Kate Juhasz

[Salic]

Name: Kate Juhasz
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: 12th
School: Southwest Red Rock High School
Hobbies and Interests: Paleontology, herpetology, Magic: The Gathering, 4X and RTS games, TTRPGs, reading

Appearance: Kate stands at an above average height of 5'7" and weighs 130 pounds, giving her a somewhat slim physique. She is Caucasian and is primarily of Hungarian, Slovak, and Croatian descent. Her skin is fairly pale and tends to burn in the sun, so she applies sunscreen whenever she's outdoors for long periods of time. She has mild acne, primarily on her forehead, though she takes meticulous care of her skin and cleans it every night to reduce it. Her hair is a warm brown color, and it would reach her hips if she wore it loose. However, she usually wears it in a large, loose bun whenever she's at school.

Kate's face is oval-shaped, with a thin forehead, jaw, and wide cheekbones. Her chin is cleft and narrow. Her eyes are dark brown in coloration and almond-shaped, and are capped by rather thick eyebrows that have no discernible arch. She has a Roman nose that ends in a point. Her mouth is narrow and her lips are thin, though they're always pulled up in a friendly smile. Her top teeth are perfectly straight and pearly white, though her bottom front teeth have some overlap and are yellower in coloration. She has small ears with attached earlobes, and they like close to her head. She likes to paint her nails in bright colors, and has recently been painting them turquoise. She possesses no jewelry or piercings of any kind.

Kate's voice is on the deeper end of the mezzo-soprano range. It is rich and has a natural power behind it; she rarely needs to project or raise her voice in order to be heard. She is particularly proud of her voice, and will rarely, if ever, speak in a higher pitch. On the contrary, she used to try to speak in a lower pitch, but she realized that it hurt her throat, so she stopped trying.

Her fashion sense reflects her love of summer; Kate's wardrobe is full of airy, breathable clothing with bright and vibrant colors. She is also fond of large hats which she will usually wear outside of school. On the day of the abduction, Kate was wearing a knee-length, bright blue and white sundress with a chevron pattern and white sandals. She wore her hair loose and also donned a white, floppy, wide-brimmed sunhat.

Biography: Kate Juhasz was born on January 25, 2007 in Long Beach, California to Paul Juhasz and Evelyn Horvath. She is their only child. The two of them had met while working for the local news station, and had been together for eleven years before having Kate. However, their relationship was already strained by the time Kate was born, and they ended up getting a divorce before she was a year old. Evelyn acquired sole custody over Kate and Paul got visitation rights. While Paul stayed in Long Beach, Evelyn moved to San Diego to be closer to her parents, David and Dorothy Horvath, who offered to take care of their grandchild while Evelyn was working.

Kate spent the first five years of her life in San Diego. Her mother found work as a freelance editor for several local TV stations, though this meant long shifts and commutes for irregular hours. Because of this, Kate spent much of her time under her grandparents' care. It was at her grandparents' apartment that she dove into reading; David and Dorothy had a large collection of books, and Kate's innate curiosity made her want to know what was happening in them. Her family immediately took notice and tried to foster a love of books. Evelyn, David, and Dorothy would often read to her during the day and before bed, and Paul usually took her to the public library when he visited. During one of these visits, Kate wandered over to the prehistory section of the library and picked up a book on dinosaurs. She was instantly fascinated by them, and every time she went to the library afterwards, she would get more and more books about in an attempt to learn more about them. This kickstarted her love of dinosaurs and paleontology, a hobby which has lasted her entire life.

During these five years in San Diego, Evelyn was using online dating services. About a two years after the divorce, she began a long-distance relationship with Martin Warner, a maintenance foreman for a truck shop in Las Vegas, Nevada. When the two of them met for the first time, they hit it off right away and had a great first date. A few months into the relationship, Evelyn introduced Martin to Kate. Evelyn, who was exhausted from working long, late hours and having two-hour-plus commutes, expressed interest in leaving California. A few months after Kate's fifth birthday, she and Evelyn moved in with Martin in his home in the Meadowbrook neighborhood in Las Vegas.

The move was tough on Kate, who missed seeing her grandparents. The move did, however, allow Evelyn to spend much more time with her, and Paul still visited whenever he could. Martin, who had no children of his own, did his best to fill in as a father figure. The beginning of school proved to be a welcome distraction for Kate, who wholeheartedly threw herself into her coursework. She proved to be a good learner and scored straight A's, something she would achieve consistently throughout her early schooling. Kate was well-behaved and naturally sociable, traits which helped her gain friends and earn praise from teachers. Her friend group was never particularly large, but it was close and it brought her the happiness that she was missing without her grandparents around.

In third grade, Kate's science teacher had a bearded dragon for a class pet. She immediately connected it to dinosaurs, and after the class interacted with it a few times, she went to her parents and asked for a bearded dragon. Martin and Evelyn considered her request, and came to the conclusion that a bearded dragon was cheap and low-maintenance enough to make a good starter pet. Evelyn had found work as an editor at the local news station and was unable to take Kate to the pet store; Martin, however, was able to make the time and helped Kate pick out her new pet. This was an important bonding moment between Kate and her stepfather, and the first time they had really connected on a personal level. Martin would help her take care of her bearded dragon and would buy her books about reptiles; this helped further their bond and fueled Kate's interest in herpetology.

When Kate was nine, her parents introduced her to video games by buying her a Nintendo 3DS with a few dinosaur-related games. Kate would often lose herself playing her 3DS for hours, to the point where Evelyn set up a strict one-hour screentime limit for her during school nights. She was able to easily immerse herself in video games, which led her to ask her mom about the kinds of video games that she played. Evelyn had been playing the Civilization series of games since the beginning of the series and would often play them on her off time on the living room computer. She talked about Civilization to Kate, who would often watch her play and ask her questions about it. Although she was a bit young to understand everything that was going on, she kept learning more and more about it from her mother. As she got older, she became very good at Civilization, and it was her gateway to and favorite game of the 4X genre.

Kate's middle school years were more tumultuous than her early years. She was used to coasting through school with minimal effort and never properly learned how to study. As school became more difficult and intensive, Kate felt herself falling behind in her grades and thought she was unable to catch up. The onset of the pandemic did not help, as she had great difficulty adjusting to virtual learning and losing access to her friends only made her feel worse. This culminated in her almost failing a few classes, which shocked her parents. They successfully coaxed Kate into opening up about why this had happened; when they learned it was because she couldn't study properly, they started training Kate to study while they had time to spare. This lasted for several months until schools were reopened, and it helped Kate get through eighth grade; her grades were much better than in seventh grade, and she came close to getting the straight A's she used to in her early years.

Returning to school lifted a huge weight off Kate's shoulders, and she immediately starting mingling with her friends again. In addition to this, she began trying to get new friends and embed herself into new friend groups, as she wanted to expand from her circle of smart kids and interact with new people. While she did make a few new friends, she failed to integrate herself into any new social circles. It did, however, boost her reputation throughout Red Rock, and she became a more recognizable face on campus because of it.

During one of Paul's visits in the summer, he inadvertently sparked her interest in tabletop RPG games. He had been playing Dungeons and Dragons since 2nd Edition, and he occasionally talked about his characters with Kate. She was always interested in hearing them, and the concept of roleplaying was one that she really invested herself in. As she had turned 14 a few months beforehand, Paul decided she was old enough to play, and he bought her an introductory campaign to 5th Edition along with the player's handbook. He helped her make a character and then ran a one-shot for her, which she greatly enjoyed. She began to build her own characters in her spare time, though she tended to focus more on character optimization rather than making her characters' stats and skills fit in with their backstories.

It was around this time that both Martin and Evelyn earned raises. The extra funding allowed them to take a few days off and get a hotel room in San Diego so that they could visit Kate's grandparents. It was the first time that Kate had been back to San Diego in ten years. It was also the first time she had seen her grandparents since the pandemic, as they were too old to drive themselves to Las Vegas like they'd been doing for years. She loved the trip and enjoyed spending time with her grandparents. It was during this trip that Kate realized she wanted to live on the coast. She enjoyed spending time on the beach and resolved that she wanted to have access to it whenever she wanted.

Kate passed eleventh grade with straight A's, much to the delight of her parents. It was the first time that she'd had straight A's since fifth grade, and to express their pride, they got her a gaming laptop as a gift. Kate was ecstatic, and she immediately used some of her birthday money to buy Civilization VI. She also decided to branch out of 4X games, and picked up the real-time strategy game Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. She had been recommended videos about it while watching her favorite Civilization YouTubers, and was interested enough in what she saw to give it a try. She quickly grew to love it, and she enjoyed the pressure of thinking on the fly and making quick adjustments to her strategies when they weren't working. She's even joined the AoE2: DE competitive sphere, although she's fairly average, with her ELO consistently hovering between the 950-1000 range.

Kate earned her restricted driver's license in October of 2024, and her parents took her car shopping. She ended up picking out a black 2018 Nissan Rogue. With access to a car, she began driving herself everywhere, including to the local hobby shop so that she could play TTRPG campaigns more consistently. However, the hobby shop she frequented the most also ran casual and competitive Magic: The Gathering games, and despite not knowing anything, she wanted to join in and make friends. She purchased a Commander deck on a whim, and has been playing Magic every Thursday night since. She quickly took to the game, and she managed to get third place in her first MTG Commander tournament. However, she doesn't care for competitive Magic and its complicated combo plays and prefers the slower and more relaxed pace of casual Magic.

As of the second semester of senior year, Kate is maintaining straight A's and is earnestly hoping to achieve the title of valedictorian. She has quite a few friends in Red Rock's more nerdy and intellectual circles, and a fairly good reputation even outside of them. She's known for being a friendly and cheerful face around campus who's always willing to chat, especially about dinosaurs. Kate knows she's going to attend college, and despite her desire to leave Las Vegas and live on the West Coast, she's planning on attending an in-state college for cheaper tuition. Her parents have also expressed their willingness to let her live at home without paying rent, which Kate believes is an offer that's too good to pass up. She doesn't know what she's going to major in, but she thinks that she'll have time to figure out what she wants to do while she takes her general courses.

Advantages: Kate is a very friendly and sociable person, so she'll be able to make allies quickly and be able to mediate conflicts. She is a deeply determined person and is good at focusing energy to complete tasks quickly and efficiently.
Disadvantages: Kate has practically no musculature to speak of, as she does not perform many physical activities. Her endurance is also severely lacking. Since Kate is trusting and optimistic, other students could take advantage of and deceive her.