Campaign of the Month: October 2017
Blood & Bourbon
Academia
“Academia is to knowledge what prostitution is to love.”
Nassim Taleb
“But it’s not about you or us, or the tests or the system, it’s what they expect of themselves. I mean, every single one of them know they’re headed back to the corners. Their brothers and sisters, shit, their parents, they came through these same classrooms, didn’t they? We pretended to teach them, they pretended to learn, where’d they end up? Same damn corners. They’re not fools, these kids. They don’t know our world, but they know their own. I mean, Jesus, they see right through us.”
Bunny Colvin, The Wire
“A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education he may steal the whole railroad.”
Theodore Roosevelt
Overview
Knowledge is power. Everyone knows that, or at the least has heard that. Academia is a fairly straightforward grouping that covers all aspects of academic life. Contacts and Allies can be found in teachers, professors, deans, students, and sororities and fraternities.
K-12 Education
Louisiana has one of the lowest literacy and graduation rates in the United States. New Orleans’ public school system was long considered to be in shambles and was almost entirely privatized into for-profit charter schools after Hurricane Katrina. The results were disastrous: old schools that had been long-time community centers shuttered their doors. Graduation rates remain abysmally low. Fraud and mismanagement are commonplace. Many teachers in the majority-black schools are white, inexperienced, and strangers to the communities in which they teach. Metal detectors and armed police officers are a common sight on campuses.
Anyone in New Orleans who can afford it sends their children to private schools. Education is a world apart at these selective institutions, where graduation and college acceptance rates can be as high as 100%. Yearly tuition costs run from a little over $4,000 to as much as $20,000. Although the city’s most prestigious schools are stereotyped as being exclusive to old money families who can trace their genealogies back to the Antebellum, many middle-class parents will suck up the cost when attendance increases their child’s odds of qualifying for a money-saving scholarship at a good college. Still, families who only financially contribute to the schools through tuition aren’t the ones who get their names put on buildings.
Kindred, for the most part, have minimal interest in K-12 education. There’s more money and prestige to be found among universities. And when it comes to feeding, even monsters can still have standards.
| Background Dots | Level of Influence |
| • | Teaching assistant |
| •• | Teacher |
| ••• | Senior teacher |
| •••• | Principal |
| ••••• | School superintendent |
Higher Education
New Orleans’ higher education complex comprises 12 public and private colleges and universities. Most of the problems facing primary and secondary education in the city are nonexistent here. However, vampires—especially young ones—are far more attracted to college campuses and fraternity rows. Universities are a fountain of fresh-faced souls stepping out into the world for the first time; melodramatic young minds easily misled and in over their heads make easy targets. To the monsters it’s like shooting fish (out-of-water) in a barrel. Students are so needy. Can’t make a college payment? Lost a boyfriend to a rival classmate (or worse, a professor)? Love getting blackout-drunk at the dive bar down the block from the school? Vampires have so much to offer—and, when they get tired of making offers, they can just feed with little fear of repercussion. No one thinks anything of a student who shows up to class pasty-faced and tired—or disappears altogether. Student populations are so transient, after all.
Other, older vampires find themselves attracted more to the halls of academia than to the student body. The architecture, the pomp and circumstance, the storied campuses and educational methods that have barely changed since the adoption of the Greek model… all of this brings a certain creature comfort to that type of vampire, to say nothing of the considerable resources that universities can bring to bear for scholarly-minded Kindred. The Tremere and Ordo Dracul are particularly known for cultivating influence among institutions of higher education.
| Background Dots | Level of Influence |
| • | Adjunct professor |
| •• | Non-tenured professor |
| ••• | Tenured professor |
| •••• | Department chair |
| ••••• | University president |
Tulane University
Non sibi sed suis
(“Not for oneself, but for one’s own”)
Tulane school motto
Tulane University (officially The Tulane University of Louisiana or simply TU) is a private, nonsectarian research university located in Riverbend. It is considered the top university and the most selective institution of higher education in the state of Louisiana. The nearly 14,000-student school is known to attract a geographically diverse student body, with 85% of undergraduate students coming from over 300 miles away.
Founded as a public medical college in 1834, the school grew into a comprehensive university in 1847 and was eventually privatized under the endowments of Paul Tulane and Josephine Louise Newcomb in 1884. Tulane is a member of the Association of American Universities and the colloquial Southern Ivy League.
Tulane’s primary campus is located in Uptown New Orleans on St. Charles Avenue, directly opposite of Audubon Park, and extends north to South Claiborne Avenue through Freret and Willow Street. The campus is known colloquially as the Uptown or St. Charles campus. It was established in the 1890s and occupies more than 110 acres of land. The campus is known both for its large live oak trees as well as its architecturally historic buildings.
The Board of Tulane
The Board of Tulane is Tulane’s highest governing body. It consists of 40 members and 39 emeritus members who have little involvement with the school’s day-to-day administration.
Senior Leadership
Tulane’s day-to-day administration is overseen by around 100 associate provosts, vice presidents, deans, and C-level executives. The most senior of these are the provost, president, and senior vice president.
Academia Influence •••••
Edward McGregor
Born: 1946
Status: Tulane University •••••
Edward McGregor is the 13th and current president of Tulane University, having held the position since 1999. McGregor is a Princeton graduate, former economics professor, and prolific author who has written more than a hundred peer-reviewed articles and five books. He was widely panned for chartering a private helicopter flight to Houston on Tulane’s dime after Katrina hit the city, and for using the university’s subsequent rebuilding and academic reorganization to push through a number of pet initiatives, including the dismissal of numerous tenured faculty and the elimination and merger of the quasi-independent Newcomb College women’s college into Tulane’s larger body. Increased tuition, reliance upon adjunct professors, and perceived tone-deafness towards campus sexual assaults have led to repeated calls by the student body and younger faculty members for him to step down, though he shows little inclination to do so. When not on campus, McGregor makes his personal residence in an Audubon Place mansion built by Samuel “Sam the Banana Man” Zemurray, the founder of Chiquita Banana, who willed the home to Tulane’s presidents.
Academia Influence ••••
Harrison Abel
Born: 1943
Family: The Abels
Status: Tulane University ••••
The dean of Tulane Law School, Harrison Abel is the 72-year-old former hippie anti-war protester who stubbornly refuses to resign or die despite the terminal cancer and three months to live diagnosis he’s battled for the last eight months. A brilliant legal mind and fierce liberal, Harrison’s great shame is that his son refused to follow in his footsteps and instead became another mindless cog in the United States’ war machine. He decried greed throughout his life and spent most of his years teaching, living relatively modestly. This has come back to haunt him in his old age as his treatment costs have eaten away at his meager savings and forced him, without his knowledge, to rely on his son’s “ill-gotten” wealth. Despite his terrible physical state, Harrison retains a wry sense of humor, and though the chemo sucks at his strength he continues to carry out his duties as best he can.
Faculty & Staff
Tulane has over 4,600 full-time personnel and is the largest private employer in New Orleans.
Academia Influence ••••
Isaiah Wellington
Born: 1954
Status: Tulane University ••••
Professor at Tulane Law School. Isaiah is an old man in his 60s with an encyclopedic knowledge of the law who largely seems to view his Tulane professorship as a form of “retirement.” It’s unclear in what capacity he practiced law when he was younger: he’s fairly terse on the subject, but popular gossip among the student body holds that he was a former judge or federal prosecutor who was involved in government corruption or organized crime cases, leading to multiple death threats against him in his former job. He is enrolled in Louisiana’s Address Confidentiality Program, meaning his personal address and telephone number are not a matter of public record. Between this fact and his dislike of communicating through email, he is one of Tulane Law’s harder professors to get ahold of (much to the frustration of the student body), though he maintains strict office hours. He walks with a pronounced limp on his right side and is never seen without his silver-tipped cane, which he jabs with to make points during class lectures. Student rumor holds the limp is due to a failed attempt on his life by the same parties that threatened him. Isaiah hasn’t confirmed or denied anything, but there is very little at Tulane that seems to rattle or impress him. Since Harrison Abel’s cancer, his name has been floated as a potential replacement dean.
Academia Influence •••
Philémon Delacroix
Born: 1961
Family: The Delacroixes
Status: Tulane University •••
Bayou-born environmental activist and associate professor of economics. Specializes in ecological economics and social accounting. Brother to Clarice Delacroix, father to Lena Merinelli and Emmett Delacroix, and on non-speaking terms with his son.
Tanya Delacroix
(née Landreneau)
Born: 1955
Family: The Delacroixes, the Landreneaus
Status: Tulane University •••
Former Civil Rights activist and sociology professor. Half-sister to Ronnie Landreneau, mother to Lena Merinelli and Emmett Delacroix, and on non-speaking terms with her son.
Academia Influence ••
Hannah Cahn
Born: 1984
Family: The Cahns
Status: Tulane University •••
Assistant art professor. Described by Alice Guillot as “mousy and awkward, knocks stuff over all the time, but nice.” In a relationship with Megan Garrett, who she works together with on floats for Southern Decadence and other parades.
Graduate Students
Tulane has around 4,000 postgraduate and professional students.
Academia Influence ••
David Flores
Born: 1993
Family: The Flores
Older son of Maxen and Diana Flores. Recently returned from college at Liberty University in Virginia, he’s enrolled at Tulane Law School pursuant to following his father’s career into politics. Interns for his father’s congressional office when not attending school. While David strives to be the model son, he’s suffered from anxiety disorder since childhood that his father always believed he needed to “get over” and dreads nothing more than a panic attack hitting him at an inconvenient moment.
Edward Cherry
Born: 1987
Family: The Cherrys
Wheelchair-bound son of Noelle and Francis Cherry, older brother to Hillary Cherry, and now-TA seeking his master’s degree at Tulane, Edward joined the Marines out of college and commissioned as a second lieutenant. He was sent to Afghanistan, where he was maimed by an IED and discharged after less than a year. He tries to keep upbeat and focused on his future without letting his disability impede him, but he’d always been athletic and is privately enraged by his newfound physical weakness. He’s now fiercely anti-war and a strong advocate of withdrawal from forward deployment by U.S. forces, though that cause has lost political traction over the years. He has a strong influence on his mother’s politics with regards to foreign policy and eventually hopes to go into politics himself, perhaps from a policymaking perspective. He’s missing his left leg below the knee but is much more impeded by the spinal damage he suffered.
Academia Influence •
Rebecca “Becca” Flynn
Born: 1991
Family: The Flynns
Tulane Law senior struggling to keep her head afloat financially. Born to working-class parents, Becca’s rebellious youth (and coming out) estranged her from her deeply religious parents and stuck her out on her own. She’s made her way working mostly service-industry jobs and occasionally moonlighting as an escort, but more recently has worked in the Corner Club as a bartender. She supplements her income by keeping an eye on Westley Malveaux when he visits the club (which is often), but desperately wants to just finish her degree and get a “real” job. Secretly visits with her mother every other week, and tries to visit her brother Malcolm at least once a month. Wants to go into criminal law as a defense attorney, and contends he got a raw deal.
Undergraduate Students
Tulane has around 8,000 undergraduate students. 85% of students come to Tulane from over 300 miles away, with the average student traveling more than 900 miles. Approximately 26% of alumni remain in New Orleans after graduation.
Academia Influence ••
Angela Greer
Born: 1993
Family: The Greers
Dorm supervisor at Josephine Louise House. Philosophy major and active participant in a number of student organizations, including the Tulane Philosophy Club, Queer Student Alliance, and SAPHE (Sexual Aggression Peer Hotline & Education). Angela comes from an upper-middle class family—a lawyer father and artist mother with a home in Uptown. Older sister of the more trouble-prone Summer Greer, who her parents insisted she share a dorm room with to “look after” (much to Summer’s resentment). Member of the semi-secret society Pi Alpha Kappa.
Miranda “f0xx[DR]” Lewis
Born: 1994
Family: The Lewises
Conspiracy-spouting gray hat hacker who seemingly never attends class or leaves her dorm room. How she’s made it through Tulane (or managed to stay in the dorms past her first year) is a question of some curiosity to her dormmates, who regard her room as a black hole on the floor that nothing sentient enters or leaves—including light.
Seamus Miller
Bisexual political science major active in the school’s College Democrats as the chapter’s vice president, Seamus comes from both a religious and military family, and enjoys bucking the trend with them (despite relatively good relations still) at every turn. Something of a tramp on campus in the three years he’s been there, and well-known for his active social life. Paints recreationally, especially massive wall-sized landscapes in his (or his most recent paramour’s) bedroom, much to the annoyance of the college which has to paint over it in campus housing. Quietly has a black belt in both karate and taekwondo, and wrestled in high school at the insistence of his parents. Highly confident and sure of himself, and capable of selling even somewhat obscure hobbies and interests as perfectly normal.
Academia Influence •
Beth Hudson
Beth is the classic case of “so close” being “not close enough.” She comes from a lower-middle class background and her scholarship to Tulane was enough to cover most of her tuition, but not quite enough. Her family initially helped cover the difference, but two years in she realized what a strain it was putting on them, and on their marriage, when they nearly lost their house. She couldn’t bear to continue taking their money after wiping out their savings, but also couldn’t find a legitimate job that paid enough to support her and her tuition. She was on the verge of dropping out when Elysian presented itself as an option that would allow her to keep her dream. All it cost was her self-respect and (as she perceived it) integrity when she’d intended to wait until marriage before having sex, but it was a path to help her parents get out from under the debt they’d landed in. Even for a good Christian girl, and perhaps especially for one, it wasn’t something she could pass up.
Chastity Pierce
Born: 1995
Family: The Pierces
Chastity is a twenty-year-old pursuing a degree in engineering that happens to work on the side as a second-generation prostitute. Dusky-skinned, long-limbed, well-proportioned and professional, she’s worked for Christina Roberts for very near on two years, having been introduced to the business right out of high school by her sister Charity. Their mother was a hooker until she was strangled and dumped in the Mississippi when Chastity was nine years old, landing her and her older sister in the foster care system where both were molested both multiple foster families right up until Charity turned 18, moved into her own apartment, and was able to adopt then-15-year-old Chastity with the money she made working for Roberts. Insisting on a future for her outside of the “family” business, she held Chastity’s feet to the fire and forced her to focus on her academics, the result of which was her scholarship to Tulane. Not particularly religious and very busy between her job and schooling. Very intelligent, but somewhat awkward among her peers: she’s never been on a non-work related date.
Eddie Tremain
Born: 1994
Senior at Tulane majoring in chemistry, with an eye towards pharmaceutical research. Quite talented, with the ear of much of the chemistry faculty and keys to most of the labs. Deeply closeted to all but his closest friends, and terrified his deeply religious family will find out. Often builds rockets in his spare time and experiments with various means of chemical propulsion.
Emma McCarthy
Desk coordinator at Tulane’s Josephine Louise House majoring in geology.
Jacob “Jake” Kingsley
Boyfriend of Maria Matranga, platonic friend of Alice Guillot’s, and employee at her mother’s bookstore. Jake is considered a slacker by his often frustrated family and has an attitude towards his job that could generously be described as “laid back” due to his proclivity for smoking weed while working—though he’s still prudent enough not to do so around his less understanding boss Michelle, who he considers a hardass.
Jessica Moran
Jessica is an art history student with a dark secret. When she was still in high school she left her best friend to die when he overdosed at a party, choosing to flee rather than seek treatment for him. The event has haunted her ever since. She’s never confessed it to anyone, and her deeply religious parents living out of Athens, Georgia have no idea that their “perfect little angel” has embarked on an increasingly self-destructive path while away at school, dabbling in drugs, drinking heavily, and putting herself in compromising circumstances. It’s also influenced her studies. Once a political science major, she’s increasingly shifted her focus to more esoteric classes, quietly changing her major to art history and focusing on macabre topics and dark visuals, somewhat to the dismay of many of her religiously-inclined teachers.
Jillian Spell
Jillian is a voluptuous blonde with a friendly and outgoing personality. She was bullied as a preteen for experiencing early-onset puberty and the associated acne and large breasts that came with it, and still hasn’t gotten over the self-esteem problems she developed as a result. She views her current occupation as a way to express how she’s ‘overcome’ her body image issues while validating her looks. She also finds it easier to have “relationships” with partners who have already made their interest in her expressly clear. The fact it pays the bills too is a bonus. Jillian enjoys rich meals and deserts, and works out compulsively to offset her guilt over her eating habits.
Kelsey Hazard
Kelsey doesn’t actually need the money or potential influence brought on by her employment at the Elsyian escort agency. She comes from an upper-middle class family, but enjoys acting out against her family and considers working as a call girl a safer way to indulge that desire. Kelsey is a glasses-wearing redhead who attends Tulane by day but has no idea what she wants out of life, or what to do at school. She takes courses largely without purpose and has no major in mind. She is picky in her assignments at Elysian, much to the annoyance of Audrey Morrow. The former prostitute-turned-madame puts up with it mostly because Kelsey checks so many boxes for those clients she does have—including more than one work associate of her father’s who enjoys the sight of Kelsey on her knees.
Kyra Black
Kyra comes from the Ninth Ward’s most squalid slums, and all her looks and smarts weren’t enough to get her out of them on her own. Instead that golden ticket away from her alcoholic mother and deadbeat father cost her something else: her integrity and self-respect. Though she bills herself as a model to her friends, Kyra is a cam-girl and occasional porn star, flying out to California for “amateur” shoots when money gets tight (usually when tuition comes due). Now a sophomore at Tulane, Kyra lives in dread that someday someone will recognize her, and that the carefully crafted life she’s built in Riverbend will come crashing down. Until then she dreams of a life after college in which she isn’t forced to expose herself for money. Double majoring in Finance and Organizational Communication and maintains an active social life, trying to not only maintain the appearance of normalcy, but cling to the life that she has paid so much to have in the first place.
Logan Flores
Born: 1997
Family: The Flores
Younger son of Maxen and Diana Flores. Currently attending college at Tulane University. With his older brother “beating him” into entering politics through the time-honored path of law, as well as attending a more respectable college in Maxen’s eyes (Logan’s application to Liberty University was rejected), he’s hoped to win his father’s approval by commissioning in the Army through its ROTC program. So far his efforts seem to be only partly working: while Maxen considers his younger son’s intended career path an estimable one, he has expressed disappointment that Logan didn’t get into West Point if he was “really serious” about the idea of serving his country, and has chided him for not deciding that was something he wanted to do in high school. Frustrated, Logan has struggled to keep up with coursework, and the physical fights he’s gotten into with other students might eventually get him booted from the ROTC even with his father’s influence.
Maria Matranga
Born: 1997
Family: The Matrangas
Younger daughter of Silver Penny Sal, consigliere for the New Orleans Mafia. Freshman and biology major who intends to go to med school. Girlfriend to Jacob “Jake” Kingsley and platonic friend to Alice Guillot, who she walked home with over the Companion App after the latter got out from a recent evening class.
Megan Bevanns
A would-be actress and theater major, Megan is a petite young woman with dark hair that she frequently dyes multiple colors. Emotionally damaged by abuse as a child and her father’s subsequent suicide, she came to treat physical intimacy casually and proved an ideal candidate for recruitment into both Elysian and Caroline Malveaux-Devillers’ herd. She attends community college, taking a few credits every semester, with the stated goal of working on a degree that she’d like to transfer to a four-year school “someday.” In the interim, she’s worked a number of dead-end jobs in fast food, restaurants, and even amusement parks and fairs. She throws herself into relationships that almost always spectacularly explode when partners (who are usually attracted by her easy approach to sex and not looking for emotional intimacy) realize how needy she really is, which only further reinforces the cycle.
Moonshadow
Nancy Lou Sweeney came to New Orleans for a bachelorette party and decided to stay. She flew home long enough to give the speech at her sister’s wedding and pack her stuff. Now enrolled at LSU, Nancy Lou is a poetry major that has a habit of taking “whatever seems interesting.” Likes to LARP, play trading card games, and participate in other nerdy hobbies in her spare time; what she lacks in skill she makes up for in enthusiasm. Somewhat maligned for not being a “real nerd girl” and going to raves. Prefers to go by her online handle of “Moonshadow” even in real life, and refuses to answer to any other name. She also claims to be a witch and capable of casting magical spells.
Natalia Garcia
Born: 1997
Family: The Garcias
Daughter of Colombian immigrants and first generation in her family to attend college. Junior on a scholarship with dreams of pursuing her MD. Seven months pregnant at present with the child of Jake Abel, but is determined not to let it get in the way of her dreams. From a large Latino family that embraced her pregnancy and Jake as their new son, despite his fears. Slight frame that makes her pregnancy all the more obvious.
Natalie Andrews
Born: 1992
Family: The Andrews
The only daughter of an established and influential family with a history that goes back to the 19th century, Natalie is a senior at Tulane and regular attendee at the New Orleans Dance Academy. Lithe, graceful, and with a poetry to her motion that makes her a treat to watch, her instructors all believe she has great potential. Classically trained since she was seven, Natalie, now 23, dreams of making it big in New York City, but her family have resisted at every turn. For them, her dancing is a hobby, something to round her out as a person and a prospect. It’s been a mark of pride for them, but little more, with the expectation that once she finishes college at Tulane she’ll relegate it to a hobby. Naturally quiet and reserved, she remains too timid to go against their wishes for now, however much the prospect of putting her dreams on hold hurts her. Works as a part-time receptionist at Flawless Spa.
Nathaniel Hite
Chemistry major facing potential expulsion after placing his dorm room up for rent on Airbnb and moving back in with his parents to help pay for tuition. Deceased as of 2016.
Scott Allen
A mechanical and electrical engineering student with a talent for computers, Allen comes off to many as awkward and weird, particularly with women. He’s far more comfortable on online communities, but despite his awkwardness he’s generous at heart. Set a quarterly challenge for himself to raise $2,500 a semester towards charity in his freshman year, and has met that goal by building computers out of his own money and raffling them off. Scott isn’t religious, though occasionally jokes that his religion is “Jedi.” Slightly overweight, though it hides the muscle on his frame (he enjoys lifting but not cardio).
Summer Greer
Born: 1997
Family: The Greers
Younger sister to Angela Greer, Summer has had a turbulent freshman year at Tulane so far, with two arrests for underage drinking and public intoxication. Dorms in the Josephine Louise House with her big sister and is forbidden from attending parties without her. The daughter of an affair with the housekeeper during a separation between her father and stepmother, Summer has always lived in her sister’s shadow.
Trenton Nowak
Former political science student with aspirations of becoming a community organizer. Fan of Metropolis and other old movies. Transgender and estranged from his family. Deceased as of 2015 following his suicide.
Trevor Nguyen
Computer science student. Member of the hacktivist group Mirror_Mirror and friend of Alice Guillot’s, who he enjoys teasing for watching girl-on-girl porn.
The McGehee School for Girls
“For decades McGehee has been the institution by which the elite in New Orleans shield their young women from the blacks, the Jews, the poor, and the different, protecting them from ideas and associations that might lure them from their manifest destiny.”
Eli S. Evans, The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South
“It’s the best school in the city. Maybe the best in the state. I once read an article that described it as ’ the debutante West Point.’ Everyone at McGehee succeeds. It’s a matter of pride. I know it is, certainly, to my aunt."
Caroline Malveaux-Devillers to Amelie Savard
The Louise S. McGehee School for Girls is an all-girls private, nondenominational independent school located in the Garden District. It was founded by its namesake in 1912 and remains one of the two premier schools in New Orleans (alongside the Catholic-run Ursuline Academy) for wealthy families to send their daughters. Tuition runs approximately $20,000 a year.
The Board of Trustees
McGehee is overseen by a 31-member board of trustees, many of whom are school alumni, parents of current or former students, or both. Five of these members sit on the executive committee.
Several of the Board’s known members include Abélia Devillers, Lyman Whitney, and Vera Malveaux.
Senior Leadership
McGehee has three principals who oversee the day-day-to-day administration of the elementary, middle, and high schools, respectively. A separate faculty head oversees the Little Gate preschool program. The headmistress oversees the whole of the school.
Academia Influence •••••
Catherine Strong
The headmistress of McGehee. Former principal for McGehee’s high school. Amelie Savard found her relatively pleasant-mannered, but more inclined to pay attention to students from “legacy families” and subtly disapproving towards ones who didn’t “fit the mold.”
Faculty
McGehee has a 102-member faculty with an 8:1 student to teacher ratio.
Academia Influence •••
Chantilly Laurent
Born: 1956
Status: McGehee School for Girls •••
Civics and philosophy teacher. Not many students would name Mrs. Laurent as their favorite instructor. It’s not that her classes her are difficult: she’s actually one of McGehee’s easiest graders. Her classes have a significant lecture component, however, and she speaks in a mumbling voice that most of her students find frustratingly quiet. Missing bits and pieces of what she says during a typical lesson is inevitable, and she appears oblivious to each and every request by her students to please talk at a higher volume. She also has a tendency to lecture with her eyes partially lidded, further compounding a vague sense that she isn’t “completely there” during class. Her students are rarely anything but grateful for the small group discussions that take up a good chunk of each period.
Diana Flores
(née Underwood)
Born: 1973
Family: The Flores, the Underwoods
Status: McGehee School for Girls •••
Dance teacher at the McGehee School for Girls since 2003. Given McGehee’s reputation as the “West Point for Southern belles,” Mrs. Flores’ class is understandably very popular with the student body—especially when grading is participation-based and makes for an easy “A” in the academically rigorous school. Diana was a ballerina for 15 years before she went into teaching, but retired in 2003 after a car accident maimed her leg and left her in semi-chronic pain. Ex-wife of Maxen Flores, the state senate’s majority leader (she kept his name after their divorce), and mother of six children. Lives with her three grandchildren Lucy, Ethan, and Abigail, her adopted daughter Emily Rosure, and two cats. Loves to bake and cook. Currently single and looking to meet a man.
Emily Bradford
Born: 1969
Status: McGehee School for Girls •••
History teacher. Amelie Savard overheard in Mr. French’s class that Mrs. Bradford teaches Early Modern History, which he recommended as a useful frame of reference for any students interested in Ms. Perry’s History of New Orleans class.
Weaver Morris
Born: 1961
Status: McGehee School for Girls •••
Biology teacher also responsible for sexual education. Yvette Devillers laughingly described the latter with, “That sex ed was so bad.”
William “Bill” French
Born: 1967
Status: McGehee School for Girls •••
History teacher. Mr. French is a relatively formal and straightforward instructor who models his classes after the same format the girls can expect to encounter in college: lectures geared towards writing a term paper with relatively little busywork. Outside of his history classes, he also serves as the school’s golf coach, and seems puzzled that some of his students find this amusing.
Academia Influence ••
Catherine Ward
Born: 1988
Status: McGehee School for Girls ••
Chemistry teacher. Catherine earned her PhD several years ago but decided to teach high school classes instead of pursuing a research career (something not uncommon at McGehee, where a number of faculty members hold PhDs). She’s one of the school’s youngest teachers and can still relate to her teenage students fairly well, but is actually one of the tougher graders. She takes an exceedingly dim view of students who are tardy to class and otherwise do not appear to take academics seriously.
Lawrence Thurston
Born: 1949
Status: McGehee School for Girls ••
Retired investment banker at Whitney Hancock Bank who now works as a part-time finance teacher, mostly to “keep busy” in his retirement. He knows many of his more affluent students’ families from his time at Whitney Hancock, and can recall their names, faces, and relatives without fail. He likes to pepper his lectures with stories about his time at Whitney Hancock, his student’s families, and stories from the old days. He has a fairly laid-back attitude to class and doesn’t assign homework, quizes, or projects. He just lectures and says there’ll be one exam every month throughout the semester. He says that’s how the real world works, though he offers extra credit to students who read any of the books off his syllabus and write reports. He also offers extra credit to any student who grades his exams, as he evidently doesn’t assign enough work in his classes to justify a TA. To the surprise of few, he usually gives this privilege to his favorites. His students largely believe he has no interest whatsoever in spending any of his own time on class outside of class. They say he doesn’t even have his graders read the book reports, just check to see if they’ve been plagiarized (and are actually about the chosen book). At the same time, the old man has “about forty years” of experience in the financial sector and genuinely seems to enjoy imparting that knowledge to the daughters of his former banking clients. It makes his class a peculiarly personalized blend of zeal and sloth: ultimately, he seems to see teaching more as volunteer work than as a professional career he takes seriously.
Lucas Hargrove
Born: 1982
Status: McGehee School for Girls ••
Math teacher, one of McGehee’s better-looking male faculty, and an object of frequent crushes among the student body.
Support Staff
Academia Influence •••
Beatrice Achord
Born: 1959
Status: McGehee School for Girls •••
McGehee’s school psychologist, hired in 2004 after the tragic death of Rebecca Whitney, one of that year’s graduating class’ most beloved students, at the hands of a drunk driver. An ardent admirer of Freud who maintains his picture in her office, Mrs. Achord is an arch-conservative who sees her role as helping to polish and cement the psychology of McGehee’s emergent young women into “being all they can be.” Member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Academia Influence ••
Delaney Nguyen
Born: 1981
Status: McGehee School for Girls ••
Guidance counselor of four years and transplant from San Diego. Ms. Nguyen is somewhat bemused to find that her last name leads everyone to assume she’s from New Orleans’ native Vietnamese community. She is of no relation to Tulane’s Trevor Nguyen.
Nancy Noah
Born: 1962
Status: McGehee School for Girls ••
Long-time secretary and receptionist at McGehee’s central administration building. Religious and never seen without a crucifix around her neck. Her alliterative name is easy for McGehee’s younger students, if not people in general, to remember.
Emily Landruff
Born: 1973
Status: McGehee School for Girls ••
McGehee’s school nurse. RN who formerly worked at Charity Hospital before its closure following Hurricane Katrina.
Student Body
“These [girls] are steel butterflies who love to project the image of helpless femininity, but they have wills of iron. They get what they want."
Anonymous former McGehee teacher
McGehee has 500 students who range from grades PK-12. The student retention rate is 96%, with a minority enrollment of 18%. 20 different cultures represented among the student body. 100% of McGehee graduates attend college, a statistic the school is very eager to maintain.
Upper School Students
Academia Influence ••
Aurora St. John
Daughter of the wealthy St. Johns, an old family of bankers.
Mackenna Gallagher
Granddaughter of Caleb Gallagher, Nathaniel Malveauux’s chief of staff.
Margaret Lancaster
Only child of Vincent Lancaster, the Democratic representative for New Orleans’ congressional district, and one of the comparatively few black students at McGehee.
Rebecca Whitney
Born: 1986
Deceased: 2004 (age 18)
Family: The Whitneys
The daughter of then-Whitney Bank CEO Lyman Whitney and sister of Warren Whitney, Rebecca was described by Diana Flores as “her year’s brightest star” in 2004’s graduating class. A Wellesley-bound debutante who was beloved by many, Rebecca was killed by a student drunk driver on the same night she was crowned prom queen. The tragedy was devastating to McGehee’s community, whose administration debated abolishing coed proms altogether, but “settled” for hiring a full-time school psychologist to counsel grieving students and faculty. Rebecca’s parents subsequently established the Rebecca M. Whitney Foundation in her name to provide scholarships and ISAs to promising students. Though Rebecca’s peers have long since graduated, many of her teachers remember her fondly (if sadly).
Sarah Whitney
Born: 1998
Family: The Whitneys
Daughter of Warren Whitney, granddaughter of Lyman B. Whitney, and sole heiress to her family’s name and fortune. Sarah grew up in the shadow of her aunt Rebecca’s death (caused by a drunk driver during her aunt’s senior year prom), which affected her father and especially grandfather deeply. She is a junior at McGehee and very popular there, but prefers to play the social beta and let her best friend Susannah Kelly claim more spotlight than she does (and who she ran for vice president of the student government alongside). She’s lived on her own since she earned her driver’s license in an apartment paid for by her family, which even her privileged peers are jealous of. As of late 2015, she is in a relationship with Chuck Pavaghi.
Susannah Kelly
Born: 1998
Family: The Kellys
Granddaughter of Senator Joseph Kelly. Susannah is part of the popular crowd at McGehee and running for president of student government alongside her friend Sarah Whitney.
Yvette Devillers
Born: 1998
Family: The Devillers
Middle daughter to Abélia Devillers and McGehee senior. Fraternal twin sister to Yvonne, although their close familial resemblance leads many people assume the two actually are identical twins. This impression is further compounded by the two’s tendency to finish one another’s sentences, dress alike, and even screw with people by falsely accusing them of mixing up their names (something that is already extremely easy to do with the large family of single-gender and similar-looking children). Yvette is the most protective of her family, but also has a mean streak and is known to bully students at McGehee who don’t fit in.
Yvonne Devillers
Born: 1998
Family: The Devillers
Middle daughter to Abélia Devillers and McGehee senior. Fraternal twin sister to Yvette, although their close familial resemblance leads many people assume the two actually are identical twins. This impression is further compounded by the two’s tendency to finish one another’s sentences, dress alike, and even screw with people by falsely accusing them of mixing up their names (something that is already extremely easy to do with the large family of single-gender and similar-looking children). Yvonne seems to lack her twin’s mean streak, but rarely gets in her way.
Academia Influence •
Hannah Burroughs
Born: 1997
Deceased: 2015 (age 18)
Senior at McGehee with a catty personality and transplant from Jackson, Mississpi. Friends with Rachel Freneau and Megan Mayberry. Deceased as of 2015 following her suicide by sleeping pills.
Jasmine Pavaghi
Born: 1998
Family: The Pavaghis
One of the many grandchildren to Rishu “Rich” Pavaghi.
Leslie Porter
Born: 1998
Former office aide and founder of the gay-straight alliance at McGehee. After the school administration banned the club, Leslie made copies of the year’s extracurriculars pamphlet, included the club, and distributed them throughout the school anyway. She was suspended after the administration caught on to what she’d done.
Megan Mayberry
Born: 1998
Daughter of the Mayberry family that runs Antoine’s, the city’s 1840-founded and oldest restaurant. The Mayberrys are older than they are rich, though, as Antoine’s is the only restaurant they own (unlike their rivals among the Dolans). Megan is friends with Rachel Freneau and Hannah Burroughs, and has a more sensitive personality than either of them.
Rachel Freneau
Born: 1998
Family: The Freneaus
Great-great-niece of Patricia Maurier, the city’s parish clerk, and daughter of Sebastian Freneau, a casino owner. Rachel has a morbid streak and fascination with the dark and macabre. Friends with Hannah Burroughs and Megan Mayberry.
Middle School Students
Academia Influence •
Emily Ida Dolan
Born: 2003
Family: The Dolans
Daughter of Arthur Dolan. Chess prodigy.
Miranda Ferris
Born: 2003
Family: The Ferrises
Pre-teenage daughter of Roger Ferris and Chicago transplant who dislikes New Orleans and claims there’s nothing to do in the city. Miranda hasn’t weathered puberty well and is an unattractive girl with mousy features, acne, and few friends.
Noëlle Devillers
Born: 2002
Family: The Devillers
Second-youngest daughter to Abélia Devillers and seventh grader at the McGehee. Despite being one of her family’s youngest children, Noëlle is the proverbial middle child: Cécilia and Adeline are independent adults, while Yvette and Yvonne do everything together, leaving Noëlle in the middle before Simmone. Never the center of attention like her youngest sister, she’s also too young to meaningfully participate in many of the social activities her older siblings do.
Academia Status 0
Rowan Paxton
Born: 2002
Family: The Paxtons
13-year-old daughter of Lucilia Plantaine and Joseph Paxton, a former FBI agent in Orson Malveaux’s employ who was murdered by Caroline Malveaux-Devillers shortly after her Embrace.
Sadie Hall
Born: 2002
Family: The Halls
Stephanie Hall’s and Emil Kane’s daughter, born by accident when her teenage parents neglected to use protection. Her relationship with her father is strained, but her mother has been able to provide a relatively comfortable life for her on a Blackwatch contractor’s salary.
Lower School Students
Academia Influence •
Simmone Devillers
Born: 2005
Family: The Devillers
Youngest daughter to Abélia Devillers and former fifth grader at McGehee. Simmone is the baby of her family and loves being the center of attention to her mother and mostly-to-nearly adult five siblings, who she still expects to cut her food and physically carry her places. She occasionally gets annoyed, though, when they don’t “give her space.”
Academia Status 0
Lauren Jennings
Born: 2009
First grader at McGehee. Amelie Savard encountered her at the school nurse’s office with a bleeding nose, crying over the fact she had missed the bus.
Lilly Bellamy
Born: 2005
Family: The Bellamys
10-year-old only child of the Bellamy family. Lily’s parents are devout Catholics and borne-and-bred Southern aristocrats who expect their little girl to grow up into a delicate Southern belle. Though her life appears perfect on the surface, it’s all for appearances—behind closed doors, her parents long ago fell out of love and spend their nights either fighting or ignoring each other. This animosity has only gotten worse as time has gone on, but since good Catholics don’t divorce they’ve refused to separate. As a result, Lilly is often reduced to a status symbol to show off to their friends or a weapon to use against each other in arguments.
Lucy Flores
Born: 2010
Family: The Flores
The daughter of a 20-year-old Celia Flores by an unknown father, Lucy’s birth was a subject of some scandal for the Flores family they’ve endeavored to keep under wraps. Lucy has primarily been raised by her single grandmother Diana with frequent help from Emily Rosure and calls all three of them “Mommy” interchangeably. As of 2016, she is a first grader at the McGehee School for Girls and has recently started ballet lessons at her grandmother’s behest.
Other Academic Institutions
Faculty
Academia Influence ••
Charity Flynn
(née Newcome)
Born: 1958
Family: The Flynns
A sheltered long-time kindergarten teacher at Martin Behrman Elementary School and mother to Becca Flynn, Charity Flynn is caught between her faith and her family. Charity is a devout Catholic and the life choices of her children weigh heavily upon her. She recently began meeting with her daughter for lunch in an attempt to reconcile Becca’s life choices and sinful ways with the love of Jesus Christ. She occasionally protests outside of abortion clinics with her husband, though she has grown increasingly estranged from him as he’s fallen further into apathy. She secretly pays her daughter’s phone bill.
Donald “Duckpin Donnie” O’Keele
Born: 1972
Member of the Limbo Kings. Attended seminary to become Roman Catholic priest, but dropped out due to theological conflicts. Teaches English at a public high school in the lower Ninth Ward. Serves as a facilitator of a local Narcotics Anonymous chapter. Active member of the Knights of Columbus.
Kelly Jacobson
Born: 1988
Family: The Jacobsons
Elementary school teacher at Benjamin Franklin and widow of Brian Jacobson, a patrol officer recently killed by drug dealers in the line of duty. Though relatively well-off between her salary and her husband’s pension, she has taken a leave of absence from teaching following his death. Brian’s precinct captain, Marco Rizaffi, described her as a “really nice lady” who’d baked cookies for their police station.
Shannon Fischer
Born: 1983
Shannon had only just obtained her teaching certificate in Portland, Oregon when Hurricane Katrina made national headlines. She moved to New Orleans hoping to make a difference in the city’s no doubt beshambled education system. Ten years later, she teaches at a charter school in the Ninth Ward and has long since become jaded to the metal detectors, police presence, and seemingly daily fights and arrests. Her black students have a hard time relating to the West Coast-born white woman, and in truth, many of them scare her. She never leaves home without pepper spray in her purse and has even gone so far as to take shooting lessons (despite formerly being vehemently pro-gun control) and buy a gun after she was mugged on the way home from work. She’s long since lost faith in her ability to make a difference in her students’ lives and has repeatedly tried to get a job at a private school, but is resigned to the fact that ones like McGehee aren’t interested in charter school teachers.
Outside of work, Shannon is a committed vegan who home-cooks all of her meals with locally produced, organic ingredients (she goes to the farmer’s market every weekend) and has yet to sample any of New Orleans’ cuisine—a fact she has learned to keep secret from incredulous, scornful, and sometimes even violent locals. She has a single restaurant she is willing to eat at, with a single item she is willing to eat: a vegetarian taco. She has ordered that same taco innumerable times over the years.
Simon Rabinowitz
Born: 1964
Family: The Rabinowitzes
Father of Autumn Rabinowitz and her two siblings. Schoolteacher at a public charter school.
Academia Influence •
Anna May Perry
Born: 1986
Former history teacher at the McGehee School for Girls. Most students had a lot of fun in Ms. Perry’s class: she was relatively young, energetic, and tried to give students participatory roles in the normally lecture-based class through projects and small-group discussions, while punctuating many of her lectures with jokes, wry commentary, and frequent pictures on the room’s smartboard (including the occasional cartoon and popular meme). She had a self-admitted crush for “bad boy” historic figures such as Jean Lafitte and John Law, the latter of whom she called a “ne’er-do-well-scoundrel,” “sweet-talking hustler,” and other such variations, usually with a smirk.
College Students
Academia Influence ••
Virginia Malveaux
Born: 1996
Family: The Malveauxes
A math prodigy off at MIT on a full academic scholarship, Virginia struggled with her family’s social expectations in her youth and is exceptionally shy and reserved for a Malveaux. Although spoiled by her father as the baby in the family, she doesn’t have a taste for it and prefers to live practically (she begged him out of a sports car for her 18th birthday). Her closest family contact is Gabriel Malveaux, with whom she shares a comparatively gentle nature. She plays the violin quite beautifully, saying it speaks to her, although she rarely does so before audiences, and prefers to use music as a means of calming her thoughts when alone. She is uninterested in publicity and somewhat frustrated by her status, both in the family and at large. She was all-too grateful to get away from her immediate family in New Orleans, as her relationship with her mother was always strained (Vera never seeming to understand her).
Academia Influence •
Charity Pierce
Born: 1992
Family: The Pierces
Charity is a twenty-three-year-old escort who has worked for Christina Roberts for more than five years—a near-benchmark in the business. Beautiful, with full lips, excellent proportions, and smooth skin, she and her sister Chastity are two of Roberts’ most sought-after girls—especially as a pair. Many men are entranced by the idea of bedding sisters at the same time. Born into poverty, orphaned, and repeatedly failed by the social welfare state, Charity is fiercely financially practical and committed to breaking out of the cycle of poverty. She’s invested the bulk of her earnings, lives relatively modestly, and has been pursuing community college courses on the side in anticipation of the day when she gets out of the business. Extremely close to her sister Chastity, she’s not particularly pleased that she followed in her footsteps but is willing to “overlook” it as long as she finishes her degree and gets out of their line of work. Doesn’t believe she can make a relationship work while she works in “the business,” and isn’t attracted to men in any case. Not religious.
Katie Hollands
English student at Loyola University who hopes to go into copyrighting.
Lauren Peterson
Former student at Tulane University who was attacked at 2015’s Southern Decadence while drunk and had shards of glass raked over her neck. Franz Harz, acting on behalf of an anonymous benefactor, paid the out of pocket costs for her treatment at Tulane Medical Center. Subsequently transferred to another out of city college. Described by her doctor Neil Flynn as having “no parents in the picture,” the primary adult figure in her life seems to be her aunt Vivian—who, due to not being a parent, didn’t have her enrolled under her health plan.
Robert Dawson
Student at Loyola University with an undeclared major who isn’t sure what he wants to do yet.
Sophia Flores
Born: 1994
Family: The Flores
Youngest daughter of Maxen and Diana Flores. Currently living out of state as a college student at Liberty University.
High School Students
Academia Influence ••
Gabriel Malveaux
Born: 1997
Family: The Malveauxes
The youngest of Nathan’s children, Gabriel is a bright, athletically gifted, and scandal-free high school senior whose youth has sheltered him from the Malveaux family’s worst excesses. Several schools are pursuing him and he wants to go into volunteer or non-profit work. Those who know the Malveauxes, though, suspect his path was laid out shortly after his birth. His father sees a future for him politics, while Orson eyes the possibility of another man of the cloth. Gabriel remains seemingly oblivious as to this fact and has been dating the same sweet and well-behaved middle-class girl since freshman year. He truly seems to believe they have a future together.
Academia Influence •
Brandon Christian
Born: 1998
Family: The Christians
Black Pearl resident and high school senior. Son of Marianna Christian. Moderately traumatized following a 2015 home invasion that nearly killed his mother.
Middle School Students
Academia Status 0
Jeffrey Rabinowitz
Born: 2003
Family: The Rabinowitzes
Younger brother to Autumn Rabinowitz. Sometimes “tries” to make cookies with his younger sister Stephanie, usually to the result of eating the dough.
Zachary Paxton
Born: 2003
Family: The Paxtons
12-year-old son of Lucilia Plantaine and Joseph Paxton, a former FBI agent in Orson Malveaux’s employ before his untimely disappearance. Caroline Malveaux-Devillers discovered during her investigation into the Paxton family that Zachary has been getting into fights at school since his father’s seeming abandonment of his family.
Elementary Students
Academia Status 0
Anna Collins
Little girl passingly encountered by Lou on the Algiers Ferry. The destitute private eye had gone without a solid meal for days, and was distressed by the sight of the tantrum-throwing child declaring she “didn’t want” her breakfast muffin and stomping a shoe over it.
Jimmy Wicker
Young boy encountered by Lou at St. Louis Cathedral. Jimmy told the old man that he “smelled really bad.” Lou apologized to the child for his odor. His mother swiftly admonished him not to talk to “creeps.”
Malcolm Glass
Twin brother to Milo Glass. Disappeared in 2002 and presumed (as well as legally declared) deceased.
Maya Merrinelli
Older daughter of Daniel and Lena Merrinelli, and nephew to Emmett Delacroix.
Noah Merrinelli
Younger son of Daniel and Lena Merrinelli, and nephew to Emmett Delacroix.
Paige Brown
Young sister to Jared Brown, a resident doctor at Tulane Medical who raped unconscious patients. Deceased as of 2015.
Stephanie “Stef” Rabinowitz
Younger sister to Autumn Rabinowitz. Has diabetes and sometimes “tries” to make cookies with her older brother Jeffrey, usually to the result of eating the dough.
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False_Epiphany