[hider=Moses Jones]

Name: Moses Jones

Alias: “Rattlesnake” “Sunburnt Alligator” “Ol’ Badger” and “Growlin’ Bastard” are some of the many names used behind his back. To avoid being smacked upside the head or given withering looks, he is usually called “Moses” or “Mr. Jones” within earshot.

Age: 36

Gender: Male

Origin: Farmer’s boy in Kansas

Current Occupation: Ex-Cowboy, amatuer Pinkerton private eye.

Appearance: A shorter than average man just as sun-faded, rough, and leathery as an old hat. He looks every bit of his 36 years, and then some, with a steely-eyed gaze, a cold resting expression, and black, oily hair. His broad, well-built body is covered in scars, bullet grazes, stab wounds, and miscellaneous scratches. He is dressed and cleaned almost too well for a man of his history, but he did splurge a bit on clothing and cleaning products. He is, after all, representing a prestigious law agency. He carries with him a hatchet (His regiment was too hard up to give him a proper sword) a hunting knife, and two colt dragoons (Not for dual-wielding, obviously, it’s too big of a gun. He’s just not big on reloading) from his time in the Union Cavalry. Another weapon from his cavalry days that he takes great pride in, (but doesn’t usually carry around with him) is his Spencer repeating rifle. 

He has his hair combed back and well cut, with his beard’s length never going more than halfway down his thick, leathery neck. He wears a brown leather cowboy hat, albeit a new one, mainly because he ran out of expendable pocket money at the tailor when he was finished buying his white shirt and “fancy” black waistcoat. He walks in old boots and his best sunday trousers. He has two holsters and a strap, if he ever feels the need to carry his guns. But he usually keeps them safe in a locked trunk. (Or the hotel vault/safe, if they have such accommodations where he’s staying) However, he always keeps his knife and axe available on his belt, and perhaps at least one dragoon if he’s in a neighborhood like this one...
 
Personality: Moses is a beat-up, bitter, civil bloodbath survivor and war veteran from a town that wasn’t that nice to begin with. He has major trust issues, bordering outright paranoia when things get heated. There are three things in life that drive him. His family, which he hasn’t seen in years, the stalwart upholding of the Law, which he believes would have given him a much happier life, and his own survival, which he’s been tending to pretty well.

Skills/Abilities: Moses is street-smart, vigilant, and good at reading lips and facial expressions. His noticeably smaller-than-average frame allows for quiet, stealthy movement and easy hiding, if needed. He’s a fine shot, not wild-west legend material, but remarkable in many respects. He is positively vicious and dangerously efficient in close-quarters combat, and holds no inhibitions against maiming genitals and clawing out eyeballs if it means he keeps on living and the other guy stops attacking him.

Miscellaneous: While a strong and articulate mover, he is far from a quick one. While he has recovered nicely, a shot to the leg he received during the war has left him with a slight limp. He is capable of running, but he won’t ever outrun the average man, barring sabotage or divine intervention.

History/Bio: Moses Jones was born in the Kansas territory to a farmer 32 years before the war started… And everything went to hell in Kansas, of course, because nobody could decide whether Kansas was northern or southern, and so it had to be decided by shooting. Struggling to survive, and at times literally having to fight his way across the street to get home, Moses fled to Illinois with his mother, younger brother, and sister, who were the only members of his once 14 strong family that weren’t shot to death. 

He joined the military to provide for his family what he could, where he was put in the cavalry regiment. His horse was shot a year into his service, and the general he served under wasn’t in a good enough position to buy him another one, he spent the rest his days in the military shooting what equipment he had left, fighting from the battlements and trenches, and sneaking around enemy flanks. 2 brutal years in, he was left for dead by the military and not asked to serve again thereafter. The ranch he and his fellow soldiers had been occupying was raided by bushwackers, and nobody except himself and a few others, and some farmhands had survived the attack.

Now 35, and lost somewhere in the west on a ranch without a general, Moses became a typical, (if rowdier and more violent than most) cowboy, and over the years, developed something of a reputation in the arts of stabbing, shooting, and punching. He was recruited as a deputy in his hometown, and later, in the interest of finding his way home, spreading the law, and seeing the states, he went abroad his 36th birthday and enlisted his services to the Pinkerton agency.

Secrets: He only knows how to read and write his own name, and even then, he’s not very good at it. He also doesn’t want anyone to know he has a family in Illinois, in case they’re still alive and someone were to track them down. He holds much disdain for rivers and their water. Most of his war nightmares revolve around watching men’s bodies flow down them, and most of his memories regarding them are either about said carnage or witnessing the effects of cholera on his father and neighbors as a child. He is hydrophobic in general, and avoids swimming (and drinking anything other than ground, rain, or lake water) as much as possible. He also would prefer to hide the fact that he has nightmares about the war and the riots in Kansas leading up to it.

Relations: Nope, more plot points to cover that way.

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