Role: Receptionist & Gatekeeper, FDG Main Facility (London Substation)
Background:
Maureen Blake has manned the front desk of the Institute longer than some operatives have been alive. She remembers names, badge numbers, and who owes her a lighter. She also remembers the day in 1991 when, as a child, she wandered into a seaside maze at a travelling fairground and never found the exit—until a masked figure took her hand and walked her out.
The next week, she returned to the fairground with her father. The maze was gone. Not dismantled—gone. No one remembered it. She never speaks of it.
Years later, fresh out of admin school and looking for temp work, she accepted a job at an organisation she’d never heard of. On her first day, someone handed her a heavy key ring and said, “Welcome back.” She never left.
Skills:
- Deep institutional memory; knows where every door leads and which ones should stay locked
- Keeps meticulous logs of comings and goings, often cross-referencing names with “gut feelings”
- Skilled in bureaucratic obfuscation when needed—especially for operatives returning from the field “wrong”
- Maintains access control with subtle ritual fluency; knows when to salt a doorway or wedge it open with iron
Her desk drawer contains an unmarked personnel file from 1991, several broken name badges, and a perfectly polished pair of iron scissors.
Personality:
Tough, unsentimental, and deadpan to the point of terrifying. Maureen knows every trick, every excuse, and every operative’s real clearance level. Chain-smokes between calls and brews tea that’s said to dispel mild enchantments. While she rarely shows affection, her protection is absolute. If she tells you not to open a door—you don’t.
Motive:
To keep the Institute running and its people safe—especially from the things that come in smiling. Whatever led her out of the maze as a child left a mark. She intends to make sure no one walks back in by mistake.
Faylinn Defence Group 