, highlander, howdoyoufeel, i_am_the_man, impanema_girl, insanechaos, jackedupwere, jamesownsit, jezebelinhell, kuze_es_bunitu, lady_avalonian, ladyszczyk, lanimommy, lockmanipulated, lockmen, losthorizen, mair_aderyn, marimeruv, mirael, mistrau, nasrin, never_conform, number_ix, odetokafka, orkneylost, pawn_of_halcyon, periodista, pheonixwaves, potent, quarterback, ramble_on, ravenmaiden, redmoon, riotous_touch, ripplestowaves, risinghellborn, rose_and_thorn, scarlett_wfu, seeyouseeme, serghei, set_it_off, shestolefire, shiroyuki, silvermoonlady, silvertongued, simon_curtis, sinful_touch, sininblood, sirens_call, smokenmirrors, soundvoid, spiritandsword, spiritusancto, starbucky, start_me_up, straight_shot, streetslave, sugar_cube, summertree, summerwantsit, tasteslikecandy, tattooed_skin, terre_inconnu, thearcher, thedailyfive, thefallenstar, thirteenpocky, tooth_and_claw, twisted_tangle, vengeful_dark, vintage_fraud, waysofthemind, wildflowerlily, wildriver, with_hope_again, withoutdiamonds, woodlandfury, working_pride
	5:	halcyon_halls, halcyon_houses, school_plans, syn_promo, tower_of_babble

Friend of:

104: 9over1, _altus, _ferox, _ice_princess, a__musing, a_fiend_in_need, ada_crowe, adamwildman, akin_to_sin, bearyourteeth, bite_the_system, biteme, blackened_star, blood_noir, bloody_katrina, charlie_changed, clouded_dove, cloveillusion, crowchick, dannywfangs, divaboheme, earthbound_, east_winds, enslaved_heart, eternal_dancer, finlay, geminava, gentile_fiend, give_a_damn, greenphantasm, grey_area, grumpypants, hecatomb, hell_inher_eyes, herbrokensmile, high_times, highlander, howdoyoufeel, i_am_the_man, impanema_girl, insanechaos, jackedupwere, jezebelinhell, kuze_es_bunitu, lady_avalonian, ladyszczyk, lanimommy, lockmanipulated, lockmen, mair_aderyn, marimeruv, mirael, mistrau, nasrin, never_conform, number_ix, odetokafka, orkneylost, pawn_of_halcyon, periodista, pheonixwaves, potent, quarterback, ramble_on, ravenmaiden, redmoon, riotous_touch, ripplestowaves, risinghellborn, rose_and_thorn, seeyouseeme, serghei, set_it_off, shestolefire, shiroyuki, silvermoonlady, silvertongued, simon_curtis, sininblood, sirens_call, smokenmirrors, soundvoid, spiritandsword, starbucky, straight_shot, streetslave, sugar_cube, summerwantsit, tasteslikecandy, tattooed_skin, thearcher, thedailyfive, thefallenstar, thirteenpocky, twisted_tangle, vengeful_dark, vintage_fraud, waysofthemind, whiticism, wildflowerlily, wildriver, with_hope_again, woodlandfury, working_pride

Member of:

3: halcyon_halls, halcyon_houses, theyearspassed

Account type:

Free Patient

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