Cerastes

Cerastes, born as Leon Fame, is an influential member of the Autumn Court in the freehold of Miami.

Biography
"Look, you didn’t hear this from me, but…"

Leon Fame (almost certainly an assumed name, but the only one anyone’s gotten him to admit to) has always been  good  at  duplicity. Before he  was  ever  taken  to Faerie, he made a respectable living as an attorney, chasing ambulances for fun and profit. He was married to a pretty girl he’d met in high school, but that didn’t stop him smooth-talking his way into every bed that caught his fancy. He bilked his clients out of most of their settlements, and he wasn’t exactly forthcoming with his taxes. Perhaps it was his knack for deceit that drew the Serpent to him, or maybe he just happened to look enough like a bright, hot mouse to catch the Fae’s attention.

How long he spent in Faerie he can’t say — his captor enjoyed toying with Cerastes’s perception of time and fate. At least once, he thought he had escaped his slavery, returned home a changed man and began a happy life anew with his wife — only to see her dissolve into the Serpent’s form, laughing at him, and cast him back into his cage. Cerastes escaped for real a year ago, and found his way back to Miami. He fell in with the Autumn Court, and despite private doubts that this is anything more than another of his Keeper’s jests, Cerastes allied himself with the faction that promoted Naamah as Tom Hood’s successor. Thanks in large part to his manipulations of rival factions, Naamah now sits on the Throne of Autumn, and Cerastes enjoys a prestigious, if not exactly risk-free, position in the City of Endless Summer.

Cerastes is Naamah’s envoy to the City of Endless Summer. He ensures that the Court’s interests are maintained, and also watches Grandfather Thunder’s courtiers for any sign of weakness, which Cerastes dutifully reports to his Queen. Just as the serpent he resembles, Cerastes is subtle, diligent and clever — and also mistrusted by his own Court and the others alike. He is seldom seen at gatherings of the Leaden Mirror, spending almost all of his time in the Freedom Tower with the influential and powerful Summer Court. His own Court suspects him of “going native,” while the City of Endless Summer cannot help but suspect the solitary member of the Autumn Court so regularly in their midst is a spy.

He is a tall, slender man with smooth, artificially  tan  skin  and  green  eyes  that  run  to jaundiced yellow in the right light. He is prematurely bald, with small ears and thin lips often twisted into a sly smile. In his fae mien, his skin is finely scaled, and his facial features almost nonexistent. Sharp teeth glint in a serpentine smile, and small, scaly horns jut from above his eyes.

Cerastes isn’t  entirely  convinced that any of this is real. Sometimes, that uncertainty paralyzes him with fear, and sometimes it makes him excessively reckless — after all, if he’s still trapped in his Keeper’s den, what does he have to lose? Paranoia aside, he tends to look out for  number  one  first  and  foremost. He is  loyal  to  his Court, in his fashion, but he has no qualms about screwing over anyone else if it will benefit him.

Character Sheet
Cerastes

Seeming: Beast

Kith: Venombite

Court: Autumn

Entitlements: None

Mental Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 3, Resolve 2

Physical Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 1

Social Attributes: Presence 3, Manipulation 3, Composure 2

Mental Skills: Academics (Trivia) 3, Computer 1, Occult 2, Politics 1

Physical Skills: Athletics 1, Brawl (Bite) 2, Drive 1

Social Skills: Animal Ken (Reptiles) 3, Intimidation 2, Persuasion (Hypnotic) 2, Streetwise 1, Subterfuge 3

Merits: Court Goodwill (Summer) 1, Mantle 2, Meditative Mind 1

Willpower: 4

Clarity: 5

Virtue: Faith

Vice: Greed

Initiative: 5

Defense: 3

Speed: 10

Health: 6

Wyrd: 2

Glamour/per Turn: 11/2

Contracts: Mirror 1; Smoke 1; Fang and Talon 3 (Snakes); Fleeting Autumn 2

Pledges - The Motley Pledge