Delores Downing
Delores Downing (a.k.a. Lori)
Delores is a janitor in Stark Industries when James first joins the team. He finds her very observant and requests her assistance in tracking people and information in SI. After Fred Duncan and Tony Stark verify he's legit, she helps him understand, not only SI, but the life of people living paycheck to paycheck. James meets her son William Downing and the child looks up to James.
When Tony takes his "vacation" from SI, her boss, Kyle, does nothing to protect her and her coworkers from the decrease in pay from full time to part time or the decrease in hours. She is friends with Mary at work, whose boss is better. She also has a coworker named Janice whom James helps.
During this down time, she completes information searches for James for money. She researched DADT(Tony changed to SSOO ), laws surrounding unions, local unions, who ran each local bar, liquor store and gym, how to hire an employee.
James introduced Delores to Ivan Vanko when the man came from Russia. She helped introduce him tot he streets side of living in NYC, mostly the bars to go to. The pair were in a sexual relationship, but no romantic monogamy was promised. Ivan also was there for Will when Delores went to visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Memorial day in 1994.
Delores is one of the people who help James integrate withthe barhopping crowd and is there as he rediscovers singing. She is a foil for Jack in James's life among ordinary folk, calling out Jack's society normative behavior that needs to change or as hyper masculine/privileged. Both provide foil to TOny's influence on James.
In 1997, a group of people discover that Will is the son of Logan and kidnap him. When Will comes home the previous night from a friend's home, he is quiet. THe next morning he demonstrated his amazing healing abilities. Delores calls James and requests his come by to tlak after school with Will. Before she could ask, the doorbell rings an dWill answers it. Delores is shot trying to prevent the men from kidnapping her son. She tells James her history with Wills father and some of her own. James realizes Logan is Will's father and they speak on it. They find teh group when they go after a fellow Winter Soldier who is also Logan's son( Akihiro ). That fight draw attention. They rescue the kidnapped people and James is reminded that he wasn't the only Winter soldier (set up for finding Roger Aubrey ). Delores learns her parenting partner didn't die overseas and asks what he plans to do about having a child.
Delores coparents with Logan. One summer her father dies and while Will is visiting Logan with the X-Men she goes to her hometown and sells everything, taking with her only that which reminded her of her mother.
Will eventually becomes close friends with Erik Stevens whom Delores will practically adopt and try to protect from an abusive foster situation. The pair of boys go into the military together.
WHen Shuri reaches out to Erik to reconnect with her lost cousin, Delores helps him reconcile his hatred for his Uncle (T'Chaka ) and his desire for family. She tells him of her own history and how Will and Delores are his family, no matter what.
Delores never marries and never wants a romantic relationship. Instead, as her son goes into the Seals with Erik, she continues working at SI, loyal to Tony and James no matter what.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Delores was born in 1969 to her parents in a small town in Virginia. Her father ran a local store (maybe hardware, maybe general?). He was physically abusive to her mother until Delroes was 16.
2 weeks before her 16th birthday, Delores's mother killed herself, making it look like an accident. Her father almost immediately started hitting Delores. BY the time of the funeral, the day before her birthday, Delores had a broken arm and realized the entire town was just going to let what happened to her mother, happen to her. On her birthday, she skipped school. While her father was at work, she gathered her things into a pack her mother had from her teen years, collected a box of her mothers and some food and change of clothes and set out for the nearby train station. She bought tickets to New York, determined to never look back. She'd been in New York for less than two days when a gang of men cornered her in an alley, wanting to rape her. Logan showed up and beat the crap out of them. He took her home and set her in a hot tub, clothed and coaxed her into life again. She lived with Logan(called Bill) for over a year, non-sexually. He foudn her a job as a waitress. In 1987, Logan was called by Nick Fury back tot he battlefield. Delroes reuqested one night where he took her virginity so that she'd have a good memory of the first time before he left. She found out two months later that she was pregnant with his child. WHen she tried to find him, she learned his name was too common to search and that the landlady knew him by a different name. She gave birth to Will in 1987. Having lost her job as a waitress during the pregnancy, she was in trouble. Howard Stark found her and offered her a job at SI. She took it and named her son after him since he was present for the birth (accidentally)
2 weeks before her 16th birthday, Delores's mother killed herself, making it look like an accident. Her father almost immediately started hitting Delores. BY the time of the funeral, the day before her birthday, Delores had a broken arm and realized the entire town was just going to let what happened to her mother, happen to her. On her birthday, she skipped school. While her father was at work, she gathered her things into a pack her mother had from her teen years, collected a box of her mothers and some food and change of clothes and set out for the nearby train station. She bought tickets to New York, determined to never look back. She'd been in New York for less than two days when a gang of men cornered her in an alley, wanting to rape her. Logan showed up and beat the crap out of them. He took her home and set her in a hot tub, clothed and coaxed her into life again. She lived with Logan(called Bill) for over a year, non-sexually. He foudn her a job as a waitress. In 1987, Logan was called by Nick Fury back tot he battlefield. Delroes reuqested one night where he took her virginity so that she'd have a good memory of the first time before he left. She found out two months later that she was pregnant with his child. WHen she tried to find him, she learned his name was too common to search and that the landlady knew him by a different name. She gave birth to Will in 1987. Having lost her job as a waitress during the pregnancy, she was in trouble. Howard Stark found her and offered her a job at SI. She took it and named her son after him since he was present for the birth (accidentally)
Sexuality
Delores is Aromantic and Allo-heterosexual.
Education
SOme high school
Employment
Mental Trauma
Her father was physically abusive to her and her mother before her. Her mother told her as a child that she was precious and no one had the right to hurt her. She was determined to never let a man have the control over her that her father had over her mother. While she did have relationships with several men, including Ivan Vanko, James Rogers and others, they were sexual only on her side. She also brought them in as positive male role models for her son.
Social
Contacts & Relations
Family Ties
Mother - died 1985
Father - Dies early 00's
Son William Downing - Military
Son in law(Erik Stevens ) - Military
Father - Dies early 00's
Son William Downing - Military
Son in law(Erik Stevens ) - Military
Relationships
History
They meet when James is looking for info on SI people. She works as a Janitor in the gym and bathrooms. He helps her keep her job while they wait for Tony to altr SI running practices. He also introduces her to Ivan Vanko and helps her son sometimes.
Nicknames & Petnames
Lori
Shared Secrets
Delores tells him how Howard hired her
Species
Year of Birth
1969
26 Years old
Birthplace
Virginia
Spouses
Logan
(spouse)
Siblings
Children
Pronouns
She/Her
Gender
Female
Aligned Organization
Related Plots
Comments