May Winter

> *"Oh, that's hilarious. In a sad sort of way. How have you not noticed yet?!"*
>
>

**May Allison Winter**is a local photographer in the town of Valewood and one of the protagonists of Valewood Tales who now works at the Agency. She is level-headed and guarded, keeping herself to herself. May lives just outside Pines Close with her cat.

## History

May was born in the early 1990s. She owns a house and a cat, although she rents the former. She owns at least one polaroid camera for some reason, despite the fact that she also owns a smartphone.

May and Elizabeth have known each other since their shared attendance at the Greater Valewood Girls' Upper School, when May accidentally set fire to Elizabeth's backpack. They have been good friends ever since. May also became infamous as the girl who successfully picked the lock on the staff room, for reasons unknown.

Before joining the Agency, she attempted to make money by selling pictures of her cat Henrik on the internet, a scheme which did not produce as much money as she claims she was told. A Halloween tradition of hers has been playing video games with Elizabeth instead of going trick-or-treating, which has survived well into adulthood.

## In Valewood

### **The Mystery of Darkstone Manor**

The arrival of Andrew Wheatley ignites her suspicions and with the help of Elizabeth, she confronts him - believing that he is a burglar. Having cleared up the misunderstanding, Andrew asks them about the mystery of his grandfather - and the large and labyrinthine Darkstone Manor, which he appears to have investigated once. Upon arriving, Andrew and Elizabeth depart to investigate the basement; leaving May to be confronted by the mansion's owner, Moe Frankfort, about the true nature of her visit. Following the others into the catacombs, they encounter a strange chamber and a stranger man, Reloovian researcher Darwin Archimedes. After an accident with some of his technology, the gang are attacked by the Securobot, which May destroys with a large and sturdy pipe. She then denies Moe's request to hang out again sometime, and leaves for the night after Elizabeth uses the Memorb to clear up a misunderstanding with local law enforcement.

### **The Self-Made Men**

After following the others for the next few days to investigate what they're up to, Andrew offers her a job with his new business - which she accepts.

### **The Reingard Runes**

A few days later, she is seen in Valewood Town Square along with other disgruntled townsfolk, who are complaining about the mysterious appearance of some runes all over the town. She meets up with Elizabeth, and they are briefly accosted by Jean Reingard - May ignores him. After Andrew gets everyone together for the case of the runes, May joins Elizabeth and Darwin in searching for the runes, a task which is complicated by the presence of strange blue sparks generated by her hands while they look for the Toaster Gun in the attic. Darwin quickly hooks her up to one of his inventions, which they use to track down the source of the runes - and it turns out to be closer than expected. Entering the museum, she is attacked by Jen Holders, the museum curator, who explains that she and Reingard are plotting to drain her of her latent powers of sorcery. Reingard arrives and also attacks May. A battle ensues, and May defeats Reingard, who flees the scene with his Artrakanian Staff.

### **Darwintervention**

May helps Elizabeth look for some help with the monster sightings in Valewood. However, once Moe refuses to pay for Darwin's convention ticket, she decides to do some investigating of her own and the next day summons Andrew and Elizabeth into the Agency parlour to show them a slideshow she has created called *The Mystery of Moe*. May and Elizabeth convince Andrew to go and ask Moe himself, after he is increasingly frustrated by Moe's behaviour. An argument ensues, but Andrew and Moe are distracted by the return of Darwin and Nate Grant, as they venture into Burns Realty. May and Elizabeth join them in following the two into the estate agency, where they stumble upon an attempted murder committed by a possessed Nate, interfering at the last second with May's lightning abilities. Elizabeth defends Andrew from Monothiel's dangerous fury by throwing a book at him, and then joins the other detectives in attempting to subdue Nate. Darwin is able to subdue him by commandeering a book of occult belonging to Monothiel and performing an impromptu exorcism. The old man escapes before he can be confronted again by Nate.

### **The Wrong Ghost**

Spending the evening at Glass Cottage playing video games with Elizabeth and Andrew, May joins Elizabeth to go and check out Moe and Nate's Halloween decoration efforts at the Agency. She reveals to them that Valewood doesn't celebrate Halloween, which leads to Moe throwing a party that will inspire the townsfolk. Eventually however, nobody shows up except two suspicious ghost hunters. May and Moe discover their true identity and Elizabeth works with Nate to fight them as they turn out to be alien invaders, and they are eventually defeated by the explosion of a second moon curse.

## Appearance

May is quite tall and slim. Her hair is cyan and long, past shoulder-length. She sometimes wears a fancy grey coat and cream-coloured trousers with dark grey shoes, and seemingly usually a vest while sleeping. On another occasion she has been seen to wear a reddish-brown jacket over a dark grey t-shirt, with a red skirt and large black boots. A similar outfit has her sporting a cream-coloured shirt instead of a t-shirt.

## Abilities

May has magically-enhanced electrical abilities which are triggered by the appearance of the runes. She causes a lightbulb to emit sparks while in the attic and this is used by Darwin to help search for the runes' source. Jen Holders later explains that this is a result of magical ancestry, as May's great-great grandmother seems to have been a powerful sorceress.

She can blast lightning from her hands and in especially exceptional circumstances, has the ability to create a powerful electrical shockwave. However, using her abilities appears to temporarily exhaust her.

## Personality

May appears outwardly apathetic and aggressive, but is otherwise quite invested in the mystery of Douglas Wheatley. She takes steps to investigate a suspected burglar and attempts to confront him herself. She is admittedly impressed by the nature of the secret room underneath the mansion - but is just as suspicious of its inhabitant Darwin Archimedes as the others. She is reluctant to hang out with Moe Frankfort, although this is not a wholly unreasonable desire.

When confronting Andrew about the secret behind his business, she expresses an interest in participating in what she suspects is a money-laundering scheme - an endeavour which suggests that May has something of an amoral side to her. This is supported by her attempt to profit from what she initially suspects is Moe's death at the hands of the Securobot.

May also claims to enjoy the show *Gunion*.

## Trivia

* Her Twitter profile picture is apparently a cat holding a knife.
* May has an uncanny ability to appear from nowhere, including hanging upside-down from a newly-installed business sign.
* On multiple occasions, she has claimed to attempt problem-solving by sending her cat Henrik after said problems.