| Craig Weiss |
 |
| Portrayed By: | Ryan Carnes |
| Status: | Alive |
| Age: | 22 |
| Occupation: | Muscle |
| Family: | Donald (father), Irene (mother), Dana (sister), George (brother) |
| Significant Other(s): | None |
| Freak Factor: | Totem Warrior: Puma |
Background
So, how did a Denver boy, born and bred, end up as an agent of Puma, the cat spirit? Well, it's a funny story. I asked for it. No, seriously. I was fifteen, just figuring out a few things about myself and thus I was rebelling a little. My parents are pretty strict Baptists and times were tense. And being a foolish teenager at the time, I made them worse still by deciding I'd be a Pagan. If my family's religion was going to reject me, I'd reject it right back.
Now, I'd always been into geeky pursuits, D&D and horror movies and fantasy novels and such, which worried my parents to no end. I swear that they think playing an elf turned me gay to this day. But anyway, I did my research on the rituals, but more than that, I did what felt right. It's hard to explain. It was like I knew, somewhere down deep what to do.
I took a trip into the wilderness, supposedly with friends, but really they just dropped me off. Found a space below an overhang and sat there. For three days. Meditating, burning sage and juniper boughs, watching the world, feeling the world watching me back. And on the midnight of the third night with no sleep, Puma was there. A cougar as big as lion, I swear.
I promised to serve him, if he'd share a little power with me. It was never supposed to be literal. It was a metaphor for personal empowerment. I mean, nobody gets to pick their totem. But that's the first rule when you're dealing with cats. THEY make the rules. When he reached out to swat me over the heart, I felt like my whole body was on fire. When I woke up, I was better.
There were downsides. There were rules. And challenges. And I swear, my connection with the cat is so strong that I've picked up a little bit of a tendency to play with my food and a certain unhealthy disregard for personal safety. So far, I've lived, though sometimes just barely. The first time I met a Wendigo, six months later, she damn near killed me. I got away. Civilians died. So I trained and I learned and I got better. And the next time we met, I got her.
So, I've learned the truths: power always comes with a price. There is always someone more powerful. And you can get better. I'm always on the lookout for something that will give me a leg up, both on the Wendigos and the others who hunt demons. Because if you don't stand at the top of the pile, you tend to get shoved off of it. And I want to be the one doing the shoving.
Its all about the networking and the control. Who controls what happens? In an ideal world, I do. Now don't get me wrong, I dont want people to get hurt unnecessarily and I think the demons need to be kept in check, but I also think that if anybody is going to be on top of things, it should be me. In Denver, I was working that angle. Wiping out the demon players who wouldn't work with me, slapping the human ones back into place. Carving out a little kingdom and picking up a little something here and there along the way. Nobody said this business has to be a total non-profit, you know?
Puma doesn't care as long as I serve the greater good. And greater good is a wide, wide field when you look it the right way. Keeping order, keeping civilian casualties down, keep people fat and happy and stupid? That's all good. And doing it by slaying everything you meet and destroying what they have is one way to do that. Another way is to build alliances and put together teams. With myself in charge, of course.
Too bad the Slayers who came to clean up Denver didn't see it that way. I had my nice, neat organization, had the city running like a well-oiled machine. Good money, good times. Always a fight when I was bored and never anybody who came close to knocking me off my throne after the first couple of years. Now one Slayer I could handle. But four? And some half-trained apprentice Watcher? That was too rich even for my blood. I got out before they could work their way up the chain and figure out that I was the one running some things in the supernatural underground.
Things are going to be different here in Vegas. I'm going to work from the ground up. Consolidate my power, get things under control. Make a run at the big boys (and girls) on the scene eventually. Because somebody has to control this town and as long as I make it safe for the mundanes, more or less, why not me?
Powers and Abilities
- Totem Warrior (12)
- Fast Reaction Time (2)
- Hard to Kill (5)
- Acute Hearing (2)
- Regeneration +3 (Per Minute)
- Attractiveness (3)
- Nerd (3)
