| Patchwork | |
| Biographical Information | |
| Aliases | Modular Woman, Patchwork, Pat |
| Gender | Female |
| Class | Ace |
| Wild Card Traits | Remote operation of detached body parts, regeneration |
| Social Information | |
| Citizenship | Citizen of the United States |
| Occupation | Revolutionary, spy |
| Event Participant | Rox War |
| Base of Operations | The Rox |
| Allies | Bloat, Jumpers, Modular Man |
| Origin | |
Patchwork is a fictional character in the Wild Cards series.
A fragile female ace who fought on the side of Bloat and the Jumpers. She became the girlfriend of Modular Man.
History
Patchwork was a minor ace who joined Bloat's forces on the Rox. Originally, Patchwork was romantically involved with a jumper named Diego and the plan was for her to become a jumper like him. She and Diego would become fabulously wealthy and drive Lamborghinis. Unfortunately, Diego was killed by Black Shadow and the jumper's creator, Prime, was killed by Mr. Nobody before she could be given the jumper power. Patchwork later ran afoul of Black Shadow herself, but survived the encounter.
As the Rox Crisis entered its final days, Patchwork was assigned to the Rox's intelligence team because of her ability to retain control of her detached body parts. Patchwork had an eye stationed at the Aces High restaurant, while her other eye and an ear were stationed at General Frank Zappa's Brooklyn headquarters at Ebbets Field. It was while working with the Rox intelligence team that Patchwork first met Modular Man and they soon became friends. Modular Man rescued Patchwork's eye and ear from Zappa's aide after the sense organs were discovered and broke into Aces High to recover her other eye.
Patchwork's feelings for Modular Man grew, especially as she saw him struggling to cope with the moral repercussions of his actions and those of the jokers and jumpers he was helping. Unlike others on the Rox, Modular Man had no choice. He fought those that his creator, Maxim Travnicek, said were his enemies. With some subtle prompting from Modular Man, Patchwork eliminated the android's creator, though at great personal cost to herself.
Blown apart by the grenade that killed Travnicek, Patchwork's body is in a state of total disarray. Gathering up as much of her constituent pieces as possible, Modular Man left the Rox to its fate. Prior to fleeing for Canada, the android stole medical manuals to use as a guide in reassembling Patchwork's scattered form.
Wild Card Traits
Patchwork's body parts can be detached from her body and remain alive for up to a week before they decompose. Detaching the body parts is easy, as she is extremely fragile. She is connected to her detached body parts in such a way that, for instance, she can detach her ears for spying on conversations.
Patchwork's detached body parts have limited mobility allowing her to do such things as causing her detached eyeball to roll away from danger. If her detached body parts are not reattached before they decay, then Patchwork slowly grows a replacement.
Appearance
Patchwork is an attractive young woman with a slender build and brown eyes flecked with gold. While going about her duties on the Rox, Patchwork usually carries around an M-16 rifle.
Personality
Patchwork is an intelligent young woman who was initially motivated by a thirst for wealth and adventure, but gradually came to believe in the ideals of freedom and justice espoused by Bloat and the other more politically minded inhabitants of the Rox. Eventually, this brought Patchwork into conflict with her friends because she expected them to behave in accordance with their beliefs.
Trivia
- Like many inhabitants of the Rox, Patchwork developed a personal method for clouding Bloat's telepathic eavesdropping. Most often Patchwork sang songs or recited poetry in her head to screen her actual thoughts from the Governor of the Rox. Some of these works included The Battle Hymn of the Republic, the famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy from Hamlet, and Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky.
Selected Reading
- Wild Cards Volume Xl: Dealer's Choice