Anjali Bainbridge

Name/Nicknames: Anjali Bainbridge / Angie, Angel

Alias: Anjali Summers (adopted family name)

Ethnicity: Nepalese and English (though raised American)

Species: Human

Pronouns:  She/her/hers

Age: 28 

Date of Birth:  September 17th, 1968

Place of Birth: Unknown, adoption paperwork says Chengdu, China.

Occupation: Various bartending and cooking gigs at dive bars (former), Hunter (apparently)

Education: High School Diploma

Significant Relations: Adoptive parents and their one biological child as her younger brother in Thousand Oaks; A whole family tree she had no idea about in the Bainbridge’s, missing and/or deceased biological parents, and her one link to her Hunter family stationed with Aegis in Chicago, her “cousin” Samuel Bainbridge.

Appearance: At 5’7”, Anjali barely stands out from the sun-kissed crowds in her native California. Her hair stays long, various shades of dark brown to blonde depending on how she feels, and her brown eyes stand in cool contrast to her otherwise warm appearance. She dresses to match her more carefree lifestyle, sneakers or boots, worn jeans, baggy t-shirts, and the ever versatile range of zip-up hoodies and leather jackets. More so the latter when she’s not home in Cali.

Personality: You can take the girl out of Cali, but you can’t take the Cali out of the girl. She has just enough work ethic to survive long shifts pouring drinks or making greasy food on a grill, then it’s off to the beach, or to cruise with her hair in the wind, or catch a concert by that next, big up and coming band eager to make it in LA. Not that she doesn’t love her cozy little family life, but Angie has always felt like she didn’t quite fit in any one place, so she’s constantly driven to look for that new thing, that new experience that will finally reveal to her what she’s really meant for. Until she found out and then she immediately shifted to trying to see any alternative; same old tactics, different problem. Though her limitless curiosity has proven useful as she learns about her apparently destined bloodline and family history, and at least she now knows where her penchant for courting trouble comes from.

Strengths: Before meeting the hellhound, she would have said her strengths were her winning personality, customer interaction skills, and ability to learn music by ear and play it back on a guitar. Now, there’s something else there too.

Along with Smoky came some noticeable physiological strengths; Increased strength, better reflexes, and more stamina (though that may just be all the physical training).

Weaknesses: Personally, Anjali has always been averse to the idea of responsibility. This, coupled with her being thrown into the deep end on the whole supernatural thing, has made for a volatile person in her position. On one hand, she likes to consider herself brave and willing to learn about new things, an open and accepting person. On the other, she’s woefully underprepared for the duties that her new found family apparently expects of her and generally either hesitates when things get truly hairy or does the opposite to prove herself and acts recklessly.

The woman herself aside, being a Hunter comes with a lot of stigma and general untrustworthiness in the supernatural world. Just by being a Bainbridge, there are those out there that consider her kill-on-sight that she’s not even aware of in her day-to-day dealings. Aegis has done a decent job trying to give her the basics to defend herself, but even they can only do so much.

Other Skills, Hobbies, and Interests: Anjali is a wizard, but only behind a bar. She’s a pretty decent cook, especially if she’s allowed to grill or fry something, plays guitar, and seems to have a knack for trends in certain scenes like casual fashion and music. While she wouldn’t say she’s good at it, she seems to have good sense in a fight too; weapons, using her environment, and remembering lessons in a pinch. Though this, she would argue, is probably Smoky’s doing, not part of her natural talents.

Living Situation: 211 Ashwood Circle, Room 3, messy but habitable.

History: The Anjali that grew up in Thousand Oaks, just outside Los Angeles proper, could never imagine the life she’d find out about later. She knew she was adopted, but her parents loved her unconditionally, all the more so when her brother came along. The Summers were honest, kind folks, and they bestowed upon both of their children a love of life, learning, and always seeking personal growth. Even when she asked about her birth parents, where she was from, opened up about her feelings of not-quite-belonging, they gave her all the answers a kid wants to hear in that situation; she was their daughter, she was a Summers, and she was from Thousand Oaks, no matter what the poorly translated slip of paper written mostly in Cantonese said.

And she had no reason to believe they knew any more, and so she let that answer be a balm. For a time. But those restless feelings came back. She loved her home in Cali, but something inside always told her there was something… else. Something more. But restless teens suffering an identity crisis were a dime a dozen in her life, so she thought little of it outside of her own, personal quest to discover who Anjali Summers really was. She graduated, even pulling a B average despite her lifestyle, and there began the great journey to find herself.

But great as the Summers family was, financial responsibility wasn’t really a part of that, and that rubbed off on their children too. So, rather than backpacking in Europe or heading to Chengdu to struggle through language barriers to find who she really was, Angie had to settle for traveling the southwest in her beater old convertible and living check to check off odd jobs tending or cooking in bars and diners. Sometimes, a place might distract her for longer, with a good staff, good customers, or a cute fling, but for the most part, she never stayed in one place for more than a few months at a time.

If one asked her, she couldn’t really tell them the moment everything started to happen. It wasn’t a specific date, not a time, or one, big dramatic event in one central location. It was… a feeling. She was in San Francisco, failing her way through learning to cook in an authentic Chinese restaurant, working on her patchy Cantonese. But she felt as if she was being watched. Even in seedier parts of the city, she wasn’t one to be anxious usually, thriving in urban environments. Then there was the dog, a good-sized, well-fed looking Belgian Shepherd she seemed to bond with over the remnants of Peking Duck she hadn’t quite gotten up to standard for the owner. And then the man. Something familiar about him, though she didn’t know any one by the name Bainbridge.

Sam was the crescendo of her growing paranoia, and the scene was funny to her, in hindsight. The dog, gnawing on some barely reheated leftover chicken, her apologizing profusely, and Sam unravelling everything she thought she’d known about herself while holding a frozen pork chop in the package against the welt she’d left on his head with a frying pan when he’d tried to “invite himself in” to her cheap little apartment. There was a roller coaster of emotions involved with all of it, one she’ll still swear she’s on sometimes; shock and disbelief, confusion, anger, excitement, eagerness, elation, dread. And it took some time to get past the first few there. Days, weeks…

Time blurred, even for the wandering Cali girl so used to switching things up constantly. Sam worked for an organization, she worked for that organization (drawn by her own curiosity and want to test out this legacy he’d told her about), the dog was hers, and not just a dog, but a Barghest (that also took some time to digest). And for every answer she got, she had ten more questions to ask. Chief among them though was the fate of her biological parents. Her father had been a Hunter, it was his blood she had to thank for all of this, her mother his… love? Tryst? A woman from Nepal that had likely given her her name. Anjali. Sacrifice. That stirred up some uneasy feelings on its own, but not like she had the woman there to ask for context, so she tried not to dwell on it. And then them aside, who was she meant to be? One of these Hunters? What did that entail? Was she responsible for her family’s continued bloodline? What about extended family like Sam, her cousin? And what the hell was she going to tell her parents in Thousand Oaks next she saw them?

These are the sorts of questions that keep Angie’s brain warm when she’s freezing in the middle of a Chicago winter (or fall and spring too. How do these people survive!?). Wanting to learn to do some good, take up the mantle she’s been offered, Anjali leapt into Aegis feet first. And though she still finds adaptation to all of this supernatural stuff difficult at times, she still lives by her old family values, and tries to make the best of each new experience to grow as a person. And now, as a Hunter.

Model: Dichen Lachman

Anything Else: Smoky the Barghest! From North English folklore, a Barghest is said to be an omen of death. In reality, this is more likely an error in understanding cause and effect, as a Barghest rarely reveals itself except to those it hunts. But supernatural origins aside, he’s a good, loyal companion otherwise, and has probably saved her ass more times than she knows. He appears as a Belgian Shepherd (Groenendael) on the larger end for the breed. Fun fact: If one looks at him in their periphery, his coat seems to subtly shift like swirling smoke.

Smoky’s strengths and weaknesses are based around light, or the lack thereof. His supernatural abilities thrive in shadows, and especially at night, making him stronger, faster, more durable, improving his senses and ability to hunt his chosen prey, and even letting him seemingly move freely through shadows with such stealth that it might appear as teleportation. In contrast, while sunlight doesn’t hurt him, he’s much more akin to a normal dog of his size during the day, or when particularly bright lights are focused on him at night, losing most if not all of that supernatural prowess. Though he’s still a healthy, good-sized dog trained for combat, so squirrels beware. In addition to this reliance on darkness, like a good number of other supernatural creatures, he’s susceptible to cold iron, even in total darkness when he’s at his strongest.

Timeline:
1968 - Born somewhere!
1970 - Adopted by the Summers’, an American couple doing humanitarian work abroad.
1986 - Graduates high school and sets out on her own.
1994a - In San Francisco, meets Smoky and Sam. Finds out her true identity.
1994b - Joins the Aegis Network to learn more about the Bainbridge Family, Hunters, and the supernatural world in general. First settles in at the office in San Francisco
1996 - At Sam’s behest, to be closer to the American side of the Bainbridge family and continue her training, they move to Chicago and the Row. She is not prepared for a real winter.

Player: Phoebe