Personality: Chloe is quiet and rather shy in large groups, though she can be focused and intense when given something to work on. She's somewhat bookish and thoughtful, often seen with a dreamy or pondering expression. She enjoys the mystery and challenges hunting for legendary or mythical beasts and fossils brings to her. She's intelligent and quick to grasp ideas to knit them together, as well as clues, to prove or disprove her theories. She's cool and somewhat aloof, for the most part, due to her analytical nature. This doesn't mean she's not friendly, only that her mind is usually elsewhere from her body and the people around it. She's practical and still somewhat naive.

History: Chloe was born to a lower middle-class family in rural West Texas. Her father was a truck driver and had been since before she was born, and her mother worked in the school cafeteria. She had one brother who was older than her by 15 years, and a sister younger than her by 2 years. She never really grew up close to her older brother, and she sometimes got along with her younger sister. Her life was never easy, due to her parents' lack of money at times, but her personality was the single most impressive thing about her. Of above average intelligence, Chloe did very well in school, especially in the areas of language arts and science. She was quiet and shy, and had a few Hispanic friends-otherwise, there were few people who dared name her as such.

Children can be cruel, and when she reached the age where she and the others who were her peers could begin making distinctions due to societies classes, she was oftentimes a loner who had friends in all classes yet belonged in none of them. She found solace in her teachers, who adored her for her quiet ways and intelligence, and oftentimes was known as a teacher's pet. She was only friendly, however, and trying to be friends with the only people who seemed open to it.

At the age of 8, one of the "friends" she had, a girl by the name of Victoria, took a more personal interest in Chloe. Chloe didn't know what was actually happening, but it would become the second time in her life that she was molested. It would become a common theme in her life, as if she exuded some scent others could pick up instantly that begged them to sexually or emotionally abuse her in some way.

She had read from an early age thanks to her mother lying with them at night to tell her and her sister stories. Chloe entered first grade (she never went to kindergarten) reading better than the children in her class because of it, and by the time she was in 4th grade she could devour books like "White Fang" in an hour or two. Her favourite series was "The Black Stallion" and any animal books she could find.

In this way, she found out about dinosaurs in school and instantly fell in love with them. She read everything she could on them, and had piles of books and toys that dealt with them. She learned early on what a paleontologist was, and told herself that she would become one.

She began reading fantasy, or continued as the case was thanks to the faerie tales her mother had started her on, and even wrote a few tales herself. She never felt she had the talent to make it a career, however, so only used it as a hobby.

This wasn't to say that Chloe was always happy. Her life continued to get worse the older she got. She moved to a smaller town than the one she had been born in by the age of 12, right before fifth grade. It was a hellish transition that only made her more insecure about herself. She had been taunted for many things out of jealousy over the years, and it continued for her in the new school. She was shunned as the "new kid" and, due to her height, as a freakish girl who was quiet and un-athletic. She had no friends until the 7th grade, when some folks began to give her a chance: mostly those who moved in who received the same treatment. She finally found a close friend through her association with the Girl Scouts named Jennifer.

It didn't make the tormenting stop. She kept her love for dinosaurs even if it became joined by a love of writing and of art. She could do both surpassingly well, and science became an easy subject for her.

She became lonely as time passed, however. She craved the attentions of boys, and they were mostly intimidated by her or by their memories of being intimidated by her. She was tall, and heavy set, and fiercely intelligent. At home, she was quick witted and sharp-tongued, and had a sense of humour that could be quite hilarious. She had learned to hide it all, though, because they would only hurt her for being vulnerable. Jennifer, her best friend, had ditched her for girls with more money by the 9th grade, but she discovered that a homeschooled girl she had been in the Girl Scouts with was in need of a friend.

Laurie and Chloe became inseparable for those four years. They did almost everything together that they could, and Chloe even wrote an entire Star Wars story for Laurie for Christmas. Chloe brought Laurie out of her shell, and in turn Laurie kept Chloe sane.

At home, Chloe went through her growing pains. She took up Wicca as her religion for a time when the school librarian mentioned it to her, being a neo-Pagan herself, and Chloe sought more information on it. Her mother found out and, as a devout Christian, caused a ruckus that had Chloe ready to bolt from home at a moment's notice. She continued to be what she wanted, however. Her father was rarely around since he drove his truck all over the country for the company he worked for, and her sister slowly became someone she didn't want to be around. Her brother screwed up his life and lost custody of his children when she was in the 9th grade and she had to help raise them for well over a year. He and his wife received their custody back to them after that, and they stayed with Chloe's family (again, since it was a prevalent theme) for almost another year before moving out. They would return once Chloe's family was thrown out of their rented house next door to the high school to complicate her life more.

She withdrew within herself severely, taking solace in listening to music and letting her mind drift away into fantasies. She hated her life, and when she was 15 one of her out-of-town friends invited her over. That night, after picking up a couple of guys she knew, Chloe was introduced to making out the hard way. She distanced herself as the younger man kissed her and felt her up a little, then shoved him away when he became too interested in more. She told herself it was a learning experience, but deep inside she was scarred once again.

She was lied to by a friend of hers for 9 months when it came to her first love, and the guy didn't even know she existed. He thought she was stalking him all that time. She learned then how to distrust and how to do things for herself. It would become another prevalent theme in her life, that treachery. It jaded her views on life, and instead of helping her fight back she simply retreated into fantasy more.

She also took up self-mutilation due to her innate suicidal nature, often finding a sharp shard of glass to scratch her left wrist just enough to bleed.

She chose a college with paleontology as a class, and earth science as a major, and flew through her classes. She made the Dean's List all the years she was at the university, and in her senior year she decided to go for her Master's.

She also found the world of the Internet while at college and took to it like a fish out of water. Her minor became computer graphics and she set up a gorgeous website of her own. She met a few men in this way and learned more valuable lessons in trust and distrust, but also slowly learned what it was she wanted in a man and what the reality of it all was.

Through it all, she retained her dreamy state, and her love of dinosaurs, and of magick and faerie tales. The day she wondered about combining all of those was the day she realized there was an actual occupation that did exactly that: cryptozoology. Creatures of legend that some reported to be in existence were what the cryptozoologist hunted, and Chloe wanted in on the action.

She received her Master's degree and went on to claim her PhD. Her field of expertise was in the actual dinosaurs themselves, and she learned the value of hard work after hours in the long hot sun chipping away delicately at skeletons submerged in ancient rock.

She also, in the summer months, did a bit of research with a veteran cryptozoologist and often spent those summer months traveling with him as his assistant in his hunts. She saw quite a few oddities in her time that the members of her university's earth and biological sciences programs scoffed at readily. Once she had received her PhD, she made traveling with the older cryptozoologist a secondary thing next to her paleontology.

She received permission to lead a team into the Ontario region on her 28th birthday to do a few studies. She packed her things and headed north into Canada, putting her base in the large city of Ruby Falls. Her intended area of study was a mile or two outside of the city limits, and she never thought about anything going amiss until she began to listen to the tales the old Native Americans told about the devils in the area. She scoffed, at first, then wondered what the basis for their stories and legends were.

It wasn't until a member of her team disappeared one night as he stayed late at the site to do work that she began to fret, and it increased when the authorities of Ruby Falls did nothing to help her with the case. She found odd scrawlings in some of the caves of the area, and notes began to appear in her apartment and office telling her to beware and to cease digging where she was not meant to dig.

She reported all the incidents to the police, but was told it was probably the Native Americans there and that they would soon stop once they were warned. It was a nice idea, but it never came about. Within a week, Chloe found an odd shaped crystal buried above a cliffside cave and the next day she was served a court order to leave. She hired a lawyer to deal with the case, but it dragged on and on for months. Her team members left the area by necessity and the site was shut down during this time, but she won the case and continued to work.

However, she returned to find the site decimated by vandals or the ones who had warned her not to continue. She was forced to redo every little bit she had won thus far in her dig, but she did so with a stubbornness that bordered on fanaticism. Nobody would best her in this job, and she swore it. She had learned to use a firearm long ago, and often carried one with her. One of the older natives there gave her silver bullets, though he never told her why they would be needed, and cautioned her to only use them if she were attacked by anything she didn't recognize, and even some of the ones she did. She was also told to invest in them rather than regular bullets.

She didn't believe the tales they told of shapeshifters and such, figuring that kind of thing was simply nonsense. She loaded her gun with the silver bullets in amusement, wondering if she'd ever use them and hoping she never had to fire at anything, and carried it with her while she was out at the site. She had pepper spray and mace for the city itself, and she figured that was enough right there.

Yet, at times she could still feel invisible eyes watching her, speculatively almost, and it made her skin crawl.

It made her wonder exactly why the falls were named "Ruby Falls"......and if it had anything at all to do with an actual gemstone rather than the idea of a sea of blood that she had begun to envision instead.

Physical Description: Chloe is about 5'11" and stands taller in heeled shoes. She is heavy set, but voluptuous, and highly attractive. Her hair is a chocolate brown hue that fades into more blondish browns near the tips, which hang past her shoulders in the front and to mid-back in the back, and it's just curly enough to be unruly no matter what is done to it. There is a distinct mahogany tinge to her hair thanks to the red in it, but it's not noticeable unless she's being examined closely. She is curvy, even if she is heavy, and doesn't look as though she weighs as much as she actually does. She's tanned from long days in the sun, and sometimes sunburned, which leaves her skin a bright red. She is freckled due to exposure in the sun that she's done for most of her life, but not terribly so. She wears very little jewelry and doesn't usually dress in anything coming close to a skirt or dress unless it's a formal occasion. She's more interested in comfort than in fashion and always has been. She has very large bones that are sturdy and can take punishments that would leave lesser framed people fractured. Her lips are full without being pouty, and a mauve colour that compliments her skin tone. Her face is usually broken out in acne in some way, a gift from her parents' genes as well as the heat she usually works in, but she has passed the point of caring. Most times. Her teeth aren't perfectly straight as her mother and father never had the money to fix them, but she cares for them well. She keeps herself clean even if her rooms and environments aren't. Her eyes are a medium brown that has a distinct green tinge for a base in the right lights, and in other lights they become amber as a wolf's. They're almond shaped and large, though her eyelids fold over them to vanish. Her brows are thick and dark, and slightly arched at the tops, and her forehead is short. Her chin is rather small thanks to her overbite, and her nose isn't prominent. Her lashes aren't lusciously long, but they're not short either. Her cheekbones are slightly higher than average, as well. The overall shape of her face is that of a broad oval standing on its end that becomes less broad when she loses weight. Her hands are long and long-fingered like an artist, with the nails either talon-like or nubs depending on what she's doing for work. She is strong, overall, and can hike for longer than it looks like she can, as well as carry a great deal more than most would think.