the Scofflawyer

Origin:

Unlike many of her clients, Astrid Gustavson is but a normal human, lacking special powers of any stripe. While many of her clients do not fit this description, she only interacts with them in a strictly legal sense, most often as the notorious attorney advertised as the Scofflawyer!

Known Powers:

(none)

Limitations / Enhancements:

(none)

Equipment:

Sidearm: since some of her clients aren't happy with her results, Astrid carries a firearm when she isn't in court. She can discharge one round from this weapon to inflict Typical (6) Shooting damage, or a short burst of such to inflict Good (10) Shooting damage.

Smartphones: Astrid possesses several of these devices, mainly one for personal use and one for legal matters - not counting a few burners she cycles through for more paranoid clients. They can transceive digital radio signals with Poor (4) ability (maximum range of five miles).

Quirks:

Detractors: the low level of fame Astrid built through her Scofflawyer ads has generated many antagonists amongst stodgier practitioners of law. When dealing with such attorneys, Astrid suffers a -2 CS penalty to her effective Popularity score, because they hate her.

Quick Learning: while she truly shines where the law is concerned, Astrid picks up things fast in other arenas of knowledge as well. Whenever she applies herself, Astrid can master a new talent twice as fast as normal, doing so with a twenty-five percent Karma discount.

Talents:

Artist / Performer: while primarily focused on practicing the law, Astrid enjoys playing out her 'character' in commericals for her law firm, Scoff Law. She should receive ten Karma after the completion of every one of her over the top Scoff Law commercials.

Guns: though she personally abhors violence, Astrid has come under threat from violent, disgruntled former clients in the past. As such, she's acquired training in the use of firearms, which she can wield as if her Agility score was +1 CS higher than is listed above.

Law 2: her claim to fame, Astrid is an ardent student of the law. Constantly researching fresh and weird cases around the country, she continues her education long after having passed the bar, and should receive a +2 CS bonus on ACTIONs related to legal knowledge.

Salesmanship: Astrid excels in selling things to others, whether it be the services she provides or any other product. She should receive a +1 CS on ACTION rolls required for this purpose, whether enticing others to buy her services as the Scofflawyer or anything else.

Contacts:

Astrid employs several paralegals in her firm, Scoff Law, who she mentors while they work on their own law degrees. Several of her former employees have passed the bar and since moved on to either found their own legal practices or joined others already in business.

As she often represents individuals charged with unusual crimes, or those arrested under abnormal conditions, Astrid has racked up a vast array of current and former clients as reliable contacts as well. And some of these contacts have avoided becoming career criminals, too!

Costume:

Embracing her public persona as the one and only Scofflawyer, Astrid generally wears dark pinstripe suits with an especially slim fit. She dresses like this wherever she goes to bolster her regional notoriety, unless she's lounging within the confines of her own home.

Personality:

Astrid is a highly motivated and inquisitive woman, one who cannot find solace in the easy road. She is compelled to push her mind further and further, lest she quickly grow bored with whatever her current enterprise is. And for the longest time, this has been the law.

Part of Astrid's love of the law comes in the form of plumbing the depths of legal precedence, hundreds of years of judgments far and wide giving her gristle for her arguments. And really, the arguing is what gets Astrid going, because she loves to win arguments. With anyone.

Real Name: Astrid Gustavson, Esquire
Occupation: criminal attorney
Legal Status: citizen of the United States with no known criminal record
Marital Status: divorced
Alias(es), if any: Astrid Scoff
Group Affiliation: none

Height: 5' 7"
Hair: blonde
Eyes: blue
Weight: 135 lbs
Other Distinguishing Characteristics: Astrid typically wears custom-fitted suits at all times, even when off the job, unless she's lounging at home.

Story:

Almost pathologically enamored with the law, Astrid has studied it in both state and federal flavors for as long as she can remember. Loving the idea of forcing others' submission with nothing but words, she always wanted to be a lawyer, as her debate club can ruefully recall.

Earning a full ride scholarship, Astrid didn't rush her way through law school at all, taking every course she could get away with while also studying the essentials. Quickly mastering conventional law, Astrid felt herself drawn to the weirder corners of legal precedence.

After ultimately passing the bar, she worked with several other attorneys in a firm for a year or so, but grew bored with the constraints of a mundane practice before long. While she did her job, Astrid didn't enjoy it, and grew disillusioned with her career choice for a time.

This lasted until her firm declined to represent Frankenshanken, a young marketer who had fallen in with a mysterious group known only as ABBREVIATION. Seeing a compelling strategy to preserve her freedom, Astrid went so far as to represent the young artist all by herself.

Though this required she leave the current firm she was employed at, this was no skin off Astrid's back, as she hated working there anyway. After taking in all the details of her first client's case, Astrid argued it in court... and managed to get Frankenshanken cleared of all charges!

Grateful to Astrid, Frankenshanken decided to help bolster her prospects, and worked with her to forge a plan to market her and her services to those who needed them most. Astrid was happy to take this aid, for she wanted to argue weird cases before judges, and ran with it.

Coming up with the slogan of 'When they call you a scofflaw, you need a Scofflawyer!', Frankenshanken convinced Astrid to practice law under the pseudonym of Astrid Scoff, officially naming her practice Scoff Law, and finally set her up at www.scofflawyer.com.

Pursuing Frankenshanken's plan hard, Astrid began to appear in ridiculous local commercials, advertising her services as a lawyer who argues unusual cases. Astrid found she enjoyed it so much that she began to work on her own salesmanship, which she found similar to legal arguments.

Before long, Astrid had developed a considerable client base, so much so that she had to hire help. She did this by attracting aspiring lawyers who shared her love for unusual legal cases, and allowed them to work under her wing until they passed the bar themselves.

Those clients were typically career criminals, some of which possessed access to ascendant abilities of some kind or another, and occasionally belonged to some sort of illegal organization or conspiracy. And naturally, Astrid couldn't gain acquittals for all of them.

However, cultivating a considerable reputation in the criminal underworld as a good bet where their weird crimes were concerned, Astrid became very wealthy very fast. And notorious, for her commercials ultimately became the highlight of cable television where she practices law.

Legal Hoopajoob:

I offer my Costumed Adventurer Simulation Engine work under the Creative Commons Attribution license. You may use this material as you see fit in your own, derivative texts or products, whether copying, distributing, or displaying it, as long as you credit me within said works.

If you would like more information about me for attribution, you can contact me via e mail (DashApostrophe@gmail.com).

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