Name: Cora McKenzie
Age: 27
Sex: Female
Race: Human
Sub-race(if Wyr):
Primary skillset: Development, Promotion, Strategic Business Planning, Networking, Public Speaking
Description: Standing at 5’7”, with choppy blonde hair and cool blue eyes, Cora finds it as easy to blend into a crowd as she does to stand out. Often seen sporting smart-casual office attire, even out of hours, she’s a woman one can easily identify as a city-slicker. With pointed stilettos and a three-piece, or a mermaid skirt and ballet pumps, or even knee boots and a wool trenchcoat, Cora can blend into the London streets without a slick of makeup, or she can dazzle and charm at executive-level as if she was born into business.
Her slim build and sharp features have earned her many a business card from photographers hunting easy prey, but Cora favours business over pleasure, and keeps herself invested in fashion more than foreplay. She’s not a prude by any means, but her enjoyment comes from her thriving in a work environment, and she’s more confident between meetings than between the sheets.
Elegant and aloof, Cora walks with grace and purpose, yet unknown to most has a septum piercing she tucks away until it’s her downtime. Let no-one ever say she doesn’t have an ace up her sleeve now and then.
Face Claim Abbey Lee Kershaw
Background: Born on the wrong side of the Scottish Borders, Cora grew up in a household that wasn't terribly close knit. She shared a home with her mother and father, Alice and Michael, and three siblings, Mark (32), and her twin, Mathew. The boys outnumbered her, but her sass and spark outshone them. The family wasn't a strong unit, and as the siblings aged, they drifted further apart. Mark left home around when Cora left for university in Cardiff, opting to live with his new wife in the quiet village of Windermere in the Lake District. He visits the family when the occasion is a necessity, and Cora finds herself often forgetting the names of his two children because she sees them so rarely.
Having lived in a family of little interest, therefore little drama, Cora would struggle to share tragic or triumphant experiences from her upbringing. Her mother and father held little regard for each other, and similarly so for their children. Michael would spend his days tinkering in his workshed, while Alice would lose herself in arts and crafts, baking, and WI meetings. None were ambitious, and dreams and hopes were never spoken of. But Cora had hers.
Perhaps her only tragic story from home is that of her twin, Mathew. Having been the only one left behind when Mark and Cora went their own ways, he was easily seduced by the underworld of large cities like Newcastle, Edinburgh, and Leeds. Mathew became embroiled in trafficking and the easy money of drug dealing, but Cora still wanted to help him clean up. If only he’d wanted to. After two hours on a cold December evening arguing on a platform in King’s Cross about the direction his life was taking, Cora walked away and cut her twin out of her life. She'd built a good life for herself in the City, and she wasn't going to let him ruin it. She hasn't spoken to him in several years, but the last visit home informed her he was in prison near Manchester.
During her studies of Business Management and Marketing Strategy, Cora exceeded her expectations and found a capacity she didn't know she had. Her grades were the high end of average, and it was enough for her to graduate with honours, but a wealth of experience gained on-hand in London businesses that was worth far more than a certificate ever would be. She networked furiously in those on-the-job experiences, and it was during her final placement that she earned a place on the full time staff after graduation within Innovia Green Technologies.
Forward thinking and bright ideas, mixed with creative individualisation for her audience led Cora through the ranks to become a Business Development Researcher, charged with securing financing and identifying market trends for IGT to branch into. It was a thriving market, and late nights were nothing to a devoted employee like Cora. But her manager, Henry Fontaine, had other plans for her. He saw her as a pretty little thing to be used a visual asset. It was his chauvinism and blatant sexualisation that led to the department losing several staff members, but Cora disregarded his advances and pushed her ideas forward, certain that eventually, one would be heard.
It was a little under a year ago that Mara Wilson sat in a meeting with the Business Manager overseeing IGT, Morton Wielder, Henry Fontaine and Cora, as the men babbled incessantly about current ventures not yielding the same results as those of bygone times. Cora could sense that the air was growing weary with male-centric proclamations that today’s youth were pampered and that the golden age was all but over now that technology was becoming a game of two sexes. Cara, against her better judgement, interrupted.
Speaking out of turn, she laid out the ideas of she and her colleagues that would have changed the face of IGT. Marketing forecasts and statistics were something she’d committed to memory, and pointing out the management’s failings against a company she was proud to call home led Fontaine to embark on a sexist, and worse, uneducated tirade with Wielder that was the beginning of their downfall culminating in Fontaine telling Cora to “get the fuck out of this meeting, you jumped up little brat.” It took Wielder moments to realise the mistake Fontaine had made, and Mara even less time to dismiss both completely. In the space of fifteen minutes, Cora had managed to lose her job, and that of her manager, as well as one of Mara WIlson’s key staff.
It was as she entered the elevator to leave IGT for the last time that Cora found herself in the company of Mara Wilson, a woman very interested in her fresh ideas and head for numbers, as well as her confidence and charisma in dealing with executives. Mara invited her to Grey Castle for an informal chat, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Character Goal: Having ended up in the role of Business Development Manager reporting in to Mara Wilson by pure accident, Cora finds herself keen to make a good impression and secure herself a place ranking amongst the respected Wyrfolk in The Grey Castle. Some say she's not ruthless enough to be in business, but not having claws hasn't stopped her from getting into heated debates with those she disagrees with.
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