Cornelius Kavanaugh
Cornelius Kavanaugh (a.k.a. Cort, Grandpa Cort)
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Though he was too young to serve in WWII, he lost his older brother in the European theater. He was of age for the Vietnam War, where he served alongside and forged a bond with fellow soldier Frederick Weiss. He and the rest of their company were party to the Leadership Challenge for which Weiss was the target, and despite their best (if poorly thought out) efforts, Weiss was taken, and Cort and five others were injured in the fighting.
When he returned home, Cort's experiences overseas led him to protest the Vietnam War and adopt a generally pacifistic ideology. His inability to communicate with extreme stress led to his divorce (and, he personally suspects, the deep resentment his daughter Martha Kavanaugh feels toward him), and he never remarried. In time he joined up with a few other local veterans to form the Esterholt Veterans Support Group, with the aim of providing emotional and material support to the area's veterans where they might not know how or otherwise have access to such.
Several years after the founding of the support group, his granddaughter Kayla had run off with an extraterrestrial of the same type which had taken his comrade all those years ago. Dissatisfied with the police investigation into what was ostensibly a missing persons case, and more dissatisfied with Martha's oscillating attitude on the matter, he turned to Ohio Saucer Watch, founded in part by his other granddaughter Erin Kavanaugh. He gave OSW members the idea to seek out similar cases by telling his own story, which gave Andrew Levi the idea to search police databases around the world for cold cases which matched in key details, if they could be found.
Mental Trauma
Social
Contacts & Relations
Family Ties
Religious Views
Relationships
History
Cort often babysat his granddaughter when she was younger, working to be a positive influence in Ta'zhen's life and generally being cool. He introduced her to Aliens, and would tell her stories about the sixties, from hippies and drugs to the Vietnam War itself. He believed it would do no one any good to shy away from the gory details, instead delivering them in as much of an age appropriate manner as he could manage. He blamed Ta'zhen's mother Alexis when Ta'zhen disappeared, and was soon after declared dead. Dumbstruck to see her again, he almost immediately welcomes her back.
Nicknames & Petnames
"Kiddo"/"Papaw"
Aw I like the sound of him. It's sad that his experiences in the Korean War affected him so badly.
Explore Etrea | Summer Camp 2026
He's a tough old codger, but war's one of those things that has a way of changing people. You aren't the same person you were when you signed up for boot camp, so I've been told.