#Alice Baaba Owusu

[bookmark-it]

The Bounty Hunter

Back in home in Gettons & Yaduru (in Kasu-Kasu City, specifically), Baaba Owusu was an up-and-coming detective. She had recently come off a big solve, and was put in charge of a special task force as a promotion. The task force was created to investigate allegations of a high-profile human trafficking ring.

According to whistle-blowers, Members of the Joint Parliament of Gettons & Yaduru were stealing/kidnapping children from native Pagatowar families, specifically residents of the Palatamco Reservation (home to the Bent-Leg Creek Tribe), located in Todd, a rural territory in south Gettons.

 The Pagatowar of Palatamco (Rebekah says: this is pronounced as either pah-lat-ah-em-co or pah-lah-tam-co depending on east/west dialect variations between the people of Gettons & Yaduru) were known for their (relatively) high birth rates of children with the Lamott-Lowrie Gene, more crudely called “Human Familiars.”

Lamott-Lowrie babies are people born with the ability to "harness” raw viv without the use of refining Ley Lines. They are incapable of wielding magic on their own, but they can "boost" the magic performed by a partner Wielder (or Wielders) by "lending” the viv they naturally collect.

In the not-so-distant past, those with the Lamott-Lowrie gene were treated as subhuman. They were called Familiars and kept as "human pets," working as slaves for their Wielder owners. Progress was made and Familiars liberated, their "keeping" officially outlawed with Jenny's Law (named for the Human Familiar whose case helped get protections passed, Governor Borscheid named Nona “Jenny” on purpose as a twisted reference to the law specifically meant to protect children like her).

Though illegal, that has not stopped some Wielders from seeking out Lamott-Lowrie children. Among the traffickers, there is an erroneous belief that if taken from their parents early, Familiar children will "imprint" on their “owner.” Imprinting will make the Familiar loyal and also increase the power of the viv they lend.

 Owusu and her task force investigated claims that Senators from the Joint Parliament had been traveling to Palatamco (and other reservations) under the pretext of "Reconciliation Projects," in which they chose impoverished/at risk children to adopt/sponsor. In actuality, these Reconciliation projects were scouting trips. The Senators picked out children with the Lamott-Lowire gene and took them from their families without permission or warning. The children were just gone.

They were dubbed the "Lost Children" by the Gettons & Yaduru media, but Owusu and her task force referred to them as Stolen. The Pagatowar called them Nishnona-yeoc, which literally translates to “Nameless person.”

The naming of children has a lot of cultural significance in Pagatowar society. On their tenth birthday, Pagatowar children participate in a Naming ceremony called Nishwa-télën in which they essentially name themselves, announcing who they are to the tribe. Once Pagatowar people name themselves, their name cannot be changed by anyone but themselves - their True Name cannot be changed, not their parents, their peers, other members of the tribe, or by Outsiders (Karstlanders).

The only way it can change is if the person in question commits a terrible/violent crime, at which point their name is taken away and they are known only as Nishwanona. It is considered the highest disgrace to be Nishwanona.

When the Senators took Lamott-Lowrie children from their Reservation, they purposefully did it before their tenth birthdays so that the kids could not participate in Nishwa-télën and name themselves/develop a Pagatowar identity.

Owusu and her team worked relentlessly to break the case. They even managed to recover a few of the (older) Stolen Children. The turning point for Owusu came when she and her men freed several children. When she asked them their names, the Stolen called themselves Nishwanona. From a young age, Pagatowar children are taught about the importance/significance of Nishwa-télën. But because they had been taken from their people, they never got to participate in the Naming Rite. It was the deepest expression of shame and grief to call themselves Nishwanona.

Owusu was livid/heart-broken for these children, and equally furious that no matter what she did, her task force couldn’t ever pin anything on the suspected Senators. There were too many cover-ups, loopholes, bribes, too many “yes men” willing to take the wrap for their boss.

Again and again, cases were thrown out against the senators because evidence  was ruled “circumstantial.”

So Owusu made a decision: she falsified evidence in order to force the case to trial.

She wanted a conviction (instead of a fine/slap on the wrist) for the Senators. She didn’t care about the letter of the law anymore, she wanted justice. Helping those kids mattered more to her than anything else. 

Her falsified evidence was convincing enough that for the first time, the case looked like it might go to trial…but then one of Owusu's associates (who was jealous that she had been appointed to lead the task force instead of him) exposed Owusu. In a matter of six months, Owusu was charged, convicted, and sentenced.

The case against the Senators was thrown out for good, and the task force permanently disbanded. And so Owusu was on her way to Meteoria, the land of Monsters. But far worse for her was the knowledge that her tampering had not only not helped, but made everything worse. The investigation was delayed/shelved indefinitely. She had completely and utterly failed those kids.

On the ship to Meteoria, Owusu added Alice to her name, so that she was Alice Baaba Owusu. She didn’t want her true name in the mouths of her “owners.”

At Hipplethwaite, her “labor” was (first) bought by a cruel man who wanted something to beat on. Under his ownership, she suffered greatly. During one violent outburst, her owner beat her so severely that it opened gaping, defensive wounds on her arms. Her left (dominant) took the worst of it and was flayed to the bone. The wounds got infected and her owner sent her off to die in a prisoners’ hospital.

She ended up losing her arm, and also nearly died from sepsis. It was in hospital that Alice met a Durukan (a descendant of one of the Da-rai tribes of Yaduru) missionary named Silas Asenso. Silas had originally come from Yaduru to help advocate for prisoners’ rights in Meteoria. They chatted for a bit and Owusu was delighted to learn that Silas’s hometown was Kasu-Kasu, just like her. They bonded over memories of the city, specifically the sweet rolls (called nana buns) which were sold at the central market in Yasu-Yasu every first Saturday of the month. 

 Working with Silas, Owusu managed to get placed at Second-Chance Ranch, located just outside Crossings. Second-Chance ranch was run by Silas’s fellow missionaries. Their mission was focused on rehabilitation and lawful re-entry into society for emancipated prisoners.

The missionaries of Second-Chance bought out prisoner contracts in mass, and then put them to work as ranch hands. At the end of their sentence, and upon their emancipation, the Prisoners were given small parcels of the ranch’s land. That way, they could use the skills they’d learned while prisoners to make a life for themselves as emancipated settlers.

The work was demanding, but the workers were well treated. Owusu even came to discover that she had a knack/appreciation for bee-keeping.

 Silas lived at the Ranch when she wasn’t out doing mission work. She visited Owusu out in the fields often, to bring her water and homemade nana buns (which weren’t all that good because Silas was a shitty cook, but Owusu ate them anyway). Owusu developed a bit of a crush. One day, after one of Silas's visits, Owusu point blank asked her on a date…in two years' time, when she would be emancipated. Silas (pretended) to weigh the ethical implications of dating someone she’d “mission-worked.” Owusu teased and Silas happily agreed.

Two years passed, and the second Owusu’s Ink went dark (sign of emancipation/fulfillment of sentence), Silas was there to take her on a date. They went to get nana rolls (better ones than what Silas dished up). The date was a success, and so they went on another, and another, and then a few more, and four years later they were married. 

Together, they worked the small bit of farmland that Owusu had received as part of her “emancipation package” from the Ranch. Owusu even managed to keep bees and pick back up some Stringent Magic, which she hadn’t practiced since her days on the force.

Silas experimented with potions and "kitchen witchin'". She was mostly awful at it. She occasionally did some mission work, but was away from home less and less often. Silas was ready to settle down with Owusu, and to live a “stable” life.

And against all odds, it was a stable life. Heck, it was even a good life. 

They made homemade nana buns. Owusu joked that she’d had to get arrested to find a wife, and Silas teased that nowadays, she was doing more missionary position than missionary work (hands down Owusu’s favorite joke).

Their life was together was surprisingly normal, and to Owusu's amazement, she was happy. When she'd been sentenced, she had resigned herself to a short and miserable life. She expected (and accepted) that the only thing she’d feel for the rest of her life was guilt. But then she’d met Silas, and found work and refuge at the Ranch, and then even a little bit of domesticity...and even though it wasn't the life she’d imagined, it was the life she wanted.

Then, two years later, Owusu was widowed.

 One summer evening, police from Port Grace came knocking. They had an arrest warrant for a member of The Coalition for Prisoner' Rights  (a group of freedom fighters working to improve life for prisoner-workers through uncivil disobedience). The fugitive in question was one Efia Arusei, alias Silas Asenso, and she was hereby accused of committing terrorist acts, inciting violence, recklessly endangering the public, and committing treasonous acts against the government of Meteoria and the Karstland Kings.

 Uh-oh.

Silas Asenso (whose real name was apparently Efia Arusei) had been on the run from Port Grace authorities when she'd sought asylum at Second-Chance Ranch. Somehow, she’s never bothered to mention any of this to Owusu, her fucking wife.

Silas/Efia was arrested on the spot, and taken away, leaving behind a gobsmacked and heartbroken Owusu, who knew that her wife would not be spared the death penalty. People like her were to be made an example of.

In the fallout from this, Owusu shut down. She went back into her shell and once again took up the name Alice. She left her little farm and went to Port Grace (on the off chance that she might see Silas/Efia again - despite everything, she couldn’t hate her) as a bounty hunter, using her (objectively) impressive set of skills to hunt down runaway prisoners and return them to their owners for cash.

She took no mercy, accepted no sob story, just tagged and bagged ‘em. She lived to work, just as she once had back on the force in Kasu-Kasu. But this time justice was not her objective…she didn’t have one. Money to get by, money for liquor, money for rent. That’s all “Alice” cared about. Baaba had cared about justice and look where it got her. Owusu had cared about Asenso (or Arusei or whatever Efia’s name was) and look where it got her. So now she was just Alice, Just Alice who did nothing but take up space and put down runaways.

 She no principles, no problems, no purpose.

 Then she meets a girl in a dumpster...a girl who calls herself Nishwanona.  

****************************************************************************************

 Abbreviated Timeline:

·       Detective at 35

·       Sentenced at 36

·       Emancipated at 43

·       Married at 47

·       Widowed at 50

·       Gauntlet Runner at 56

Abilities: Owusu is a practitioner of the Stringent Magics, mathemagical principles that allow her to use vectors to write Sigils for weapons’ precision/accuracy, as well as to create pocket dimensions.

With a bit of back alley tinkering, Owusu got her left arm fit with a prosthetic that doubled a Summoning device  i.e. she can “summon” a loaded gun into her prosthetic hand essentially out of thin air.

All her weapons are Marked with her handwritten vectors/sigils (Owusu is HIGHLY insulted when Nona asks why there’s “scratches” all over her gun). Owusu is a dead shot, and a bit of a gunslinger. She also uses Stringent Magic to open pocket dimensions. She’s basically a walking armory, with all kinds of guns/weapons and every kind of ammo at her disposal.

World-building note: As an Emancipated-Prisoner, Owusu is not allowed unlimited access to Ley-Line/refined magic. She’s doesn’t have the Lamott-Lowrie gene so she can’t use viv. She gets “vouchers” every month that allow her to use a certain amount of Magic/magical energy. If her voucher runs out she’s shit outta luck. When prisoners (emancipated or otherwise) enter the Gauntlet they are granted Unlimited access to Ley Magic. Governor Borscheid is desperate (besides there’s no actual shortage of magic, no reason for it to be limited or rationed, it’s just another way to belittle/handicap prisoners and to punish them even after their Ink goes dark).

#Gauntlet verse #character profile #Alice Baaba Owusu #backstory #character development