[A L T O N H A R R I S]
[31] | [Male] | [5โ0โ] | [O-]
General Information
NAME: Alton Harris
ALIASES // TITLES: Doc, Chef
SEX: Male
AGE: 29
APPEARANCE: Despite his accolades and bright view on life, itโd be hard to pick out Doctor Alton Harris in a crowd. Thatโs because heโs about five feet tall. Stocky, short, but standing with his head held high, Alton has crisp hazel eyes that compliment his tan skin and dark hair. Clean shaven, as facial hair would more than likely interfere with more than one of this several occupations. He has a sharp, pointed nose and bushy eyebrows, accompanied by lustrous, even luxurious eyelashes. However, you normally wouldnโt be able to see any of these due to his ubiquitous gas mask.
Alton prefers practicality to style, wearing a black poncho over a thick sweater with several pockets sewn in and heavy denim jeans. He takes on the appearance of a moving black lump, moving along on worn rubber boots. The only skin thatโs shown are his hands, which he prefers to keep clean. You can always notice a square bulge in his right pants pocket: A box of latex gloves for whatever...operations he might need to attend to on any given day
OCCUPATION: Alton Harris is a man of many talents, and thus many occupations. Due to a deep, deep feeling of obligation, Alton works restlessly towards helping people in need across the Reclaim Zone in a medical sense. However, this can beโฆ.quite taxing on the financial end of things. So, he has a daytime job of a takoyaki chef, serving food and making money. Not a lot, however. Food doesnโt make a lot of money, even during a lunch rush. Though, those involved in the more violent side of things soon realized that becoming regular customers and donating heavy sums to the stand might improve their chances of survival in the long run...if Alton was around and feeling nice enough. But with the value he places on human life, itโd be surprising for him to just leave someone to die.
CAMPAIGN TEAM POSITION: When heโs not doing his normal job of medical work/restauranteering, Alton is advising Campbell on policies that would help people in the Reclaim Zone live better lives and live longer using safer medical practices than the black market stuff thatโs more than common. He also is...just smart in general. And while he doesnโt talk much he holds very strong values. However, he tends to believe in humanity too much, which can lead to betrayal.
Psychological Profile
Optimistic | Kind | Trusting | Intelligent | Strong Moral Compass | Stoic
PERSONAL GOAL: In an attempt to escape drowning in the ever-present despair that has haunted him since that gloomy evening, Alton has dedicated his life to helping as many people as possible. It has resulted in loss, pain, more loss, more pain, and enough poor financial decisions to have an economist throw himself out a window in despair. Well, even though society itself seems to have problems with how Alton does things, he wonโt stop doing it. Because thatโs just how he is, yโknow?
CAMPAIGN GOAL: Between a corporate shill and a crime lord, the Reclaim Zone looked to be getting a whole lot worse a whole lot faster. So, Alton figured that supporting a candidate that seemed morally just and wanted to help people. Thereโs no real deep meaning to his support. He just wants to keep helping people, and Campbell is the way to do it.
PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY: Alton Harris has held a deep belief ever since he was young: Human life is precious. After being shuttled around Metrochicago for most of his childhood, bearing witness to both crimes and humanitarian acts that seemed to accomplish nothing in the long run, he became determined. Determined to ensure acts of kindness would not go unnoticed and definitely ensure they had an effect in the long run. This is what has driven him forward for most, if not all of his life.
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY: Alton is entirely apolitical. His world view revolves around morality, ethics, and saving lives as opposed to policy making. He also doesnโt trust himself when it comes to politics, as he has a degree of self awareness when it comes to how easy manipulated he is.
SECRETS: Even a man like Alton can have regrets. Things that keep him up at night. It was a mistake in the heat of the moment, really. Some corporate head rushed in for an emergency surgery at 2 in the morning. His augments...well, not augments. Evidently he had led an odd sort of lifestyle. Maybe he was just born that way. Or maybe Alton hallucinated that fact to cover up his regret. He let a man die that night. Not only that, but he cut a vein...somehow. Equivalent to killing him in cold blood. With a manโs life on his hands he fled Metrochicago.
FEARS: The past...his old life catching up to him. Revealing his sin to the people he considers his friends.
REPUTATION: In Metrochicago, and among corporate heads and investors, he is reviled. His slip up cost over a billion dollars in the long run, and robbed them of profit and ideas they could use to extend their reign in the future. However, Alton is well-loved in the Reclaim Zone due to the fact that he serves hot food and helps patch up people in need. Nobody tries to mess with him because heโs helped more people than most can count.
LIKES: Takoyaki, Helping People, 90s Soap Operas, Spicy Food
DISLIKES: Hot Coffee, Cruelty, Italian Food
QUIRKS: Alton likes the feel of holding a golf club, but despises the sport itself.
Background Information
โNow, this might sting right now, but itโll be over soon...โ
Doctor Alton Harris has never led the most distinguished life. Ever since the beginning, really. Alton Harris was the son of a prostitute. Well, the people are the orphanage, they figured he mightโve been the son of a prostitute. Given the area, given the time, given rumors, it was a given. But thatโs really just speculation. All thatโs known for sure is that one rainy night, on doorstep of an underfunded overwhelmed Metrochicago orphanage, a baby was left in a cardboard box with a note saying โAlton Harrisโ. A child that would go on to make an amazing series of mistakes.
Well, growing up in a less than caring environment, Alton learned that he shouldnโt speak more than he needed to. And this habit stuck with him through his whole life, really. Bullying was really common where he grew up, and he didnโt want to stick out more than he already did. In the beginning, he was mocked for his height mercilessly. Eventually the bullies moved on, however. But the experience stuck. This mixed with the lack of parental figure present in his life, and the seeming apathy of society towards his situation. Schools had really done nothing except force him to acknowledge the system and how it cheated him and others, and filled him with a soft sort of anger. A dangerous mixture, certainly, and on a certain day he made a choice that wouldโve led him one of two ways.
One day, while loitering about (As many neโer do well youths are likely to do in their free time) Alton heard a curious sound from an alleyway. After moseying over to investigate, he came upon a scene straight out of a movie: A fellow from his orphanage, bloodied bludgeon in hand, had just struck a passersby and was beginning to rifle through his possessions. Now, hereโs where the choice was to be made. Would he fight his fellow, following the path of righteousness? Or would he too partake in the pilfering, adding to his personal assets by quite a bit. Now, hereโs where Alton became unusual: He threw a stone to distract the robber, used some old cloth to stop the bleeding, and lugged the unconscious man to a nearby clinic. A human life was more important than any justice or wealth. When he arrived at the clinic, there was no line. People didnโt usually come in, due to the cost. But Alton wasnโt thinking about how much it would cost. This incident, and what followed, are what planted the seeds for his moral code.
Now, when he had properly checked in to the clinic, the nurses and doctors all reacted in a sort of shock. The man that Alton had decided to save for no real reason other than perhaps entertainment value was a doctor of a pedigree that could elevate him to a household name, should he have wished it. A truly talented man. Alton never did learn why he was walking around that part of town, that time of day, what had put him in a situation wherein he couldโve been bludgeoned to death by a surly orphan who was expressing his frustration towards society by committing crime. But, thanks to Altonโs actions, he lived another day. Well, Alton just left after that. Didnโt want anything. Didnโt take any credit. Dropped off the unconscious doctor, and went back to the orphanage. It was almost dinnertime, you know. At the time, Alton had settled into a sort of existential dread. He was 16. Only 2 years before heโd be out in the world by himself. Heโd given up all hopes of adoption, of course. The orphanage simply served as a place to stay. But inevitably thatโd be taken away. Thrown onto the streets, with nothing but a rudimentary public education and a short stature. Heโd be chewed up, killed, mauled, sold, or something like that. At least, thatโs what he thought. Always a pessimist, he had devolved into a sort of nihilism at the fact that his fleeting existence would soon come to a close.
Well, a year passed. A year of nothing but dread. Alton had come to terms with it, but a level of discomfort remained. Then, one day, as Alton was engaging in his pastime of throwing garbage into the already insanely polluted Chicago River, he was approached by a man of a height approaching his own, if not less. This surprised Alton, and gave him a slight tinge of joy. Well, the short man bowed and gave him a card. โDoctor George Marleyโ, thatโs what it said. A name that would forever be burned into Altonโs mind. Well, this Dr. Marley wanted to see Alton, and Alton couldnโt imagine why. Maybe he needed an organ donor, and Alton was an exact match. Maybe thatโs the best way to end my life, is what he thought. Nothing else in it for me. So he followed the man, into a covert sedan. Through the tinted windows, Alton saw it take him into the mega-wealthy part of downtown Chicago. Into the parking lot of some towering skyscraper. Up an elevator with shiny brass buttons and plush carpeting and all sorts of luxuries Alton could only ever dream of. Doors open, and who else sits behind the vast mahogany desk but the man that Alton saved a year ago.
George talked to Alton for an hour, maybe more. An amiable fellow, one that radiated a sort of kind aura. Alton had never encountered such a person. Perhaps if he had met him earlier, things would have been different. But who would know. Georgeโs demeanor spoke to Alton, on some level. And after George was done talking, and talking, and talking, he asked Alton what he wanted to do. What he wanted in life. In exchange for his help, heโd offer Alton anything heโd want. This...well, it was a breaking point. Kindness, a future, money. Things that Alton had deemed unrealistic goals. He just...started weeping. A deep sort of sob, one that came from the gut. Alton spilled his heart, talking about the nihilism thatโd overtaken him. And George listened, and listened, and listened as Alton spoke. And in the end, George offered to adopt him. Alton really couldnโt believe it.
This began a new life for Alton. Education, joy, and a family. And the seed that had been planted a year ago was watered, and bloomed. A life that was pleasant to live, but uneventful. His adopted fatherโs wealth, his kindness, it nurtured Alton. His education prospered, and his natural talent for medicine shone through greatly. Marley couldnโt have been more proud, really. This boy that had saved his life went on to distinguish himself in the medical field. But maybe there was a bit of...something in Marley. Something that was as unsatisfied with the life of comfort as Alton was with his life of destitution in the orphanage. One peaceful evening, George went out for a walk in the park, and vanished. No cameras picked him up, and no bodies matching his DNA or description were discovered. He had simply chosen to...not be there anymore. Or at least, thatโs what Alton thought. He had noticed the stirring in his father, if only slightly. But, it was too late now.
Alton sunk into a sort of depression. His father figure taken, he had lost a lot. Not enough to shake the moral tree that Marley had cultivated, however. But, fate seemingly conspired to take him down. Soon after Georgeโs disappearance, a late night patient came in. And, well, something was wrong with his biology. I suppose. Those high level executives had their bodies modified to live longer. And, well, when he moved a muscle aside to get to his deeper intestines, something that shouldnโt have burst went and burst. The death was....well, one could say unpreventable, but Alton didnโt view it that way. He viewed it as his own mistake, and the paranoia and nihilism from his youth set in again, if only for a moment. Before those in power could react to a major corporate death, Alton withdrew a large sum of money and fled to South City. More specifically, the Reclaim Zone.
After spending a month hiding in an apartment, moping, he finally had had enough. He began looking into the local culture, and found the potential Ripper Doctor enterprise as an effective way to try to atone for his past sins. But they charged money, something that Alton didnโt like doing, and they seemed more corrupt than heโd like. A conundrum, thatโs for certain. In the end, Alton decided to don a mask similar, but different to those normally worn by the Ripper Doctors: A modified gas mask that allowed him to read vitals. He then set out to atone, and to try and improve life for everyone in the Reclaim Zone.
Operative Information
AUGMENTATIONS: N/A
EQUIPMENT:
Vitometric Anthro-Scanner Version 2.3:
A scouter-type object thatโs been integrated into a gas mask from the twentieth century. It can complete basic biometric scans on most humans, and if anything is wrong on the surface level itโll alert Alton where/what is wrong with a patient
Rubber Coat:
A simple rubber coat/poncho which covers most of his short body. There are many pockets sewn in for whatever equipment he might need to carry.
Doctorโs Kit:
Generic tools, medicines, and cleaning supplies used. A first-aid kit but more advanced.
SKILLS:
Sum Of Our Parts:
Alton can use his knowledge of the human body and cybernetic implants allow him to temporarily render many individuals unconscious using pressure points and cybernetic weak spots, given they arenโt aware of his presence.
Niche Chef:
Alton can cook very well, given he has experience with whatever food heโs cooking in the past. He dislikes Italian food strongly, and is plain unable to mimic many common European cuisines. However, he can cook up other stuff with ease.
FLAWS:
Gullible:
Alton wants to help as many people as he can, which is a sort of weakness. If you present your case smoothly enough, Alton will be inclined to help. Thus, heโs quite the mark when it comes to scams. He falls for them nearly every time. This has come back to bite him in the ass several times, but he never seems to learn.
Weak:
While Alton might be a surgical whiz, heโs never done muscle training and it shows. Heโs not adept in weaponry, and is just bad at fighting in general. Besides, heโs vowed to never again violate the Hippocratic Oath.
NOTES: Alton may come off as stoic and standoffish, but he gets excited very easily internally.
I worked on this over 2 days and I was sick for one of them but I hope this works out. Forgive me if there's anything contradictory because I've been multitasking all week. Finals are killing me!
| Character name | Relationship |
|---|---|
| Cass Cantos | "Well, she seems nice enough. But, I feel like...Well, I'd rather not say. I hope she doesn't do anything foolish!" |
| S'venia | "Well, her heart is in the right place, but her attitude could use some work..." |
| Mackwell Fordwell Sloane | "Such vigor...such speed! I do hope he doesn't get himself hurt, but it seems inevitable that he will..." |
| Sister Blue | "She reminds me of a younger me...let's hope she brightens up sometime soon." |
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