Coleman Wellstone

Player:  David Wall

Email:  wall@amt.tay1.dec.com

Age: 35

Character:  Coleman Wellstone

Age:  52

Nature:  Human

Apearance:  5'8", 150 lbs., long black hair going grey, green eyes, has the tan of someone who once spent a great deal of time out in the sun. He's got a long, thin black mustache. Is always dressed in a fashion that might be described as Distressed Army Surplus, and is never without his army fatigue jacket and dog tags. Coleman talks a lot, has a fairly significant stutter, and his conversation can take some odd turns, even from a Sanctuary point of view. He has the barest trace of an accent indicating he learned his English someplace in the Deep South, but you have to listen hard for it.

History:  Coleman drives a vintage Land Rover (the kind you used to see in safari movies). It is not an attractive vehicle. Aside from its drab desert paint, its only decorations are hand lettered signs on the doors saying "Cole's Cab" over the cellular phone number, along with big yellow smiley faces. There's a sign in the cab that reads:

City Limits: $1.00

Greater Sanctuary: $2.00

Anyplace Else: $3.00 + gas

People often think that's some kind of joke, but that's the real pricing policy.

Personality:  One's first impression of Coleman is that the sixties were very, very good to him. One's next impression is that it might have been a bad idea to get in this less-than-pristine Land Rover, because the guy driving it appears to be nuts, or at least a little freaked out. He seems to have a very long-running conversation going with someone who isn't there. However, Coleman is an EXCELLENT driver, courteous and helpful, and is known among the Sanctuary community as someone you can trust to run your package out to Federal Express for you, bring your grandmother to see the doctor, pick up your Chinese take-out, or any other sort of driving odd job.

Coleman, for all intents and purposes, lives in his Land Rover. He has a post office box to get mail which he checks every day at noon. Sometimes he goes to the post office and leaves a fare waiting in the Land Rover, but given his prices, no one objects. When the Maine weather turns too nasty to be safely spending all one's time in a car, even a Land Rover, Coleman parks out at the airport to ride it out.

Abilities:  Coleman is a little bit nuts. His experiences in Vietnam left him permanently scarred. That notwithstanding, he seems to have found his niche. His Land Rover is haunted by the spirit of a coachman who once served the Witherspoon family. The spirit is never visible (even Coleman can't see it) and its abilities appear to be limited to keeping the Land Rover intact and running smoothly and giving Coleman advice. Coleman calls the spirit Jeeves; its name when it was among the living is Alexander Hope.

This allows Coleman to operate the most economical cab service on the Eastern Seaboard. Coleman's Land Rover doesn't have a meter. He charges a dollar to go anywhere in the Sanctuary city limits, two dollars to go anyplace in the Greater Sanctuary area, and three dollars plus gas to go anywhere else the Land Rover will go. Anywhere. He'll drive you to Boston. He'll drive you to L.A. He'll drive you to Tierra del Fuego if you've got the time and the gas money. He takes tips if they're offered, and bids every fare goodbye with "Thanks very much! Hope you'll ride with me again!"

He's on call seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty days a year. Every Memorial Day Weekend Coleman takes five days off to drive down to Washington D.C. and visit The Wall. His life has been made easier by the coming of the cellular phone; he used to have to operate out of his shed on the edge of Elysian Fields and depend on the airport staff to take messages. He has a display ad in the local Yellow Pages, featuring a picture of his Land Rover and a smiley face.

History:  Coleman no longer remembers a whole lot about who he was before or where he comes from. He gets little flashes, but it'd be tough going piecing a background together from them. For him, history begins in the Vietnam War, and he doesn't even seem to remember a whole lot about that. In a long, lucid moment he can tell you that he was that rarest of rare birds, a POW who escaped. The Army has him listed as missing in action, and with the passing of his parents, no one was around to mourn him. The subject of POWs is Coleman's only hot button. Sometimes he's sure there are still some back there, sometimes he thinks everyone who's ever going to come home has made it.

Coleman, despite his somewhat erratic outward persona, is a nice person whose fundamental principle is Live And Let Live. He has no prejudices on race, creed, or supernaturality. To him, anyone with a buck deserves a ride if they want one. The local power structures in Sanctuary have made it clear that Coleman is a harmless, useful mortal who is not to be messed with. Coleman is unaware of this benevolence. He often knows things going on in the area because people find him strangely easy to talk to. After all, they're not even sure he can follow what they're saying sometimes.

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