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[riseupandshake]

Raw head and bloody bones, rise up and shake yourself.

Character Name or Nickname: Uncle Monday Character Age: His face is too scarred up to gauge from looking at it. He's tall and strong like a younger man but the way he speaks and carries himself is like an old one. The closest you could estimate by his looks is maybe the bad end of his early forties, or a good-looking mid fifties. But it's a safe bet that he is much, much older. Appearance: Imagine a man maybe a little over six and a half feet. And that despite his height there is a strangeness about the way he moves. You couldn't call it grace, more like a shambling languidness. But he's a strong man; like maybe he's just got all his muscles coiled up tight, ready to spring. Uncle Monday has black, black skin that seems bumpy and rough with vivid scars that cover his body and face and hands. Hard to say exactly what kind of scars they are -- some look like old bullet wounds and whip marks, some look like things have tried to get at him with very big teeth, and some look purposeful and ritualistic. His eyes are the color of old cracked amber. Uncle Monday usually wears the same suit every day; it's tattered and looks like he might have got it hand-me-down from a nineteenth century undertaker. Though to all good sense, objectively, it should be tailored to him, it just does not hang well on his big frame. You get the impression that maybe no kind of clothes would look good on Uncle Monday at all. And of course we must mention his distinctive smile, which he shows off quite often. It's wide, and he's got a whole mess of long yellow teeth -- more teeth than a man should have, and they are every one of them just a tiny bit, imperceptibly too sharp. In his other form he is an especially fine specimen of Alligator mississippiensis; 16 feet long, ugly and scarred as all hell in ways which are more or less identical to his human form. But most likely, if he is of a reptilian persuasion that day you won't seem him anyway. He'll be in brackish water somewhere, or on a muddy bank, still as an old log. And if you ever get a good look at his fine old set of gator teeth, impressive as they are, it won't be for long anyways. Character Personality: Uncle Monday can have a slow way about him, in true ambling Southern style. Not dumb, just easy and in no rush. He doesn’t laugh much, but he does smile an awful lot, with the amusement the old have for the young, and that predators have for soft, self-important mammals. If you come into his tent hoping to procure his services, he'll sit you down and have a nice chat first, and probably let you do most of the talking. Amiable though this may be, you probably won't help but notice that he can look at you strange sometimes, like someone sizing up a cut of meat. One of his problems is that his humanity comes and goes, both literally and figuratively. Literally in that he changes into a huge, nasty alligator some of the time, and figuratively in that sometimes that cold reptilian nature carries over to his human self a little too much. On his good days, he'll put his strange, deep voice to good use. He has quite an affinity for music, and a few small drums he puts to use strictly for his magic practices. Other than that, if you pass by his tent, or while he's wandering, you may hear him singing. If you can sing halfway decent, you're likely to get on his good side, or at least he may be less inclined to side-eye you like a meal. It's the best way to bring him back out of his gator-like spells. He is fond of cooking, telling stories, and smoking crude cigars which he roles himself. Sometimes he can be almost charming. And while you couldn't call him kind, he is courteous to a fault, and he takes very seriously the matter of spendings and owings. He always repays his debts, and collects on those owed him. On his bad days, Uncle Monday seems to only qualify as a man on a technicality, because he walks on two legs, and has skin instead of scales. Those days he will sit some place, very still. He will say almost nothing, and when he does speak, his voice sounds like it’s speaking way back from a million years ago – the voice of the things that waited just below the surface, like slithering over rocks and bubbling swamp mud. Best not to approach him. He'll stay out of sight those days, and not move much. That's round about the time he may disappear for a few days entirely, and will only be found in his other form. Strengths patient, knowledgeable, cunning, physically strong, slow to anger Weaknesses a little... hard to relate to sometimes, distant, cruel, severe and intense detestation of the indoors, and the cold (too much and he'll become lethargic and incredibly irritable) Likes music, dancing, night-time, humidity, swamps, heat, cigars Dislikes cities, deserts, people going back on their word, vegetarian food Character History: It's hard to say whether Uncle Monday is a man who occasionally turns himself into an alligator or, it often seems more likely, an alligator magicked to go walking on two legs when he so pleases. To really know about him, best to start with why Uncle Monday is called Uncle Monday. On the one hand, alligators probably don’t have names (although one can’t say for certain, seeing as they are of a mighty secretive, taciturn mindset), and he may just have picked it up because he needed one, and it was fitting. There's an old story about an old African witch doctor who was forcibly taken from his homeland, but who never let himself be kept as a slave in the New World. He escaped, and went to live among the Seminoles, and learned their magic as well as his own. That man was called Uncle Monday, and he was a well-respected, well-feared Hoodoo man, even if he did live most of the time as the biggest, ugliest, meanest old alligator in the swamps. If you ask Uncle Monday about his past, he'll probably tell you that story with a wink, and you can believe him or not. And if that doesn't please, why, he could spin you up a whole other tale to try out instead more to your liking. He is a purveyor of charms, protections, gris-gris and hexes for those in need. He's been known to run a humble little stand--a tent made of some kind of animal hide, with a sign outside that just says "Conjurations". It's vague, and a little shabby looking, but if you are truly in need of him, your feet will find their way there. The inside of the tent is piled high with tinctures and tonics, talismans and bones. It's smoky from a fire which you are improbably unable to locate, despite the tent's apparent small size. Hard to say how much of it is genuine, and how much is just a show for the white folks. But, be sure, if Uncle Monday deigns to supply you with his services, it will work, one way or another. Whether with the power of suggestion or actual magic depends on the case. It will cost you hardly anything at all, and you'll get exactly what you're asking for. It seems mighty generous of Uncle Monday to give so much for so little, but it does have its price. Not so much to be paid by the individual, but usually by humanity as a whole. He takes his due like clockwork. Some time will pass, and an unlucky soul will wander his way, into his tent and just... disappear. Usually he tries to make sure they're the wayward sort or ill-liked; the kind of people folk won't come looking for. A man's got to eat, and there are debts to be collected. Not real, although Seal is and he's not involved. Uncle Monday is based on the writings of Zora Neale Hurston, and Andy Duncan's excellent "Daddy Mention and the Monday Skull." The mun is not a practitioner of Hoodoo, Voudon, Santería, or any other similar faith/practice. I'll be researching as much as I can, but also using a big old scoop of artistic license. I'll still be aiming to portray aspects of those things with as much respect as possible.