chasethedragon

Name: Lawrence Lacoste

Age: 30

Gender: Male

Type: Select One

Appearance:

Lean and lanky, Lawrence tends to move with the ease of a tomcat on the prowl. He's somewhat fit, though his trim build has more to do with his vices and low income than any real desire to keep in shape. Lawrence flips between two types of attire based on where one might find him; when working his more professional job he's smartly dressed in buttons and cuff links, pleated pants, dress shirts and shoes. And when he's not? Well, it's a miracle he's dressed at all. He favors a-shirts and undone work shirts, overalls or secondhand slacks. Always ready to offer an easy and bright grin, Lawrence's a handsome-enough young man with dark brown skin and eyes, his hair kept short-cropped in the name of looking respectable two days a week.

Personality:

You could call him carefree if being generous, or clueless if being honest. Lawrence isn't usually too tuned in to the broader details of the world around him, instead focusing in entirely on his own experience in each moment. He drinks in the details of a person when he meets them, encouraging them to talk with his own habit of aimless chatter. When Lawrence does something, he does nothing but that; his world becomes his music, his art, his dinner maybe. He's too happy to let all the background fade away and disappear. For someone with a small amount of formal education, Lawrence is bright though he doesn't show it. He's good with his own lax nature and aware that many people adjust their defenses based on how smart they think the others around them are.

Sexuality:

Bisexual

City History:

The child of slavery descendants in Louisiana, Lawrence has no memories of New Orleans that didn't come from his grandmother in his childhood. He was raised in Eidolon City, and since adolescence has lived a life of borderline poverty, though he doesn't complain. To him, the money and luxury of others speak of the problems their lives must have to afford such things. Growing up, his parents had one of the few black-owned businesses not just in his neighborhood, but in Eidolon City in general. The pawnbroker's shop wasn't much, but it kept Lawrence fed and clothed, and the constant influx of new merchandise was fascinating to a young boy in ways that the subpar local schools never could be.

He grew up happy enough, flitting from one distraction to another, picking up a love of art even if his talent wasn't anywhere near incredible and eventually finding a reason to keep his schooling regular. It was music, and the tarnished old trumpet he picked up in his sixth grade band class was a transformative thing. Lawrence didn't display a sudden talent by any means, in fact he was terrible when he started, but it was the promise of a life that differed from the one his parents had. Lawrence stuck to his goals, practicing hard and keeping clear of trouble with lessons on the side from a neighbor of his parents. Really, he was a model child.

The fire changed everything, consuming the pawn shop, Lawrence's childhood home upstairs, and his parents. His dreams went up just as quickly in the following week; with no family in the city and only an ailing grandmother hundreds of miles away, Lawrence was put into the foster system of Eidolon City. He never became a problem child, but he wasn't welcomed into any foster homes either, he was just a nameless face in the system for long years. Lawrence gave up on school, dropping out of both highschool and the foster system at age sixteen. He worked odd jobs at first, washing dishes and bussing tables at the Kitten Club to pay for a bed in a flophouse tenement. Every night he worked, he'd watch the house band when he could, soaking up the music through sheer repetition until his break came just past his eighteenth birthday.

The house band's trumpeteer was falling-down drunk, the curtain was up in ten minutes, and Lawrence was tired of chipping down his rent every month and barely managing to eat. He put his job on the line, telling the floor manager he was ready, he knew the music. Everyone was shocked when it turned out that he actually did. The drunk was fired, Lawrence's pay increased eightfold, and the world opened up to him. Namely, the world of vices. Opium was the smoothest, freest feeling Lawrence could ever remember having, it was like living a constant dream, and he was hooked before his first pipeful had even been finished. So the new pay rate from the Kitten Club wasn't going as far as he'd first thought; he still had money for his own place, art supplies, and in time a new trumpet all his own.

The years slid on and gradually Lawrence faded from the bright young musician in the house band to just another member of it, but he hadn't entirely wasted them. He'd been painting, he sometimes managed to fill a page of sheet music or two while in the depths of an opium haze, and eventually it was time to try his hand with his own work. Lawrence's artwork has never quite caught on, though he's convinced that abstract artwork will be understood some day. His music, on the other hand, has actually been somewhat successful. Lawrence and his quartet, Angel and the Seraphim, are a mainstay at the One More Round three nights a week, drawing small crowds for their mix of instrumentals and Lawrence's odd brand of storytelling. With the addition of 'The Shrouded Angel' as a singer infrequently, Lawrence has become a member of the Seraphim, though he has no complaints about it. She draws even more listeners, after all, and sometimes? Well, sometimes he can unload a painting or two in her wake.

Special Skills and Abilities:

If it weren't for the imagined racial prejudices Lawrence projects into his own cityscape, he'd be one of the most prominent musicians in Eidolon. He's a truly skilled trumpeteer, playing two nights a week in the Kitten Club's house band and another three down at One More Round as part of a jazz quartet. Lawrence also fancies himself a painter, though he's never tried to make a career of it. He's learned very rudimentary Cantonese as a method of obtaining his opium from the local Chinese neighborhoods.

Weaknesses:

Addiction (Opium) - Getting his daily fix is as close to blue skies over Eidolon as Lawrence's ever seen. He rarely picks up the paintbrush unless he's smoked some opium prior, and while he's generally quite the social type? If Lawrence goes more than a day without a puff, his good nature wears thin quickly.

Oblivious - Did that car across the street just produce three men with tommyguns? Don't ask Lawrence, he's not even sure he saw the car. He tends to walk through life with blinders on, missing a lot of the world that isn't in his narrow sights. What he does see he involves himself with singlemindedly, but Lawrence will never be a reliable police witness.

Phobia (Heights) - There's a reason he passed on the apartment above One More Round years ago, and why his own apartment is a basement flat. The sight of Eidolon City below him fills Lawrence with dread and anxiety, sprawled out in its' dark splendor, and before long such exposure will leave him curled up in the fetal position and shaking.

Pacifist - Lawrence may not be a Quaker, he'll definitely protect himself if harm is imminent, but otherwise it's nearly impossible to bring him to a point where violence is justified. He sees the news when the gang violence gets bad, and his own reaction never changes. It's a tragedy he'll never let himself be a part of.

Strengths:

Patient - If there's an upside to Lawrence being a complete slacker, it's his patience. He's never known for a rash decision or quick judgments on others, and pushing his buttons to try and get a rise out of him seems fruitless, as if all of Lawrence's buttons are just stuck.

Trustworthy - Perhaps because he never fails to smile at people, perhaps because he hangs on every word someone gives him, but people trust Lawrence more and more with every subsequent visit. He's not an angry man, he doesn't seem to have a single tether connecting him to the criminals of the city, and with his ease of living it doesn't seem like there's a single secret Lawrence might have to hide or an angle he's playing.

Residence:

Lawrence lives in a loft apartment a few blocks from the edge of Eidolon's Chinatown, a short enough walk from the Kitten Club, but a far longer one to the Round.

Career:

Musician/painter

PB: to be chosen