Introduction
Ambrose Wilkes
My heart is gold and my hands are cold
Appearance
Notable Features
Rosie is not only tall, but imposing. He doesn't necessarily have the look of a street goon, but he is solid and well-built beneath his clothes. He has a plethora of scars all over his body, the most notable a thick, twisted line on the side and back of his right calf where he took a bad wound in a knife fight many years ago.Personal Style
Rosie affects neither the flamboyance of a pimp nor the untidiness of a stereotypical gang member — He presents as simple, clean, and tidy, without anything resembling ostentatious flair, and expects those in his employ to do the same.Circumstances
Currently
Rosie has been the leader of the Black Powder Gang since its inception, and presently is most occupied with its various business endeavors. This includes keeping a ready eye on both rival gangs and the more morally-minded members of the police force. Based out of the Gun brothel, it's rare for him to leave the East End — The world beyond London might as well be another planet.That said, he has not lost the ambition that pushed him from being the bastard child of a whore into the most formidable man in his pocket of London. He is patient and circumspect, but forever on the lookout for more territory to pin onto his own, and more efficient means to expand his growing empire.
Health & Capabilities
Rosie is perhaps as hale as someone living their entire life in the East End can be. Which is to say: He is tough with a good deal of stamina, but an x-ray of his lungs would probably be horrific. He doesn't drink — Staying sharp is important to him — and won't allow anyone to smoke in The Gun because it starts everyone coughing, including himself.On cold days, he sometimes has a slight limp from the wound on his lower right leg.
Socioeconomics
The squalor of the East End streets have made Rosie the man he is, and to them he is forever grateful. As a child, it was made abundantly clear to him that the system was rigged to keep those in poverty deeply so, and that any ambitions for more would require ruthlessness to achieve. Rosie is reasonably wealthy, at least in comparison to everyone else around him, but he spends generously for the betterment of his neighborhood as a means to secure his reputation and the loyalty of his neighbors. He is also strict in not flaunting his money, and demands the same from everyone in his employ — Only idiots engender envy or the attention of the police by being so obvious.Skills & Talents
Keenly observantUnflinchingly ruthless when called for
Much more intelligent than he looks
Excellent at managing money
Even better at managing people and engendering loyalty
Present Relationships
Lottie Payne - Mother, currently house mother at the GunJack Payne - Cousin and hot mess
Mouse - Reluctant lover and pain in the arse
Identity
Hobbies
Hobbies? In the East End? Surely you're taking the piss. Everything is work, and work is everything. Although Rosie could admit that he is an avid reader of various newspapers, and some articles he reads simply for his own edification rather than anything related to his various business enterprises. He would also, however, say that you never know when a piece of information will come in handy.Background
History
The origins of "The Earl of East End" could not be less auspicious: Ambrose Wilkes was born the bastard child of a prostitute mother and her pimp, the owner of a spartan brothel with a dubious reputation and no proper name. His father — Who will remain unnamed, and whose memory is only ever accompanied by a curse — must have fathered a good many children before Rosie was born, but it was Rosie, dark and serious like the man himself, who garnered his keen attention.By the time he could walk, Rosie was running short errands for the "girls" of the house, and by five he was being taught his father's methods for running his business — Methods that Rosie, growing up more clever than he had any right to be, would eventually discard in favor of better efficiency. Simultaneously, he was collecting about him a modest group of rough-and-tumble boys, and perfecting amongst them the art of separating marks from their money. His ideas were loftier than the stinking filth they all rose from, but by the time he was twelve, he was considered a force to be reckoned with amongst the ne'er-do-wells populating the East End streets.
When Rosie was fifteen, his father "disappeared," possession of his brothel left to his most beloved progeny. The same year, the Black Powder Gang became an official entity, named for nearby Artillery Lane, and the brothel would be given a proper name: The Gun. From its basement Rosie would gather his men — Children yet, most of them, made adults before their time — and methodically plan the expansion of their power. The Gun was remodeled, and made a convenient base of operations for an enterprise that would, over time, abandon picking pockets for the more lucrative fare of bookmaking and protection rackets, alongside the continued business of whores.
Now over forty, Rosie sits atop it all: Shrewd and ruthless, and still more clever than he has any right being. His reputation is one for fairness, with a soft spot for women, children, and the destitute, and despite his means of earning a living, he is well-beloved by much of his community. His expectations and standards for not simply his employees but the entire neighborhood are simple and clear, however, and the consequences of violating them swift. Do not suppose that because he sends a widow groceries he will not cut your throat for cutting into his profits.
