character.

 

Full Name: Grayson Charles Whiteley

Date of Birth and Age: November 11th 1839, 28

Sexual Preference: Heterosexual

Ethnic Background: English, Irish

Occupation: Shelby Bank Owner, inherited the position from his father Elliott Whiteley

Current Residence: His father's house that sits on the edge of town with his Sister Lila and his brother-in-law Arthur Evans.

 

Appearance: Standing five feet ten inches tall, with an average build, Grayson doesn't particularly stand out amongst a crowd until he opens his mouth.  The man has a very deep calming voice that tends to reverberate throughout the room and catches people's attention.  He is fully aware of this and a lot of the time speaks softer, even if it means repeating himself several times to avoid having people stare at him. 

 

He has curly brown hair that he wears short, and gray eyes that his momma named him after peeking out from under a pair of bushy eyebrows.  His nose, rather long and pointed, he received from his grandfather.  He has a small scar on his chin from when he fell from his horse once, landing face down in a pile of rocks.  He luckily on managed to only need a few stitches to his face, and the scar remained from when he was younger.  Grayson's smile is probably his strangest feature.  It's one of the most unnatural smiles one might ever see.  It's only when he's out and out laughing does his face relax enough for his true natural smile to come through.  There are probably few people who have seen this.

 

Not many people would call Grayson handsome, he's also fully aware of this.  His looks have always been sort of a bone of contention with him, not that he's a vain man.  More so that he wishes he was more rugged, rather then the clean cut presentable man that he is.  Being in the banking business has forced him to make sure he's always proper in appearance, as it's been ingrained in him by his daddy that first impressions are the lasting ones.  He tries to look his best on a daily basis.  Grayson is mostly found in suits, neutral colored button downs, pressed to the crease by his house keeper and tailored to fit him perfectly.  He's often seen wearing a Derby, as he never quite understood the appeal of a cow boy hat. 

PB: Casey Affleck

 

Personality: Grayson though often awkward is always very polite. His manners are very important to him and he puts a lot in to first impressions for himself.  He's very obliging with strangers and friend's alike and takes the time to make sure people are comfortable around him, no matter what it takes.  He's also the type to be very impulsive when he's able to and would love to be more of an act now think later type.  When he does manage to do this, it sometimes backfires on him and he wonders why he didn't plan more.

 

From birth, Grayson has always been a fidgety person.  He can't seem to ever stay still for long, and will often move things around on his desk just to keep him occupied when working.  As fidgety as he is, he's also very meticulous, his father always making sure that things were perfectly defined and organized, passed this trait on to his son.  Dutiful and efficient in anything he attempts, Grayson seems to have the magic touch when it comes to his work.  Not that work is everything to him, but he understands if he wants to keep himself in the life he's grown accustomed to, he needs to put in long hours and a lot of hard work.  He does consider himself to be lucky though and he does worry that one day his luck will run out.  He's very superstitious.

 

Ambitious with most things in his life, Grayson's greatest want is to be settled down with a family, as he finds himself to be rather lonely.  His constant need to seek out companionship has made him turn to the brothel to find solace.  He has found one particular girl, Clara Sörensen to be his favorite, and will often pay for her company handsomely, especially if she's booked with other clients for the evening.  Sometimes, he requests her company for no more then tea.  He would never admit to it, but he's rather taken with his certain young lady and has foolish romantic fantasies of 'saving' her from her life at the whore house and making her in to a suitable companion.  Of course, that would never do, but he speaks of it sometimes.  His weakness for her is obvious, and he will do and pay about anything for her whims.

 

Grayson has little use for people who are dishonest.  His business at the bank has always been honest and he dislikes liars.  He's not particularly fond of some of the people his father got in to bed with for dealings at the Bank, and has slowly managed to weed most of them out over the year he's been in charge, except for a select few that have proved to be a little harder to be rid of.  Generally a laid back type person, Grayson can and will loose his temper over things he thinks are unjust and seeing people who don't deserve it, being treated unfairly. He also has no use for guns, does not own one and can't shoot one to literally save his life.

 

Special Skills/Weapons Used: Besides being a whiz with numbers, Grayson is pretty average at most things.  He's an avid horse rider and so he's fairly good at that as well.  The man can also carry a pretty good tune, but tends not to, as it just draws more attention to himself then wanted.

 

Weaknesses: Grayson has a big weakness for good cigars, well bred horses, gambling, and pretty women.  Though he's been warned that his father died because of his smoking habits, Grayson still tends to enjoy cigars on occasion.  His family grew up around horses and has always had them, even going so far as to have a stable built on his property.  He will pay a pretty penny for a good thoroughbred.  Though proven to be a good handler of money, the man can't seem to keep himself from putting down some of his own cash here and there when he's off at the saloon having himself a good time.  As for pretty women, he pays them the utmost respect, tipping the saloon girls well and and his favorite woman at the brothel, Clara Sörensen.  To summarize, he's not all that careful with his health and he tends to be a bit loose with his money clip.

 

Grayson's also partially deaf in his right ear, and is surprisingly subconscious about it.  He'll often situate himself on the right of people so he can hear them better in his left ear.  Never being one to agree without hearing the specifics, he becomes easily embarrassed if he has to ask people to to repeat themselves. He's had this ailment from childhood. He also has weakness in his right arm and hand, his at one time prominent hand, from the same fall that gave him the scar on his chin.  He broke his arm in three places, and subsequently didn't have it heal properly.  It doesn't get in the way of most things, but he's had to learn to be ambidextrous because of it, as his hand does eventually give out after long amounts of work.

 

Family.

 

Deceased Or Otherwise Out Of Contact:

Father: Elliott Whiteley (Deceased, illness)

Mother: Cara Whiteley (Nee: Walsh) (Deceased, accidental death)

Shannon Gordon (Nee Whiteley) = Gregory Gordon

Children: Eileen (3), Maisey (6), Kathrine (10) Douglas (12),  Mable (14) and Stanley (17)

 

In Contact:

Sister: Lila Evans (Nee Whiteley) = Arthur Evans

Children: n/a

 

Grayson Charles was born to his parents, Elliott Whiteley a self made entrepreneur and his house wife Cara Whiteley as the youngest, but last child to their small family.  Tragedy would strike the family early on when Cara Whitely was caught in a gun fight in their hometown.  She had been in town shopping when she was walking by the local saloon that evening, and had a stray bullet catch her in the chest.  She bled out on the street by herself, not being found until later that night when it was far too late.  They found later after the doctor examined her that she was with child.  Grayson was three when this happened, and his father was devastated.  They laid their mama to rest in Oregon and continued on with their lives. 

 

Elliott had always had black folk as servants and he was uncharacteristically for the times, kind to them.  He hired a black woman to nanny his children when his wife died, and Grayson and his older sisters were raised by a woman who they called Fola.  They all grew up adoring the woman as if she was their own kin and treated her just as such.  Mr. Whiteley was frowned upon for doing this, many said that he treated those black folk with too much kindness, that he'd find them betraying him at any moment, but still Elliot had kept on.  His wife had always insisted on being nice to everybody, and that when one had wealth, they were obligated to pass on their good fortune, and who was Elliott to sully those good morals and beliefs?

 

Growing up Grayson was close to his sisters, though there was a an age gap of five years between he and the next oldest Lila and seven years between him and his oldest sister Shannon, the girls made sure to take care of their little brother best they could.  As they got older, Elliott decided to move his family from where they were.  Over time, he'd had some bad deals go down and now while living in Oregon, had an almost bad reputation about him.  Deciding to go South in the summer of 1850, when Grayson was eleven, the family packed up, saying farewell to their history and headed towards California.  They settled in to Santa Barbra, where they set up their new home.  Shannon, who was now eighteen, found herself a nice man, and the two were wed no more then six months after the family had moved.  Shannon who was keen to start in on a family began having children right away.

 

Lila who was sixteen at the time, decided to put off finding herself a sweetheart and spent more time nurturing her younger brother.  Grayson flourished under the attention and the two were constantly found together under the watchful eyes of Fola who had been paid handsomely to come with th Whitely family in their travels.  They all had a special kinship.  Elliott seemed to have better luck in Santa Barbra and their family continued to prosper.  When Grayson was seventeen in 1856, his father took him to work at the bank.  Grayson understood everything he was taught almost immedately.  He seemed to have a natural gift for business and this pleased his father greatly.  The two worked together for the next five years without incident. 

 

Lila in this time would meet a nice gentleman by the name of Arthur and was married to him after a long three years of courtship.  She accepted happily and the two were wed with a happy Grayson looking on.  Grayson's father in this urged his son to find himself a good woman to get married to, to settle down with and have children.  Grayson, though always on the look out, never seemed to meet anybody who sparked his interest enough to marry.  While Elliot considered himself to be a progressive man, disapproved of Grayson's ways, as he felt that the boy should have met at least one girl that made him want to move on with his life.  He didn't agree in forcing his children in to marriage but he wanted to see his son happy.

 

Lila and Arthur tried since marriage to get pregnant and nothing that they did seemed to work.  Jealous of her older sister who by this time, already had four of her own, became depressed.  She desperately wanted children and neither she nor Arthur knew what to do.  Elliot sent Lila away to the best doctors to figure out what was wrong, and they found that she was going to be unable to have children.  That it was hopeless for them to continue to try.  Devastated, Lila returned and began on a downward spiral.  Arthur, the kind man that he was stayed with Lila even when she on more then one occasion pulled her daddy's gun on him and told him to go. Rumors began to spread and Grayson worried that the pressure on the family would eventually break them apart. Elliot sensing that his family needed a change and started to research places that the family could move.  Shannon wanted to stay in Santa Barbra though and so when Elliot figured out where they wanted to go, she remained with her husband.

New Shelby seemed perfect. 

 

Gathering up his family and his assets Elliot moved them all to this freshly populated town in 1864.  The set themselves up with some property building themselves a nice house with enough room for the members of their family.  Lila seemed to get better too, now that she was amongst a bunch of new people.  She at least seemed to, opting to stay home though, rather then to find herself a job.  Arthur began working for his father in-law at the bank.  Problem was that somebody had beat Elliot out to the banking business and was currently planning on setting up shop.  Elliot who never backed down from a fight, attempted to persuade the man to give up the idea, but he refused.  Angry, he went to the brothel (as he was an avid customer back at one in Santa Barbra) to relieve some tension and met Donnie Dooger.  Making a rather quick decision, he asked if Donnie ever did any 'for hire' work.  Donnie agreed and they quickly worked out an 'don't ask don't tell' arrangement of how to deal with Elliot's 'problem'. 

 

Elliot's problem disappeared as planned and he was able to open up New Shelby Trust, the first bank of the new city.  Elliot who had never been a clean business man kept Donnie on his pay roll for the next few years, paying him a fair share to keep him quiet about the original deal and to do any more tidying up that Elliot saw fit. It made for a convenient little arrangement and Elliot never felt that there was any reason to worry so long as Donnie was paid.

 

The Whiteley family lived happily together until one day a year and a half ago, when Elliot took ill.  He was bedridden almost immedately and not too long after passed away.  Prepared for this the family had a small ceremony and laid him to rest together.  He continues to live with his sister and brother in law in the house that was left to them along with Fola who was now considered to be part of their family.   She still works for them though now as cook and a maid.  Grayson took over the business after that.  He managed to learn the ropes of his father's job pretty quickly and everybody complimented him on the things he put in to place for his employees.  He managed to sort out any sort of ambiguity with accounts and he stopped some things he thought were unsavory within the business.  He did an honest business, even if he knew Elliot didn't.   His father had not told him, however, about the deals with Donnie Dooger and where that extra cash was delivered monthly.

 

 

in game history.

May 7, 1867, Noon - Grayson is just about to close up when he gets a customer named Tiger Eyes, that wants service now.  Grayson being the good owner that he is opens back up for her. - [Incomplete]

May 11, 1867, 4pm - Grayson is invited out by Helene to lunch.  They settle on a walk instead. - [Incomplete]

May 12th, Late Afternoon - Grayson runs in to his secret love, Clara Sörensen in town.  The two decide to shop and some secret flirting is shared. - [Incompelte]