Ellen Harvelle

*The Mama Bear of Hunters*

* Overview
* Sheet
* Background
* Logs

 You mind your tongue with me, boy.

— Ellen Harvelle

Ellen is a 'former' hunter who runs a saloon called Harvelle's Roadhouse. It's a stop for many a hunter looking for a job or for information, and just a good old fashioned place to get trashed and maybe have the occasional barfight to blow off some steam, though Ellen's known to keep a shotgun loaded with rocksalt beneath the bar if anyone gets too rowdy.

## Personality

Ellen is a strong woman with a very dry sense of humor. She projects a tough exterior, but her interior... is even tougher. Why fake it when the real deal is so awesome? She has a maternal streak a mile wide, and a lot of love to give, though she tends to keep most people from getting too close, for fear of losing someone else important to her. Jo is her life, and she tries too hard to protect her, which results in a lot of tension between them when all Ellen wants is what (she sees) is best for Jo.

## SKILLS

Ellen graduated high school before she began hunting in her second semester of college. She has broad, general information beyond the world of bartending and hunting, but she knows how the government works and that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.

While most of her clients are rough and tumble hunters who wouldn't know a mimosa from a Bloody Mary, Ellen is an amazing bartender. If she doesn't know a recipe, she knows how to find it, and can make almost any drink someone wants without having to look it up. Plus, she's a great listener, one part friend, one part momma bear, and knows when to just listen and when to kick someone's ass into doing something.

Ellen was a Hunter in her youth, and has kept the skills up, in part to stay fit and in part because when one runs a bar for Hunters, occasionally the things that are hunted decide to hunt back. While not the best fighter in the world, Ellen knows how to participate in a bare knuckle bar room blitz and use weapons, including swords, knives, crossbows and guns.

Ellen wasn't the brains of her hunting operation. She's not stupid, in the slightest, but her husband and the network of Hunters they worked with did most of the investigative work, meaning Ellen was frequently the brawn, rather than the brains. She can work it out with a bit of time and effort, but she's no Ash or Sam.

When all the chips are down, all the cards are on the table, and various other metaphors for things looking bleak, Ellen survives. She is strong and resiliant and willing to do whatever it takes to keep going and keep fighting, so long as she has her daughter in her life.

## ADVANTAGES

The Roadhouse is full of weapons and hunter accessories. From the baseball bat and shotgun stored under the bar and other firearms hidden throughout the place, to the iron horse shoes and lines of salt at every door and window, the place is ready to weather an assault from most supernatural forces, and arm those inside appropriately. Notably, the mirror behind the bar swings around to reveal a stash of firearms that would do most Sovereign Citizen types proud.

Whether it's Jo and Ash, Bobby, Dean and Sam, or any of a dozen other hunters Ellen knows, she's got someone who knows someone who can help with something. Ellen has friends in low places, and most of her patrons are like extended family to her, people she would fight for, and who would fight for her.

An old gas station turned saloon turned hunter hangout, Harvelle's Roadhouse is a place one can go to get information on just about anything related to the supernatural world, if you know who and how to ask. Owned by Ellen and run by Ellen and her daughter, Joanna Beth, the Roadhouse has a few back rooms where the family lives and certain guests can stay, a kitchen for prepping simple bar food and family meals, and both private and public restrooms.

## WEAKNESSES

It's a pain growing old, sometimes literally. While Ellen is still fit, strong and agile, she knows there will someday come a time where her youthful vitality starts to fade and those odd aches and pains she wakes up with will turn into serious problems in a fight with something supernatural. This weighs heavily on her mind, and is part of the reason she's so hard on Jo, wanting her daughter to be able to fend for herself if anything should happen.

Ellen has never gotten over the loss of her husband. Despite being surrounded by many good, if damaged men, Ellen hasn't taken up with anyone since her husband's death. It's caused her to hold many people at arm's length, especially the men in her life. She just simply can't handle losing someone she loved as much as Bill again.

Joanna Beth Harvelle is Ellen's world. After her husband's death, Ellen became incredibly protective of Jo. This strains their relationship at times, but at the end of the day, Ellen would do anything it took to save her daughter from harm. Anything.

While Jo is her only child, Ellen is very maternal, while still being a bit gruff, and will defend her extended family, made by choice rather than blood, however it requires. This behavior means a demonic entity pretending to be a child or a young person in need of aid would be able to get inside her defenses, because Ellen wants to help and defend the helpless.

## Section 1

Ellen Harvelle was born in Beacon Hills California in 1973. Her parents divorced when she was fairly young, scandal of the town, and she lived with her mother, learning how to be a proper young lady... while also learning how to fire a gun and chop wood on the weekends with her dad. Eventually, she graduated high school and moved to a small college town, where she lived on campus in the dorms.

That was where she met Beth Ferris, her roommate and best friend. The two quickly became friends, then became more like sisters, enjoying a bit of party life here and there, but for the most part just being good students. A trip to Beth's home introduced her to Beth's older brother, William Anthony 'Bill' Ferris. It didn't start out love at first sight, at least not for Ellen. A bit brash and mouthy, she found Bill's quiet shyness a bit offputting, but still, he /was/ cute.

## Section 2

It wasn't until Beth's strange disappearance and the subsequent discovery of her body that Ellen and Bill became close. Putting their heads together, they managed to track down Beth's killer and avenge her death, killing the shapeshifter that had assumed her form for its own ends before taking on Bill's shape and murdering his parents. Now wanted for murder and presumed dead, Ellen and Bill left the state, traveling the country together for years and surviving as hunters and doing odd jobs. Eventually, the pair fell in love. In 1996, Ellen, then 23, became pregnant. She hid this from Bill for the first few months of the pregnancy, not wanting to slow him down.

It all came out when a routine exorcism threw Ellen across the room, causing Ellen to fear a miscarriage. For a time, the pair settled in Beacon Hills with their pregnancy, so as to be close to Ellen's parents. When they wed, Bill took Ellen's name so that no trace of his past would be readily found, since this was an age before computers and easy database searches.

## Section 3

Now officially The Harvelles, Bill and Ellen bought an old gas station out in the scrub brush about an hour north of Beacon Hills, and, through elbow grease and determination, refurbished it into a rest stop for weary, thirsty travelers. There, the two became three, with Ellen giving birth to Joanna Beth, just Jo for short. Still, it didn't take long for the need to hunt to overtale Bill again, and as he traveled, hunters began finding their way back to the Roadhouse, swiftly becoming the primary patrons. Jo grew as all children do, and Ellen held down the fort as best she could, becoming friends with various hunters, forming a sort of extended family for herself, Bill and Jo. Still, it never felt like home to her, unless Bill was there. In time, she came to see the good work that could be accomplished by hunters having a safe place to rest their heads and swap stories without fear, and Ellen became fiercely protective of her home and extended family.

All that came crashing down when John Winchester came to her with his hat in his hands, unable to look her in the eye. She didn't scream. She didn't cry. She grabbed a gun and threatened to kill John if he ever darkened her door again, a threat that she meant, at that time. Since then, she's raised Jo as best she can, held most hunters at arms' length for her own sanity, and run the Roadhouse, simply because she knows how important to the world it can be.

Logs featuring Ellen Harvelle:

*Coming soon!*