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Cardsharks
A gang of large-scale robbers who do most of their business in the British Isles and on the continent, but who've recently sojourned to the Archipelago. While most of the members are normal humans, their leader the King of Clubs uses conjuring and memory-wiping arts to ensure their heists go off without a hitch. Needless to say, they're all Evil Brits, although only the King of Clubs qualifies as a Quintessential British Gentleman. ("Cardsharks", like "Rogues & Brogues", is an informal means of referring to the group, not necessarily used in-story.)Charles Tanner/The King of Clubs
Played by: Pohatu
- Calling Card: Inevitably, the name of his sham psychiatric institution, "Plainsuit", is a bit of card game terminology.
- Evil Cripple: Subverted. The jewelled cane is his sigil — an item which channels and supports his magical power in his old age — but Tanner is able to carry himself and walk around perfectly without it.
- Meaningful Name: "Charles Tanner" is meant to suggest "charlatan". This may have been deliberately invoked, since it's assumed that "Charles" and/or "Tanner" may be false names.
- Old, Dark House: He grew up in one.Freezing rain battered the manor of dark red stone, a rain so heavy it nearly threatened to cave in the roof of the other tower, much as that of the tower on one end had long since crumbled away. This would have been simple enough to repair, had the inhabitants not held the belief — for all their desire otherwise for isolation — that the building had to contain a flaw, a gap, to permit the ebbing in and out of the world's magical forces. So the western tower stood breached, with only a thin black canvas stretched over the aperture to keep out the baser elements. Great drops of rain rolled down the canvas and dripped onto the stone walls and the windows obscured by dark curtains... Tanner blinked the mental image away.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Delivers one to Prime in Shrinking Feeling after he administers Alyssa some Worst Aid.
Florence (Flo) Pendlebury/"Dr. Helena Tisher"
Flo & Hugh.
Played by: Pohatu
- Daddy's Little Villain: She's kind of this to Tanner, even though they're not actually related.
- The Fashionista: Not an extreme example, but she certainly doesn't mind passing judgement on Blaise's lab attire and those silly test tubes in her hair. She doesn't have any reservations about ragging on Antonio's half butterfly mask, either."It's tacky," she declared softly after a moment. "Look't those sequins. Pick this out of the gutter after Mardi Gras, did 'e? The real Butterfly wouldn't be caught dead wearin'..."
- Master Actor: She goes deep undercover with some of her roles, and in terms of dialogue, is practically unrecognizable as Tisher.
- Minion Shipping: With Hugh. Lampshaded on Pohatu's Formspring with this question he asked himself:"does cutesily Ship Teasing reprehensible criminals strike you as a one-hundred-percent moral and defensible action?"
"amazing question! yes it does"
- Themed Aliases: Their Plainsuit aliases refer to The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens. In that novel, Helena and Neville Landless are a pair of twin orphans from Ceylon, while a Mrs. Tisher and a Mr. Tartar feature as additional characters.
Hugh Oakshott/"Dr. Neville Tartar"
Played by: Pohatu
- Chairman of the Brawl: Or Coffee Tableman, as the case may be.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: While not hopeless, he's a noticeably and humorously worse actor than Flo is.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Calls Blaise by a pretty derogatory female-specific word in Ishkabibble.
Sikes
Played by: Pohatu
- Doesn't Like Guns: But will try his best at shooting them.
