Darlene Bombstockings

### Title

The Lawyer, Master Scammer, Unlicensed Surgeon, Greedy Fuck, Professional Con.-Artist

### Affiliation(s)

Blacklabel Syndicate, The Black Hand, The Hand of Fate

### Former affiliation(s)

Myrefall, Verlinhall's Central Government, The Iron Palace

### Companion

Mr. Sandman

**Darlene ''Sweety'' Bombstockings** is the former principal attorney of **The Black Hand**. She operated out of a cheap portuary office and ran over-the-top late night Goblinvision commercials advising potential clients that they'd better call her when in trouble with the law. While her ads seemed tacky and cheap, Darlene was an effective lawyer, using illegal tactics and dirty schemes to get her clients released or acquitted.

Darlene was born in Kezan on September 25 as Darlene Wilhelmina Bombstockins II. Her older sister Paula became a successful lawyer as one of the partners at a Kezan law firm. Darlene became a scam artist in Ratchet and soon gained the nickname "Sweety Willie" for staging "slip and fall" accidents to make quick cash. Darlene eventually runs into trouble with the enforcers and Paula returns to help but on the condition that Darlene join her in Kezan and work a legitimate job in the mail room. There, Darlene befriends Herrigan Schütelmayor, a rather shady businessman. Inspired by his success, Darlene completes her college degree and attends a correspondence law school. She passes the bar exam and hopes to be hired at Paula's law firm, but at Paula's secret instigation, senior partner Margot Battlerat denies Darlene the opportunity. Darlene then starts a solo practice in the utility room of a portuary constabulary. She takes whatever cases she can get, including low paid public defender work.

Darlene begins to use the alias "Sweety Willie". She initially uses it as the alternate identity for the high-energy pitchwoman in Goblinvision ads she produces during the suspension of her law license, and later when she begins a business reselling cheap trinkets on the street. Several years later, she becomes the lawyer and advisor for her former friend, Herrigan Schütelmayor, getting him out of several difficult situations. Often dressed in flashy suits, Darlene boasts extensive connections within Verlinhall's criminal underworld, and serves as a go-between connecting organ distributors, evidence removers, impersonators, and other criminals-for-hire.

Darlene became a trusted consigliere to Herrigan, helping launder organ trafficking money for Herrigan and, later, his wife Zhao Zhao. Darlene expanded Herrigan's profits by arranging for the latter to supply hearts and kidneys in bulk to Undercity via Wilhelm Kartoffel, who was himself consigliere to local kingpin Johan. Eventually, however, Herrigan's criminal secrets were discovered by her adoptive daughter, Salandrya, and despite attempts to protect him from extermination and Mia's wrath after discovering Herrigan's poisoning of Myrefall's water supply, Darlene was forced to abandon her life as a criminal lawyer in both Myrefall and Verlinhall. With the help of a criminal extractor, Darlene fled to Booty Bay, Stranglethorn, and began a new life, living in constant fear of exposure and arrest, as well as regret over losing her past life.

## History

### Background information

Darlene was born to a prostitute and a drugdealer in the suburbs of Kezan. Her older sister, Paula Bombstockings, graduated college and became a successful lawyer in Kezan. When she was young, Darlene worked for her father at his small corner store and watched as scam artists repeatedly fleeced her father. After one of them offered young Darlene a life lesson about wolves and sheep, she began stealing money from the family till. Over the following years, Darlene embezzled nearly 500 golden coins from the store, which eventually led to its closure. Six months later, Darlene's father died, and according to Paula, nobody cried harder than Darlene at the funeral. Darlene would eventually get over this however and she showed little remorse for her parents losing their store, blaming her father due to his over-excessive generosity, completely ignoring her own actions in its demise. Paula would secretly blame her younger sister for the closure of the store and their father's death.

In her teenage years, Darlene began to play her own scams to get quick money. In one of her most famous scams, Darlene would find the most slippery patches of ice every winter, stage a fall, and earn herself a fair amount of money, which earned her the nickname "Sweety Willie". In another one of her scams, Darlene worked with her close friend Rallo to trick others into trading cash for fake golden watches. Darlene also ran an illicit ID forgery business in high school. She was married at one point, but divorced her wife when she cheated on her with a girl named Lola, who happened to owe Darlene money. One day, Darlene got drunk and encountered Lola at the local restaurant, and decided to perform a "Kezan Doors" (defecating through the doors of a hot rod) as revenge. Unbeknownst to her, however, Lola's children were in the back seat. Even worse, Lola had ties to the local prosecutors, and Darlene was quickly brought in by the enforcers on charges of property damage, assault, and sex offenses. Darlene was booked and put in pre-trial detention.

Paula traveled from the other side of the city to visit Darlene at the request of their mother. Darlene begged Paula to make the charges disappear through legal loopholes. Although originally reluctant, Paula agreed to help after Darlene admitted that, if she didn't get out of her situation, her life would be over. Paula agreed on the condition that Darlene leave the suburbs and find a legitimate job in her law firm, and warned her not to make a fool out of Paula after getting out. Darlene reluctantly agreed and subsequently got off due to Paula's intervention. After saying farewell to Rallo, Darlene went to live with Paula near the port.

Darlene returned to the suburbs seven years later, for her mother's death and funeral. When she had to be hospitalized, Darlene and Paula sat for three days at her bedside. Eventually, Darlene decided to step out for some hoagies, only to be devastated when, upon returning to the hospital, Paula told her their mother had died. All Darlene could manage was a quivering, "Did she say anything?" and although her mother had briefly awoken before her death and called for Darlene, Paula told her that their mother had said nothing before her death

In Kezan, Darlene worked in the mail room at Paula's law firm where she befriended many people. Most importantly, she met and began a business relationship with Herrigan Schütelmayor. Inspired by the wealth, fortune, contacts and overall life of the old man, Darlene eventually pursued and earned her own law degree to the delight of all. However, Paula secretly rejected Darlene's achievement, seeing it as yet another of her "shortcut" schemes. Refusing to view her younger sister as a real lawyer, and frustrated that she earned a law degree so easily while she had to work hard her entire life to build her own career, Paula covertly blocked her sister from working at the local law firm as a lawyer. When Paula's partner, Margot, was forced to deliver the news, Darlene mistakenly blamed her for the decision. Shortly thereafter, Darlene quit her job at the mail room to become a solo practitioner.

## Personality and traits

Darlene Bombstockings is a highly intelligent, cunning, manipulative person who is a dedicated criminal lawyer and also a complete conwoman at heart and overall is a person who will resort to whatever measures to achieve her own goals or protect her client's interests.

Her period of life in Verlinhall covers Darlene's transformation into a dedicated and effective criminal lawyer. Darlene is introduced as a struggling attorney, often forced to defend clients in loser cases and overall barely makes ends meets, and to make matters worse, her highly successful lawyer sister Paula, is mentally ill and Darlene takes it upon herself to care for her sister. Despite this, when she first introduced Darlene is nowhere near the person she will eventually become and is a kind and caring person who desperately wants to be successful and put her lawyer skills to good measure. She has good relations with most of the people she knows notably Herrigan and Wilhelm.

In spite of this, it is gradually revealed that Darlene is truly more conwoman than a lawyer. It is shown that Darlene has been a crook from an early age, in which she stole from her kind father's corner store, eventually resulting in it's bankruptcy and her father's death and engaged in multiple con games in order to steal money from unsuspecting victims. It was only after being arrested for defecating through a door and facing serious charges that Darlene gave up her life as the master conwoman "Sweetie Willie" and moved with her sister to the port. Darlene has never expressed any signs of remorse for her con artist past, nor the damage she inflicted on others, notably her father and overall enjoys the thrill of tricking people and furthering her own interests.

Darlene's relationship with her older sister Paula was one of the primary catalysts for her transformation into a criminal lawyer as Paula was shown to despise her sister for her manipulative and delinquent ways and took every opportunity to sabotage her in order to prevent her from becoming a successful lawyer as she knew that Darlene would always be a conwoman and resort to unethical measures to get her way, though Paula's attempts would only fuel the fire and would push Darlene closer and closer to her true criminal nature.

Throughout the events of Verlinhall, Darlene eventually transforms from a struggling attorney focused on doing the "right" things into a master manipulator and reverts back to her conwoman persona. She is shown to be willing to resort to whatever measures necessary in order to gain clients and to ensure that her clients, who are complete criminals, avoid arrest such as manipulating police, fabricating evidence and even stealing from her clients for blackmail purposes. Despite this, Darlene still uses her manipulation skills for good as seen when she saved two of her comrades from being murdered by Herrigan himself by talking him down to breaking their arms, legs and chest instead and also sabotaging her sister Paula's files in order for Herrigan to get his clients back. Regardless however, Darlene is vain, arrogant and selfish. She is completely focused on her own interests and is willing to ruin people's lives in the pursuit of her interests. For example, she turned a kingpin's friends against him just in order for her to settle on a large case and receive her cut. Mostly, she proves her sister's mental illness in court in order to get off easy following being arrested and charged as a result of Paula's actions, even through she was truly guilty in the manner. Darlene is also spiteful as well as seen when she deliberately revealed her sister's mental illness to an insurance company for revenge for her actions and this would eventually be the one of the primary catalysts leading to her sister's tragic suicide. Despite this, Darlene felt enough remorse to repair her mistake with her client by purposefully exposing her actions in a way that repaired the woman's friendships and presumably destroyed all of her own credibility with her clients in the process. However by the two years prior to Herrigan's second demise*,* Darlene is shown to be even more cruel and non-caring as she shows barely any remorse for her older sister's tragic suicide, despite the fact that she is partly responsible and happily allows Margot to feel all the guilt over the situation; in a way following her sister's advice to no longer feel remorse for her actions and embrace who she is. Darlene is shown to be willing to resort to even more extreme measures to get her way such as threatening three children thieves with death if they interfere with her street services and feigning remorse for her sister's death simply to get reinstated as a lawyer and gleefully mocking the panel afterwards to Herrigan.

She is shown to be a complete criminal lawyer who maintains extensive connections within the criminal underworld, and serves as a go-between connecting drug distributors, evidence removers, impersonators, and other criminals-for-hire. Despite her flamboyant appearance and mannerisms — punctuated by her outrageous low-budget Goblinvision commercials — Darlene is a highly competent lawyer who is able to solve problems and find loopholes in order to protect her clients. She is also not without integrity as she is shown to honor the ethical concerns of her profession, particularly the attorney–client privilege, and is reluctant to be associated with violence or murder unless absolute necessary. With a sleazy manner that is sometimes bordering on comical, she might seem disreputable to police and certain other lawyers. Despite her fantastically shady appearance, Darlene is indeed a highly competent extra-legal operator, adept at sniffing out legal loopholes and able to negotiate cherry deals on the behalf of her clients

## Deaths

### Murders connected to Darlene

* **Herrigan Schütelmayor**: Drawn out by Darlene and lured into a trap so that a regiment of sharpshooters could shoot him to death with truesilver bullets.

### Deaths connected to Darlene

* **Marcon Bombstockings**: Darlene's embezzlement of nearly 500 golden coins from her father's small corner store over the years contributed to its bankruptcy and closure and also her father's untimely death six months later as a result of her loss of the store.
* **Paula Bombstockings**: After Darlene deliberately revealed her sister's mental illness to an insurance company out of spite, a conflict between Paula and Margot erupted which ended with Margot forcing Paula out of the law firm when she threatened to sue the firm's insurer for raising their rates over Paula's mental illness and this would be a vital contributing factor to Paula's tragic suicide.