DEITY, coyote

COYOTE

navajo trickster god

RANK. Rank E
AGE. Physically 22, otherwise Really Fucking Old.
DOB. April 1st
ETHNICITY. Mixed
OCCUPATION. Useless bum, petty thief, cardshark
RESIDENCE. Someone else's couch

Coyote is ancient. Coyote is eternal. Legend claims he stole the stars for the sky, stole fire from the sun, and stole both wives and husbands from their marriages. He only remembers the last one, but the other two admittedly sound like something he'd do.

What he does remember: he's fought off demons with naught but his wit, cheated men and spirits both of their own hearts, told a million lies and even spoke a few truths. Coyote was powerful long after most gods were barely more than men.

When white man came to America's shores, Coyote was a god. Not long after, he was nothing. He saw his people--his people that held him in shame, in laughter, and sometimes in nothing short of awe--laid to blood and then to rest before journeying away. He would've protected them, he thinks, but by then his power had already waned too far. He was mortal, he was dead, he was a child. He was confused, frightened, and he was no help to his people at all.

His people took the long walk west. For shame, he turned east. He is Coyote, and he was never a perfect god. He fled.

In his last life, he finally learned to face reality. He was Jamie, surly orphan boy with an inexplicable talent for breaking the rules, raised by one Father Ragno, who ran a orphanage in New Orleans. Profoundly atheist, he was always at odds with the Father, who by sheer feat of miracle (god is real?) managed to teach Coyote literature, law, society, and modernity.

When the good Father died, Coyote never took up the cloth, but he stayed, working with the orphans until he died of old age. Some of them, he even taught magic.

Born again as Moonshine Gutherie to a pair of hippies in Brooklyn, he managed to get both his parents and all his siblings killed in a convoluted revenge cycle with demons and fae as a preteen.

It's been ten years since.

Coyote's a homeless bum--or rather a homeless mooch. He regularly breaks into homes to shower and maybe swipe an outfit or two. He sleeps on his friends' couches (or beds, if that's part of the deal), and many of his friends are made that very night.

He lies, he steals, he cheats. He's an excellent card shark, and stealing is easy with his powers, but Coyote's usually only one step ahead of broke. He's a bohemian.

He has a few extra identities, most noteworthy of them being James Ragno, the very presentable, very respectable, and very clean producer and board trustee of a comedy channel. People assume that little is known about James Ragno because he enjoys his privacy. What is known is that he must be incredibly wealthy to the point of not even wanting money, because he routinely sends his share of the shows' profits to various Native American charities.

played by katya