Laer Ballard

“Let me tell you about my week. I’ve been fucked out of the biggest retirement-level payday you’ve ever seen. I’ve become the city’s most wanted criminal overnight for a misunderstanding. I’ve been shot by people I considered my friends who want the bounty on my head. And I haven’t had any pills, alcohol, or cocaine for nearly a week. So believe me when I tell you that yes, I will shoot you in the dick if you don’t open the fucking safe.”

Laer Ballard is the eponymous main protagonist of the comic series Vigilante 2890. He is the de facto leader of the Coyote thieves crew, and a licensed vigilante.

A con-man, drug addict, and infamous bounty hunter working to escape the demon possessing him, and to be perceived as a hero with none of the responsibility. A bastard of a rockstar persona, Laer desires to be the richest, most loved man in the city - once he squares enough cash away to convince the best surgeon/exorcist to remove the eldritch parasite from his skull. When his big plan to use a ransomed girl to pit two politicians against each other turns to shit and he ends up the Most Wanted man in Duvoch, Laer instead has to learn that real heroism is putting others before himself.

Appearance
Laer is, in a word, ostentatious. In his mind he is the New Sheriff in Town, the Rockstar Everyone Wants to Be, the Cleverest Man Alive. Above all else, Laer cares about his appearance. He keeps a well-trimmed 10 o’clock shadow of a beard, always has a change of clothes handy, and prefers clothes that make him look bigger than the wiry skin-and-bones he is. He wears a yellow and navy overcoat with fur trim and holster straps. He also wears grey jeans and steel-toed boots. One detail you can count on is that Laer always, always has some sort of headband, bandanna, hat, or other cover over where the thing slumbers on the top of his forehead.

Personality
Laer is an arrogant, self-centered, confrontational, and clever man with a sense for people's motives and a knack for manipulating them. While he is often overt with his disregard for social norms and tact, Laer is nonetheless charming when he wishes to be and spends a good amount of time ingratiating himself to everyone he meets if he feels they might benefit him in some way. As for his enemies, Laer puts on a front of threatening violence, but avoids it when possible. For one, he considers it messy and complicating; for two, he draws much more satisfaction out of duping his foes and seeing them realize all too late that he's outwitted them.

Laer considers himself popular but actually has few friends to count, placing much of his social needs on his fellow Coyote member, Han Jun Sang. He considers Masheer Afridi a friend of sorts, but keeps him at a distance as a protege for the time being. As for the rest of the Coyote crew, Laer maintains something between actual friendship and a too-forward work buddy.