Southpaw

Southpaw is a Obrimos Free Council from Chicago, Illinois.

Overview

Quote: "Anything you can do, I can do left-handed - and also better!"

Patrice Waters began her life in Chicago's South Side, the fourth child in a family of eight children. Her father drove trucks for a living and his trips took him back and forth across the country, so he was almost never at home. Patrice's mother tried to stay at home when her children were little, but eventually had to find work as a hospital orderly, leaving Patrice in charge of her younger siblings. Patrice's older sister and two older brothers found things to do after school and, later on, after quitting school. Patrice didn't ask what they did, but somehow she knew that any household responsibilities were up to her.

Patrice attended school, along with her younger charges, with the fierceness of desperation. Only in the clarifying atmosphere of facts, numbers, problems and solutions, formulas and the precise rules of grammar did she find relief from the day-to-day demands of keeping her little brothers and sisters fed, clothed and out of trouble while momma worked or slept the sleep of exhaustion. That, and baseball.

Patrice watched her brother Thaddeus play for the school baseball team. She brought him to practice every day and cheered him on. She played pitcher to his catcher every day to strengthen his eye and hand coordination. Finally, the team coach asked her to try out for the team. To her surprise, Patrice landed a position as pitcher, valued for her left-handed sliders and curve balls and used to shut down an opposing team's rally.

Life became harder when she entered high school, a year ahead of her oldest brother. She was unable to keep an eye on her siblings, and she felt them slipping away from her into that great tempting yaw of desperation that was life in South Side Chicago. She had to switch from baseball to girl's softball, but the essential exhilaration was there - and this time there was no other competition. The game was the only thing in her life that made sense, the only thing that suddenly Awakened her from the sound Sleep of daily life.

Patrice thought she had toppled over the edge into insanity when she started seeing baseball plays in her sleep, in the patterns of pedestrians crossing the street, in exchanges between drug dealers on street corners and the movement of traffic through the busy streets.

Everything fell together, however, when a slightly older white man walked up to her and introduced himself as Triplex. He seemed unconcerned about being the only white face for blocks as he told Patrice that he had been watching her for several days and he thought he knew what she needed to stop her worries that she was going crazy. Patrice thought he was trying to sell her drugs, but something about him stuck a resonance inside her. As they talked, he started walking toward his car, parked safely a few blocks from the school.

Without another thought, Patrice got in the car with him - something she had drilled into her siblings' heads not to do - and sat as if in a trance as he drove her all the way to U.S. Cellular Field - and to her first live White Sox game. Patrice saw the opening pitch, but that was all she ever remembered about that first game. Suddenly, she was in another world, traveling faster than though through a landscape of forms and power, past lightning-blasted ground and flame-covered trees until she stood gazing up at the Watchtower of the Golden Key.

Just as the man sitting beside her who would be her Mentor, Patrice found her calling as the White Sox narrowly escaped victory, 4-2 on a spring afternoon.

Since then, she has helped Triplex with the duties of the cabal, including training new members. As a gesture of solidarity with the Open Source, Patrice has recently agreed to serve as Laplace's Provost on the Consilium, bringing her poverty-born survivor's instincts and her street-smart savvy to meetings too often dominated by the well-born or at least semi-privileged.

Patrice has used her magic in small ways to make her family's life better without their knowing it, but although her newfound powers have opened up a whole new world for her, the strings of the old one still hold her very close to the lives of her family's Sleepers.

Description

Southpaw is a muscular young black woman with long, black hair that she wears in elaborately beaded cornrows. Her face would be unremarkable except that her early responsibilities have worn "character" lines deep into her face, accentuating her high cheekbones and large, heavily lidded eyes. She smiles more now than she used to, but her face is most comfortable in repose. She usually dresses in sportswear, only occasionally dressing up for significant events, such as Consilium meetings and conferences with her siblings' teachers.

Southpaw's Nimbus resembles a halo of black light that surrounds her, occasionally taking on a strobe effect when vulgar magic is involved.

Stats

Dedicated Magical Tool: Cell phone, given to her by Triplex for keeping in touch; she is never without it
Real Name: Maya Patrice Waters
Path: Obrimos
Order: Free Council
Mental Attributes: Intelligence 3, Wits 4, Resolve 4
Physical Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 3
Social Attributes: Presence 4, Manipulation 2, Composure 3
Mental Skills: Academics (Logic) 3, Investigation (Locating People) 2, *Crafts (Cooking) 1, Medicine (First Aid) 2, Occult 1, *Science (Geometry) 3
Physical Skills: Athletics (Thrown Objects, Baseball) 3, Brawl 1, Drive 1, Stealth 2, Weaponry 1
Social Skills: Empathy 2, Intimidation (Threats) 2, *Persuasion 1, Streetwise (South Side) 4
Merits: Contacts (South Side), Hallow (Shared) 4, High Speech, Library (Shared) (Baseball History, Magical Workings, Physics), Resources 1, Sanctum: Size (Shared) 3, Status: Consilium 4, Status: Free Council 1
Willpower: 7
Wisdom: 7
Virtue: Fortitude
Vice: Envy
Initiative: 6
Defense: 3
Speed: 10
Health: 8
Gnosis: 2
Arcana: Death 1, Forces 2, Prime 2
Rotes: Death - Shadow Sculpting; Forces - Nightsight, Unseen Shield; Prime - Dispel Magic, Counterspell Prime
Manna/per turn: 11/2
Weapons/Attacks:
Armor: 4 ("Unseen Shield," Forces **)
Magic Shield: 2 (Prime **)

References

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