Jimmy Winters ((WIP))

[Karl the Mad]

Name: James Winterson, aka Jimmy Winters
Age: 235
Gender: Male
Species: Human Wizard

Strengths:
First and foremost, Jimmy Winters is one of the world's best snipers and marksmen alive today, a title he still maintains even as old age creeps up behind him. His preference is in long guns, precision rifles with high-performance scopes and match grade ammunition, although even with simple pistols he can pull off trick shot after trick shot from absurd distances. Obviously such skill requires an almost religious training regimen, and though the duties of leading the Irish gangs and sitting on the Commission pull him away, he still puts in many hours a week keeping himself in shape. Not only in shooting, but in fisticuffs as well; one could accurately call him a Mixed Martial Artist, in that he has applied the knowledge and skills of a lifetime spent globetrotting and distilled it into a blunt, direct, violent form of unarmed combat that doesn't mess around. Not too much, anyway.

As far as melee weapons he prefers heavier, curved blades like the American heavy cavalry saber or the Persian talwar, although he is more than familiar with exotic styles like the katana and the proper English sword cane. Nowadays of course he is as likely to reach for a good, solid machete or an axe as anything else, though he always keeps a switchblade and a heavy revolver beneath his coat.

Next, he is a powerful Diviner, long years spent communing with the spirits making it easy for him to slip under, get what he needs and come back, all within seconds if need be. Such is his skill level here that he can mostly skip the usual rituals and get to the crux of the matter, although he still uses the rituals for his morning communion and meditation. He is also an adept Mentalist, and combined with long experience dealing with crime scenes, battlefields and investigations, he's as close to Sherlock Holmes as you can realistically get; combining these two skills makes for an almost eerie ability at tracking and investigation, which only serves to augment his more violent and martial skill sets.

All that training means that despite his age he is still in marvelous shape, quite able to keep up with the younger generations in terms of strength and speed, if not stamina or agility so much. His mind has lost some of its clarity with the years, of course, but it's still as sharp as he needs it to be. He has centuries of military campaigns and the most secretive Black Ops to draw on, and his experience in warfare and combat have made him the unofficial General of the Commission; even were it not for that, he would still command great respect in the underworld community and the city at large.

-Master sharpshooter, highly skilled in a wide variety of long-range guns
-Powerful mentalist and Diviner, and skilled tracker and investigator
-Excellent physical condition, very sharp and strong mind; can still bounce back from injuries slightly quicker than normal
-Veteran black ops agent, centuries' worth of experience in warfare under his belt
-Second oldest Commission member, highly respected in the criminal community

Weaknesses:
No amount of training and exercise can keep off the fact that Jimmy Winters is old. Very, very old. Though still healthy in general his immune system isn't as strong as it once was; the cold that once would have been an annoyance at best now keeps him inside for most of a day, and something like the flu or a stomach virus can knock him down for weeks on end. He can still fight and shoot, of course, but if pressed to it he can only fight his hardest for five, perhaps ten minutes; more than enough time to brutalize even the most skilled opponent, but he'll slow down and his defenses will start slipping, and if that opponent still has some friends on their feet they could potentially get some immediate revenge.

All those years spent in magic may have gifted him a heightened resistance to pain and ability to recover from injuries, but even that has fairly obvious limits. Stab wounds or the like in his body's extremities, or his neck and torso if not too deep, can be shaken off easily enough, but a direct hit to his head or his heart would be as fatal for him as for anyone else; broken bones must be properly set, deep wounds stitched up, and any injury carefully washed and sterilized. And the process of quickened healing is itself very taxing; he needs a lot of fluids and nourishment, or it simply won't recover. Just like anyone else really, except in his case the recovery is somewhat faster.

Finally, as implied above, his mind may still be sharp but the years are still accumulating, weighing him down more with every passing season; he sleeps a little harder every night, is slower to wake up each morning, and is starting to grow insular and distant from what he once held so dearly. Those around him are quick to simply shrug, smile and chalk it up to old age, and while this is true enough a fellow can only fall asleep in the middle of meetings so many times before his abilities as a leader are formally called into question, and then what might happen?

-Slowly weakening immune system due to advanced age despite access to magic and medicine
-Nearing the end of his natural lifespan; seventy, maybe eighty years left
-Growing detached from his gangs, more and more day-to-day matters left to his vampire lieutenants Brody Harrington and Rocco Salieri; related to health matters mentioned above, as well as plain and simple age, and possible senility?

Appearance:
-6'2", 230 lb, still muscular and burly; could be mistaken for an amazingly healthy mid-60s
-Close-cropped and thinning gray hair, eyes like blue steel, many scars and wrinkles
-Preference for heavy workingman's clothes, jeans and boots and leather jackets
-Single silver hoop in left ear

Behavior:
At first glance, Jimmy comes off more like a grouchy but kind old uncle or grandpa instead of a crime lord. He is as quick to scowl as he is to laugh, and generally displays the sort of sour good humor stereotypical of many older sorts. Unlike his close friend Archie Holden he is not stuck in a Victorian time warp; instead he is a successfully modernized Irish-American gangster, unafraid of technology even if he can't quite grasp the constantly advancing edges of it. He enjoys playing dumb and senile, and can still get a laugh out of catching people by surprise with some tidbit he gleaned from his morning communion with the spirits. All in all, a pleasant old relic of the Old Country, accent and all.

Beneath the roughly polished exterior, though, lies a shrewd and cunning criminal mentality. He may look out for his men and his neighborhoods over his personal enrichment, but that doesn't mean he'll shy away from the hard decisions that a man in his position must sometimes make; indeed, at the monthly Commission meetings he can usually be counted on to take the hard line, although he is by no means conservative or intolerant. He believes in power, basically, in peace through strength; the Irish gangs are more openly militant than the others, frequently armed with pistols or knives, although always courteous and polite in dealing with the public. Jimmy himself is just as much a commando as any of his boys, in fact he still is personally involved in their training after a certain level, and though the years have mellowed him out he is still very much the front-line commander, as those who remember the Battle of Hope can attest.

All that aside, Winters values his relative anonymity and is much more reserved than the Holden brothers, to the point that when the stories of Archie's adventures began to be published, Jimmy formally requested they minimize his roles in them, or leave him out altogether; hence, while Archie and Bucky are the well-known globetrotters, the public at large knows almost nothing about "Hermes" the Northern Irish sniper. He won't deny it if someone connects the dots and confronts him with it, but he will politely ask them to keep it quiet; someone of his lifestyle and motivations doesn't need the kind of public profile Archie and Bucky enjoy, after all.

When it comes to his powers he is generally free with their use, cheerfully performing divinations for a song (sometimes literally!). He can use Mentalism to pick up on connections and chains of events that may elude others, which comes in handy when applied to his criminal empire. If caught by surprise or pushed into unexpected violence, however, the old black ops agent may come out once again; he won't hesitate in such situations to move fast and deal with any threats as expeditiously as possible, whether it be a slew of cracked ribs and broken bones or simple gunshots. Few people challenge him anymore these days, and it is difficult to catch him by surprise in any event, but he still practices to keep in top form anyway.

-Keen mind slowly losing its edge due to the weight of years; is still very much aware of his surroundings however, even without powers
-Was once a hothead; now tends toward caution and forethought, but still capable of warlike displays
-Meditates and communes every morning for half an hour, works out and spars for another half hour; spends three hours at his shooting range three days a week to keep his skills up
-One of the more foresighted and generally well-prepared of the Commission bosses, for obvious reasons
-In person, comes off intelligent and polite, easy to deal with but very strong-willed and unwilling to compromise his principles
-A fervent believer in Si vis pacem, para bellum, and this is reflected in his gang; the majority of his men are highly trained and capable in a fight, and would be quite happy never to put their deadly skills to use

Goals:
-Maintain power, stay alive, keep up the good fight
-The Irish are one of the more militaristic gangs, but still affable and soft-spoken; more welcoming of veterans and former soldiers, of vampires and other "unnatural" sorts than the rest of the Commission
-Gunrunning, unethical or outright illegal modding (cars, tech, etc.), underground clank and robot work are among their cornered markets; much of their "legit" income comes from pubs and bars, legit gun and pawn shops, trapping and fishing outside the city, and veterans' organizations
-Winters' gangs organized more like an army than a corporation; many independent operations organized under lesser leaders, each reporting to the lieutenants who then report to Jimmy, the "General" in this case. Somewhat compartmentalized, so if one gang is corrupted or compromised it won't hurt the rest

History:
-Born 1790 in Northern Ireland, the year of the Karthian arrival; lucky enough to have a family accepting of magic, even supporting, and his gifts were welcomed
-Upper middle-class childhood, not quite as prestigious as the Holdens but high enough to get into the same schools; ended up enlisting at the same time as Archie, took to gunplay and sharpshooting with unnatural ease; magical abilities made him a shoo-in for Black Ops
-Served alongside Holden for years, usually as overwatch and sniper under the callsign "Hermes"; wherever Archie went, Jimmy was usually there too, precision rifle in hand
-Most notable service was in Russia, where his abilities were invaluable to the attempt on Anastasius Romanov; and later, when Holden was killed, Jimmy used his powers to find the ghost and help draw him back to Earth; further convinced the new clank he was still needed
-Naturally he accompanied Holden during the Shadow Wars across the South, and their aftermath, although even his foresight was insufficient to prevent Lincoln's assassination; continued working with Holden until after WWI, when he decided retirement in Hope RI was in order; used his back pay and retirement package to open the Harp & Blackthorn Inn
-Wouldn't be a quiet retirement for long; Hope's Gaelic gangs were disorganized, prone to Irish vs Scottish and such, Jimmy had two different gangs demanding protection from his Inn; instead of paying them he took over the lot out of impatience, trained and organized them into something approaching efficiency, and somehow was surprised when every last one of them voted him as their boss; thus began his reign as one of Hope's most powerful crime lords
-Under his guidance the Irish and Gaelics in town became an almost paramilitary force, which came in massively useful at the Battle of Hope; thanks to his powers Jimmy could act ahead of time, by locking down his neighborhoods, ordering all civilians to shelter underground or in the Cathedral of Saint Patrick, arming his boys and the able-bodied men who showed up with Serious Hardware, and warning other gangs and the police; Jimmy himself fought once more alongside his old friend Archie Holden
-As a result the neighborhoods under Winters' control were relatively unscathed following the Battle; the H&B Inn and St Patrick's Cathedral are city landmarks, in fact; Jimmy's actions served to cement his place in the city and its history for all time
-Continued running his criminal empire, growing distant as the years piled up; when Weasel Biggs showed up with his proposal to unite he acceded easily enough, secretly glad to let someone younger and more energetic be the Big Man in Town although he maintained his own power base