Tamika Weir

Tamika Weir is an OC in the Sinner's Sandwich RP. She's a redheaded midget wanderer that rolled into Greenvale a few weeks before the start of the RP.

General Info
Full Name: Tamika Weir (Born Elisabeth Grace Shepard)

Alias: DJRed

Date of Birth: July 5th, 1984

Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Appearance
Height: 5'0"

Weight: 90lbs

Hair Color: Red (dyed; natural hair color is mud blonde)

Eye Color: Light Grey

Other
Occupation: Companion to Dr. Bradley Karrde Smith

Vehicle: Black 1994 Toyota Celica

License Plate: LUV MUSC

Relationships
Orientation: Straight

Status: In a relationship with Atticus "Atlas" Lasseter

Family


Mother: Anne Shepard (deceased)



Father: Scott Shepard (unknown)



Siblings: Donnie Shepard (unknown)

Friends
Switchblade

Atticus &quot;Atlas&quot; Lasseter

Polly Oxford

Dr. Bradley Karrde Smith

Emily Wyatt

Kevin Ashcroft

Personality
On the outside, Tamika seems like a squirrel on a sugar high. She is always smiling and being friendly to everyone. Many see her as either warm and friendly or hyper and annoying. Yet on the inside she has a sadness from the emotional scars of her past. Tamika is also very paranoid, always believing her past will catch up to her one day. She is a bit analytical, constantly sizing up the people she meets to see whether they will be useful to her or not. Her mask of perkiness fools most, but some may be able to see behind it. Tamika also has an almost obsessive love of music and feels uncomfortable when she doesn't have her mp3 player or at least a radio with her. Due to her past she has an aversion to law enforcement and never trusts anyone in a uniform.

History
Tamika was born Elizabeth Grace Sheppard on July 5, 1984 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her family consisted her mother, Anne Sheppard, who was a moderately well off lawyer, her father Scott Sheppard, a stay at home dad who did some writing in his spare time, and her bookwormish older brother Donnie. They weren't poor and were pretty much normal. That is, until that one clichéd day.

Due to her singing ability, her mother had been taking Elizabeth to singing lessons since she was 7. After one lesson when Elizabeth was 10, her mom had left her purse at the lesson. So they drove back and Elizabeth was left in the car. The entrance to the building was in an alley so the mother entered the alley. She went in the building just fine and came out with her purse. It wasn't till she was in the alley again that the mugger came out. The mugger jumped her and attacked her with a knife. When the mugger finished, Elizabeth's mother was left bleeding heavily in the alley..

Tamika would love to say right now that she immediately saw that her mother had been attacked. She would love to say that she found a phone and called the hospital. And that the doctor patched her up and told her and her family that her mom would be alright. But of course that's not what happened. Elizabeth hadn't even been paying attention to the alley. Bored, she had started watching cars drive by. To add to this, she had turned on the car radio so she could listen to music while she waited. While her mother bleed out, she listened to "Streets of Philadelphia".

Her father took that loss of her mother especially hard. He stopped writing and started drinking. He was always angry and wanted someone to blame for his wife's death. He knew the mugger was out of his reach so he settled for the next best thing. He would always yell at Elizabeth and treat her like dirt. She was more his slave than his daughter. Elizabeth did all the chores and was beaten whenever she tried to sing to lift her spirits. For the next 5 years, she coped. She did as she was told and kept her head down. Though it was hard sometimes, to the point where she attempted suicide once by slitting her wrists with shards from one of her dad's beer bottles. Luckily or unluckily, Donnie discovered what she had done and quickly patched her up. Music soon became her salvation for the tough parts of her life. Whenever she began to consider suicide, she would take a radio and sneak out of the house. After listening to a few songs, she normally felt alright enough to face life again. This practice stayed with her for the rest of her life. Then the effects of her father's drinking and lack of working came crashing down on them. They went broke and were evicted from their house. If it hadn't been for Donnie, they would have ended out on the streets. Donnie got a job and created a strict budget, leaving them with enough money to live in a cheap apartment. Things were looking up again as her older brother brought in cash. Then her dad came up with his own idea to save money. Not a single penny was to be spent on her. "She can eat in the dumpsters with the rest of the trash!" were her father's exact words on the matter. Her attempts to persuade him to change his mind only earned her a beating and a couple scars.

Elizabeth tried to get a job first, but few people wanted to hire her. She had no previous experience in pretty much everything and her dad was getting a reputation as a drunk. Whenever Elizabeth was lucky enough to find someone willing to hire her, her dad always sabotaged her work and beat her for trying to get a job. Whenever she complained or stated that his punishing her made no sense, he beat her even more. Left with no other choice, Elizabeth turned to stealing to get food and money. She was caught a few times and her dad beat severely every time she was caught. But she eventually became good enough at stealing that getting caught was not her largest concern. That became the street gangs that did not appreciate her stealing in their territory. For the most part, she was able to avoid them, though she did have to fight them off on occasion. Well, more like half fighting and half running for her life. These normally left her with more scars than her dad's beatings. He was usually smart enough to use just his fist, only using a beer bottle when either really drunk or really angry. The gangs, on the other hand, almost always had knives. Besides her occasional encounters with the law and street gangs and her dad, life wasn't too miserable. She even got a little frivolous one day and got an eagle tattoo on her back (her dad beat her for that of course). You can probably already guess what's going to happen next.

It was 7:53 p.m. on March 5, 2001. Elizabeth was on her way back home after stealing a bag of chips and a Coke from a food vendor. She was crossing an intersection when she saw a lump under a street light. Elizabeth went over to examine it and see if it was anything valuable. Once she got closer, she was terrified. It was a dead body of a man dressed in a suit, dead from several knife wounds to the chest. A switchblade lay next to him, covered in blood as well as an empty suitcase. She would later discover that he was a quite wealthy business owner, but at the time she was oblivious to this fact. Deciding that she would probably need any valuables on him more than he would, she checked him for a wallet. Unfortunately for her, the man's wallet had already been taken and he didn't have much of any real value on him. Elizabeth then grabbed the switchblade, thinking that maybe she could use it for something and was about to leave when she heard a scream. She turned around to see a rather shocked looking woman in her mid 30s - early 40s pulling out her cellphone to call the police. Elizabeth than ran. She knew that everyone would believe she killed the man. Her fingerprints were all over the body and she had a reputation as a thief and troublemaker. The police would be after her soon enough, not to mention that her dad would kill her (most likely literally) when he found out. She decided her only course of action would be to flee Philadelphia and hope to get away. She snuck back home, stuffed her few possessions in the trunk of her dad's black 1994 Toyota Celica, and drove off. She had no real plan, but just knew that she needed to run.

Whether by divine providence, luck, or some other force, Elizabeth manage to evade the police and make it to Chicago, Illinois. This is not to say it wasn't difficult. There were many close calls, to the point where the stress was starting to make her hair fall out. Yet even though she had lost the police, she was not out of the woods yet. She was in a big city with no plan, little money, a stolen car, and a name that might still be recognized as that of a thief and murderer. Elizabeth knew she could trust anyone legal to help her, so she decided to try and find a criminal. After doing some digging, a bit of bribing, and some threatening she finally got in contact with one of the minor crime bosses. Negotiation was difficult, but she finally got him to agree to help her change her identity in exchange for working for them for a year. The work was difficult and failure at anything was not an option. Most of the work was theft though sometimes they had her do other jobs. Some were bearable, others less so. When her year of servitude was finally over, they did hold up their end of the deal. Her new identity was Tamika Weir, an orphan whose parents had been murdered. With this, she thought that she and the mob would go their separate ways. Of course they had gotten used to her service and did not want to let her go. Once again she was forced to flee a city, though this time from the other side of the law.

Tamika spent a little over a year traveling and doing odd jobs where she could find them. Nowhere ever felt right. That and she had trouble keeping jobs. It wasn't that she was lazy or didn't do the work. It was just that whenever she got a job, she would be able to keep it for a few weeks, then something would go wrong and force her to move on. Sometimes it was lack of funds to keep her hired; other times the business wouldn't need her for long. Once the owner of a store that hired died in a car accident. Turning to crime to pay the bills sometimes tempted her. But every time she would refuse to do so. Tamika swore off crime after leaving Chicago and would live the new life she had received, though it came from criminals, legal. Then her fortune changed when she rolled into Spokane, Washington.

Tamika had always considered music to be her salvation. This had never been truer than the first time she tuned into 103.9 KYWL and heard that there was going to be an opening for a midnight DJ. She immediately sent in her resume and was shocked and overjoyed when she was accepted. The next three years were the happiest of her life. She even got a vanity license plate to reflect her happiness. That and it looked nicer than WT7 0M3. Being a DJ taught her how to be perky at all time and that people tend to be nicer to a person with a smile than a frown. Sadly, her bad luck found her again and tough times began to hit the station. After a while they had to fire her to conserve funds. Tamika understood, but was heartbroken to have to leave. She tried to find other work in Spokane, but no one else wanted to hire her. So she left once again, deciding to travel to a small town called Greenvale and try to find a job there.

Current Story
Tamika's story began in the Milk Barn, where she had originally gone to buy some ramen. Instead, she met the owner of the Great Deer Yard Hotel, Polly Oxford. After chatting with the older woman for a bit, Polly offered Tamika a job at the Great Deer Yard. Tamika accepted and then left the Milk Barn.

After leaving the Milk Barn, Tamika got a bit lost and found herself at the Albireo Graveyard. While at the Graveyard, she encountered Charlotte, Atlas, and a rather antisocial man who Tamika dubbed Raincloud. After these people left, Tamika explored the graveyard, discovering the red tree grove in the back. She then chose to knock on the door of an old shack in the graveyard. After discovering that the shack was empty, Tamika explored a little bit more and discovered the graves of Angeline and Joseph Tillotson. Tamika then was about to leave the graveyard, when she was approached by Brian the Insomniac. She spoke with him for a bit and then left the graveyard.

Tamika then found herself hopelessly lost for a while, until she finally found her way to the SWERY 65. The dark had begun to make her rather nervous and she was despearate to escape it, even though it meant going into a bar, one of the few places she normally refuses to go in. While in the bar, she actually managed to relax a little by playing pool with Atlas, Charlotte, and a cop named Emily. After eveyone else left, the nervousness Tamika felt returned in full force, and she ended up sitting in the corner of the bar until it closed and she was forced to leave. On her way back to her car, she encountered shadows for the first time. Tamika managed to fend them off and make it back to her car, which she then drove to the hotel.

Once she arrove at the hotel, she discovered that the shadows were there as well. Tamika fought them for a while, until she arrived in the hotel with only several bruises and a nasty scrape from when she got clipped with a shotgun pellet.

The next morning, Tamika was tired from lack of sleep. Yet, she still tried to help Polly with the ridiculous number of people that came for breakfast. Once she was finished helping Polly, she sat down and ate breakfast with Atlas, Forest Kaysen, and Kaysen's dog Willie. During the breakfast, Tamika had a strange daydream, where she was in a red forest and a song (Gravedigger by Dave Matthews) was playing in the air. This daydream caused Tamika to realize that Brian was dead and may be related to the shadows.

After breakfast, Tamika headed to the graveyard, where she questioned Brian about the shadows. The questions appeared to bother him, but he managed to tell her that there was a massacre in Greenvale. This massacre was caused by one man and the deceased in this massacre became shadows. Done with her questioning, Tamika left Brian, telling him that she would come see him again.

Later, Tamika got lost again. This time, she found herself in the forest that surrounded Greenvale. While driving down a dark road, she thought she saw smoke and decided to investigate. While investigating the smoke, found FBI Special Agent Francis York Morgan, who was surrounded by about thirty shadows. Tamika then threw debris at the shadows and distracted them from the injured agent. Once she had the shadow's attention, she fled into the woods where she mangaged to lose them by hiding in a hollow tree and holding her breath. Tamika then left the tree and tried to leave the forest, when she was stopped by Agent Morgan. He demanded that she took him to a hospital and she did so, though she was quite pissed at him for immediately deciding that she was a convict of some sort.

At the hospital, Tamika went to go calm herself down after an irrtating car ride by sitting in the bathroom. This sadly failed when Emily rushed into the bathroom and hit Tamika with the door. Tamika then decided to try and sit in the loby instead, yet this didn't work since Agent Morgan decided then was a good time to pass out. Tamika then left a concerned Emily with Agent Morgan and searched the hospital. Instead of finding a doctor, she found Atlas, who was in the hospital for a shotgun wound in the left shoulder. Atlas used the call button he had to get her a doctor and she led the doctor to the loby to help Agent Morgan. When she returned to the loby, she ended up running directly into the back of Sheriff George Woodman. Being embarrased by this, she left the loby and returned to Atlas's hospital room. While there, Atlas explained that he recieved his injury from the same shadows she had seen the night before. After telling Atlas all she knew about the shadows, Atlas offered to work with Tamika to find out about these shadows. Though she was skeptical of the capabilities of an injured lawyer, she accepted his offer.

Atlas and Tamika then meet up the next day outside the gates of Harry Stewart's mansion. After being admited inside, Atlas and Tamika meet Mr. Stewart's unusual servant Micheal Tillotson. Tamika then made the sorry mistake of asking Micheal about Angeline Tillotson, and Atlas and Tamika left a rather traumatized Micheal to continue on into the mansion. Inside the mansion, Tamika and Atlas were forced to solve a chess based puzzle before they were allowed to see Mr. Stewart. Tamika and Atlas were less than brilliant at this, but they eventually managed to get through and entered a dining room where Mr. Stewart was waiting. Unfortunately for Tamika, Micheal was also present at this breakfast, and was quite obvious in his disdain for Tamika. Tamika started nervous, but then eventually this was replaced by irritation for Micheal's obvious threats and disdain and Mr. Stewat's evasion of their question. Eventually, her temper got the better of her, and she ended the breakfast on a rather sour note. While leaving the mansion, Micheal confronted Tamika on her questioning and Tamika explained how she knew the name Angeline Tillotson. Unfortunately, she also told him that if he needed to kill someone, he should kill her and not Atlas. This comment unintentionally traumatized the servant even more.

After the breakfast fiasco, Tamika headed back to the Great Deer Yard Hotel, where she met Kevin Ashcroft, a rather pervy blue haied newcomer to Greenvale. Once she managed to leave the hotel loby, she tried to sleep in her room for a bit, yet sadly failed. So she instead went out for lunch at the A&G Diner. At the diner, she met Dr. Bradley Karrde Smith, who offered her the job of basically babysitting him with a pay of $500 a week. Tamika of course accepted and told Brad about the shadows in Greenvale. To her surprise, Brad believed her and seemed rather enthusiastic about the shadows. Brad then asked to meet her and her partner Atlas later. So Tamika then sent Atlas an email telling him to meet her and Brad at the SWERY 65 later that evening (in which she made a rather unfortunate mispelling).

Trivia

 * Tamika was named after an undead general from the game Heroes of Might and Magic 3, which her mun played a lot as a child
 * Tamika's parents' picture are of Anna Torv (Fringe) and Richard Hammond (Top Gear) respectively
 * Tamika's brother is named after her mun's older brother