Role, If Any: Archaeologist
Name: Dr. Mary Blackburn
Age: 29
Gender: Female
Appearance: Absolutely tiny at barely 5'2", which only seems to exaggerate her already curvaceous frame. She manages to keep trim largely due to winter activities - skiing, snowboarding, winter hiking and camping, along with the occasional hunting. Summer and the heat that goes with it is when Dr. Blackburn prefers to either work on archaeological endeavors or laze about, playing video games or researching indoors.
Personality: Has a very relaxed attitude most of the time, almost to the point of perceived laziness. She has been quoted at one point of saying that she "puts great effort into enabling [her] laziness." At the university she even plays this up on the first day of class as a trap, before switching to a much more no-nonsense one on the second day where she teaches in an almost STEM-like manner, but with a much more forgiving mindset towards (most) students. Has a tendency to get absorbed in research, only to go off on a tangent and research something completely different and only marginally related. Doesn't usually tolerate unprofessional behavior when in class or actively working on the worksite, but calls anyone who wears a jacket at temperatures over 45 degrees Fahrenheit a sissy and drinks cider, maple whiskey and beer like water. Yells at people on the streets of Washington while honking her horn like a New Yorker, she claims she can get away with it firstly because she is from Vermont, secondly because she is a good driver, and thirdly because Washingtonian drivers truly are of Homo Habilis levels of intelligence.
Fears: Fears head injury to an almost excessive degree. Anywhere a head injury is a likely occurrence, Dr. Blackburn will wear her helmet with the Air Force style eye shield, complete with stickers in red and gold 'identifying' her as 'Centurion 01'. If she has to go anywhere that may require camouflage, she wears a green Brodie helmet. She also has a fear of deep water, for this reason she avoids swimming in water too deep to see the bottom of.
Hobbies: Dr. Blackburn is an avid alpine skiier and is skilled at many other forms of winter sports, all of which she enjoys. She occasionally dabbles in reenacting, though she rarely has the time for it. She plays video games but not to anything close to a competitive level, not out of lack of skill but again, lack of time, and because playing them often ends up just giving her more ideas of things to research.
Skills: She is a decent shot with most simpler firearms (most notably muskets) and is capable of getting a firing solution with black powder artillery almost all on her own. One of the better drivers among the staff, and one of the youngest adults in America to actually know how to drive a stickshift. A skilled equestrian, though she is long since out of practice - this is partly due to some of her research involves 'research via reenacting', so obviously she'd need some skills like the Romans would have. A fine chef, though she tends to overuse maple. Speaks English, Latin, Greek, and French, though her French is distinctly Canadian in nature.
Weaknesses: A subpar diver, who struggles in currents any serious diver would consider manageable. Thinks she knows modern Greek better than she actually does. Thinks she knows how to use modern firearms better than she does. Tends to ignore world politics as she considers it both depressing and largely irrelevant to her field until the point when it interferes directly with her research, at which point she gets pissy.
Birthplace: Woodstock, Vermont
Nationality: American
Ethnicity: English
Political Views: After spending much of her childhood largely following along her parent's political whims (up until they settled deeper into Communism), she spent much of her life drifting among political views, before settling on something vaguely resembling a fusion of classical liberalism and monarchism - suppose if Thomas Jefferson was more tolerant of kings. She is still, however, incredibly liberal on many social matters.
Sexuality: Pansexual
Religion: Debatably Episcopalian Christian
Professor or Grad Student: Professor
Faculty Advisor, if Student:Education: - Bachelors in Classical Civilization, Yale University (first two at University of Vermont)
- (Left uncompleted) Masters in Early Modern European History, Yale University
- Masters in Archaeological Studies, Yale University
- Doctorate in Anthropology (focusing on Imperial Rome), Yale University
Biography: "My childhood was interesting to say the least - my parents, despite being avowed hippies and socialists [most of the time], were both almost excessively wealthy. My father, David Blackburn, is a neurosurgeon of some renown who had ended up graduating Harvard at some point with a degree somehow, which was impressive considering he spent much of the 60s and into the 70s baked out of his mind. Mom is a biochemist, ironically putting chemicals in the same foods she likely protested against when young. Though at least she doesn't work for Monsanto, and her work involves creating safer pesticides, not sterile wheat."
"They literally lived on a dairy commune, at least until I was old enough for eleventh grade since none of the other adults had the credentials to get me past that level without state education. Which the commune didn't have. While there, my parents (and sometimes me as well) tried just about every alternative lifestyle legal under Vermont law, and some that probably weren't, but those they didn't involve me in. Occasionally we would take long trips overseas - the mountains of Europe and Peru, the great wide plains of Kenya and Kazakhstan, and the deserts of Australia and India. Christmas was either spent with the commune or with my grandparents, depending on my father's mood - mom's were both dead by the time I was born, and dad's were both conservative even by non-hippie standards. Grandad taught me to shoot and relegated stories of Korea and the early days of Vietnam to me."
"I remember the year before we officially left it, they both took a year-long 'retirement' to go traveling around the Mediterranean, taking me with them. I think it was then that I fell in love with Rome, staring up at the ancient splendor of the Coliseum, completely ignoring my mother going on and on on the phone about how it was the most purified example of all that was wrong with the Roman government. The experimenting with alternative lifestyles mostly stopped after that, as it was clear to my parents that most of them hadn't stuck - apart from my only eating (mostly) organic food, nudism, and wanderlust. Like my mother, I don't care much about GMOs, so long as they aren't Monsanto. Oh, and cannabis, but I never have and never will show up to work baked. My scheduling is too good for that."
"Afterwards, we moved from the commune to Lexington, Massachusetts, as dad got a job at Mass General - he made it very clear he had no intention of subjecting me or Mother to the horrors of Bostonian life. From what Lexington was like, and from the brief experience of
Homo massanus I got from riding the MTA to and from Bruins, Celics, and Red Sox games, I can't help but agree with his opinion. Sports and history are the only reasons I go back to Massachusetts at all - it is where my alma mater is, and where I first got interested in the era of the musket which is my second favorite historical period."
"We had enough money that I didn't have to live on campus at Vermont or at Yale, but I did anyway when I was at Vermont, and the first year at Yale - my dorm floor being invaded by a screeching sorority in my second year finally convinced me to move out, which did wonders for my levels of privacy and how well my studying went, may I add. I did some experimenting of my own with relationships; at one point I was in a five-person polyamourous relationship that fell apart when one of the two men transferred out to Miami (the one in Ohio) to be closer to his parents. Not long after, both of my grandparents died within a week of each other. I got a good chunk of money to ease the burden on my parents and myself for paying for Yale, as well as most of their furniture. Apparently Grandad still didn't trust Dad after accidentally destroying a pecan cabinet while moving it when he was fourteen. Either that or it was when he joined the American Communist Party for almost a year and a half after we moved to Lexington. It was the start of my 'collection' one might say, of old furniture. I don't know, I've always felt furniture with a history works best for me."
"By the time I was nearly done with my thesis, I was already set on at least starting work as a professor; get a few research papers out while working for one university or another before I aimed for the big leagues - the Ivys. Not Yale though. I'll root for them during the Game and in football and all, but campus politics had left me all Yaled out, especially when I ended up with several of the most hardassed professors in Connecticut. I already had a few digs in Spain, Italy, and Croatia under my belt by then, so I was confident I could at least get my foot in the door at a state college somewhere, hopefully somewhere warm for a good part of the year. I prepared to quit my managerial position at the bookstore/cafe I had called my place of employment for all but a few weeks of my time in New Haven."
"Imagine my shock when Georgetown, of all places, accepted. Even I hadn't seriously considered having a chance ending up here, but I was more than willing to accept. I moved to a lovely colonial out on the coast of Maryland less than an hour from campus, and I've been one of the archaeology professors here ever since."