Reference artwork created by Darren Bartley, also known as fightPUNCH
B I O L O G I C A L / P H Y S I C A L I N F O R M A T I O N
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 137 lbs
Blood Type: A-
Hair Color/Length: Black / Shoulder-length
Eye Color: Unknown
Facial Features: Unknown; cybernetic mask fused to skin
Body Type: Thin; malnourished
Scars/Tattoos: Multiple scars across upper body; ID tattoo across inside of left wrist
Piercings: None
Apparel: Black sneakers; black denim jeans, ripped; light blue sweatshirt; oversized hooded windbreaker (midnight blue); torn cloth draped over the head; cybernetic mask; multiple mechanical parts embedded into shoulders and head
S O C I A L I N F O R M A T I O N
Full Name: Senna Griffon Guillain
Aliases: Sen; Shell
Sanction: Korven Outskirts
Occupation: Homeless; formerly subjected to medical experimentation
Relationships: Dr. Joseph Havadi, former therapist; "Lucid", HALO dealer
P S Y C H O L O G I C A L I N F O R M A T I O N / A N A L Y S I S
Likes: HALOs, isolation, sleep
Dislikes: Questions, being sober
Hobbies: Using HALOs, dumpster diving
Interests: Seeking vengeance against those that ruined him
T R A I T A S S E S S M E N T
Positive Traits: Dedicated, imaginative, patient
Neutral Traits: Casual, private, sarcastic
Negative Traits: Angry, cynical, escapist
Illnesses: Depression, PTSD
Subject exhibits a need to escape from reality; has expounded on a desire to "seek vengeance (against? Why?)". When sober and under questioning, subject exhibits traits closely related to frustration and anger. Behavioral therapy has proven ineffective, as he seems to rebuff all attempts to help. Little is known about his private life beyond the loss of his family some time back; I'm hard-pressed to wonder if it's because of the HALOs affecting his memory or his tendency to isolate himself. Despite not opening up about personal details, he seems to display a rather unreal fantasy and often elaborates at length about an imaginary realm where he rules as king. Recommending chemical pacifiers and consistent surveillance to prevent him from becoming a danger to himself and others.
- Dr. Havadi
B I O G R A P H Y
Senna's life before Baruel remains an elusive mystery. He found his way to the city with his wife, Miriel, and then infant son, Lochne. Immediately, he showed an aptitude for technology, working his way into the job sector through wiring work. Through effort, talent, and word-of-mouth, companies in the sanction of Eden would soon pick up on a new, yet experienced machinist. His family would be moved into the upper sectors, able to live a life of luxury as Senna worked tirelessly to craft a better future for those he cherished.
Detractors inside the company would uproot their lives in less than a year, framing Senna for a corporate mistake that resulted in the deaths of several people. Senna and his family would be exiled from Eden, plunging back down into the slums of Korven with no money to their names. Though he would protest and attempt to shutter the business for which he slaved away, his efforts amounted to nothing.
Life would become even more unbearable when several members of a local gang stormed into their living quarters and demanded everything they own. Senna refused to budge. As punishment, his attackers would brutalize and beat both he and Miriel. Miriel would perish in the attack, her body and child abducted. Helpless, he watched them disappear before his very eyes. He would never find them again, presuming his son dead after searching so long. In the hopes of escaping death, he fled to the outskirts of Korven, where he remains to this day, aimlessly wandering and without a home.
To cope with the trauma, he would turn to HALOs; small, flat techno-narcotic chips that, when inserted into a cybernetic implant, would induce hallucinations and feelings of euphoria in the user. It would prove to be an addiction to such an extent that he would often undergo medical experiments involving cybernetic augmentation, resulting in a mask being fused to his face and several mechanized canisters implanted into and wired through his shoulders and head. These trials would provide him money to afford HALOs from the local drug dealer, known only as "Lucid".
At one point, Senna tried therapy, and a doctor named Joseph Havadi was willing to see him, looking forward to alleviating the nightmares that plagued his psyche day and night. These sessions, while seldom revealing, were largely ineffective, with Senna demanding both vengeance against his enemies and more HALOs so that he could "return to the world where he was king". Little was learned beyond the realization that there was a deep rage boiling within him, and what form that rage would take has yet to be seen.
::NICKNAME//ALIAS:: Joe. The President of MARCO. Great Leader. Asshole. Dick-tator Joe.
::Age::: Fifty Seven.
::Gender:: Male.
::Sexual Orientation:: Heterosexual.
::Ethnicity:: Caucasian.
::Appearance Details:: Joseph is a large, pale man weighing a little over 350 pounds and standing a stout five foot seven. His remaining hair is a salt and pepper mix of what used to be a full head of jet black hair. His green eyes remain gentle and bright in the midst of his overall constantly switching demeanor. He is always seen in public wearing an perfectly altered suit. Anyone that gets close would detect a deep scent of cigars and evergreen trees. His hygiene is questionable at best but no one would say otherwise.
::Tattoos, Piercings, Scars, Other:: Joe has little to no marks upon his skin, any that he has received have been taken away.
::Brand Tattoo Placement:: Right wrist. Alternated slightly to be fashionable.
::Assets and Bank Account:: Being the president of MARCO has it's benefits. Joseph is arguably the richest man in Eden if not the richest in all of The Gardens. He owns the largest technology company in the midst of Eden, it towers above all and everyone. His home sitting on the top floor of the building he runs below. He owns and brags about owning the largest baby farm in Baruel, and not spending a dime on it.
::Gang Affiliation:: None. Gangs are ruining the city. Disgusting. Vile creatures.
::Occupation:: President of MARCO.
::Sanction:: Eden.
::Favorite Season:: Fall.
::Personality:: Dangerous. Two Faced. Gluttonous. Ecstatic. Optimistic. Wealthy.
Joseph is not truly a pleasant man but he likes to pretend and actually believes that he is. The face of the city, his double chins pulled up into a hearty smile. He speaks wonderfully about the town that is below his feet, and he honestly believes that his namesake and town is blossoming into a place that their fore-fathers could never have imagined. His advertisements and campaigns are always above the top and well received by most, but while the ideas are good the execution is lacking. Could explain while he can't hold a wife or procreate.
::Likes and Dislikes::
✚ Pudding. ✚ Bird watching. ✚ Pornography and other mature content. ✚ Others working hard to make him his money. ✚ Smooth jazz.
✖ Gang activity. ✖ His Ex-wife. ✖ Vegetables and fruits. ✖ Hair growth products that don't work. ✖ Having to meet and greet with Korven residents.
::Hobbies and Interests::
▶ Downloading videos, images, and other questionable items on his personal laptop. ▶ How to improve life within Eden and how to encourage people to just be richer already. ▶ Trying new and exotic foods, like Chinese on Wednesdays instead of Thursdays.
::Small Biography:: Joseph was born to two doting parents in the highest class of Eden a little over 50 years ago. His father before him was the president of MARCO and his father before him was the founder of the community when all things went to hell. Before this he was a leader in technology but nothing quite like what is established now. Joe was spoiled in sense of the word, he asked for everything and received all of it, and still continues to live a selfish lifestyle. Hence why his first wife left him. She enjoyed the luxuries for the few years that they were together but soon realized that money didn't always equal happiness.
Currently Joseph is working behind the scenes thinking of new and better ideas for his company and trying to find someone to breed with so he can teach his son or daughter the secrets, in and outs, and luxuries of Baruel.
::Family Members: Father: Joseph Scott Morvai - Deceased Mother: Anna Mae Morvai - Retired/Eden Senior Living
::Relationships:: My Fucking Ex-Wife: Any Interested? More to come... !
ᴀᴘᴘᴇᴀʀᴀɴᴄᴇ ᴅᴇᴛᴀɪʟs // Growing up Monique was always on the petite side, she is five foot two and just a tad under one hundred and ten pounds. The upcoming baby is making her gain a few pounds, but she is still relatively small in stature. She has caramel skin that gets quite dark in the summer heat and dark features to match, her hair and eyes are both a deep brown. Intimating but alluring. Monique would like to dress up and be a bit more manicured now and again but she doesn't take priority in it when getting ready for the day.
ᴛᴀᴛᴛᴏᴏs, ᴘɪᴇʀᴄɪɴɢs, sᴄᴀʀs, ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ // Several tattoos, piercings, scars and altercations litter Monique's body. She has had a rough upbringing and has had to be a hard worker, regardless if she got a little dirt underneath her fingers now and again.
ʙʀᴀɴᴅ ᴛᴀᴛᴛᴏᴏ ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇᴍᴇɴᴛ // Left wrist.
ᴀssᴇᴛs ᴀɴᴅ ʙᴀɴᴋ ᴀᴄᴄᴏᴜɴᴛ // Monique does not have much to her name. From working she has about five hundred dollars on her account. She does not own any real estate, constantly couch hopping or sleeping at work. Her mother left her some money but it was all spent fairly quickly.
Monique is a pretty average young woman of Korven, she has her good days and bad days- but knows a strong back is required to keep your head afloat. Her parents were swept away with substance abuse, and so she too was wrapped up in the lifestyle. When she became pregnant (about two ago) she decided to work on her problem and try to clean up her act. This has proven extremely difficult but she desperately wants to keep her child safe from harm. She hopes to not be swayed by MARCO for her child once it is born, but she can't say she hasn't thought about it several times before.
sᴍᴀʟʟ ʙɪᴏɢʀᴀᴘʜʏ // Jameson and Mia were moving between higher and lower class Korven as often as the seasons. The two were both madly in love with another, and their own parents who were fairly well off in Korven could not intervene their troublesome ways no matter how much they tried. The two had a whirldwind of a relationship until they conceived their first child. Mia had a few run ins with Jameson during this time but for the most part she went back to her parents until Monique was born and Jameson showed back up with promises for a better life.
A better life never came.
Monique was five when her mother overdosed. Her father and her mourned together for quite awhile before they went back to the struggle. For her 16th birthday her father got her a job with The Kings being an exotic dancer. The pay was good and Monique was able to build up a little life for herself. The lifestyle became a little overwhelming as Monique fell too into the same patterns her parents had before her. Not too long after the high, she fell pregnant with a client's child. It wasn't expected but it was her life now and she would be doing her best to give that child a life she didn't have. Hopefully history doesn't repeat itself.
Appearance Details: Elena is of above average height, standing at just about 5'8. Her body is toned due to her rigorous exercise regimen paired with self-defense classes. She has blonde hair and light gray eyes, although her most striking feature is her birthmark: a white streak of hair which is at times camouflaged with a matching dye.
Tattoos, Piercings, Scars, Other: Cherry blossom tattoo branching out from her left hip bone and wrapping up to the area between her shoulder blades.
Brand/ID Tattoo Placement: Right wrist
Assets and Bank Account: Elena and her husband both own their two-story home. They have a decent savings account, although it is nowhere near six figures.
Gang Affiliation: None
Occupation: Psychiatrist
Sanction: Eden
Favorite Season: Winter
Personality: Caring, imaginative, witty, cocky, daredevil, impatient. Elena's mood is highly dependent on her surroundings. At work, she's calm and collected, offering a relaxing ambiance to her patients, and off the clock she's a social butterfly who is almost always looking for a new adventure. Despite her energy, Elena has her lazy days where she lounges around with her husband and has a drink or two.
Likes and Dislikes: Likes animals and nature, working out, cleanliness, good food. Dislikes being around smokers, indecisiveness, and seafood.
Hobbies and Interests: Reading, working out, occasionally redesigning her home, playing the piano, languages.
Small Biography: For the most part, Elena's childhood wasn't too out of the ordinary. She grew up in a relatively comfortable home with her father being a surgeon and her mother an engineer. School was something she never struggled with since she actually enjoyed learning, especially if the subject was science. Despite the fact that she was only child, Elena wasn't the least bit spoiled nor was she selfish. Since she was a little girl, she's always loved helping others. Her first option career-wise was to be a teacher, but she changed her mind and pursued her current profession after realizing adequate mental health was nearly non-existent.
Elena met her husband, Damien, when she was just about to finish her studies. They got engaged after being in a relationship for roughly 3 years and married 6 months later. The couple has been trying to have a child for about a month with no success.
Family Members: Her parents Ivan and Maria, both in their late 50s and expecting to retire soon.
Rha’s most distinct feature is his oddly colored skin. It is actually a product of some altered form of albinism. Essentially, when in shadows his skin is a dark brown, yet, when exposed to light, his skin takes a much paler tone. In fact, even his tattoos invert due to this genetic abnormality to forever clash against his skin. It’s his physical features that speak to his ancestry, which is predominantly african. He stands at six feet tall, possessing a rather athletic muscular build due to his genetics and the nature of his work.
Tattoos, Piercings, Scars, Other: He has many non too distinctive slash marks around his torso left from his amateur days. Along both of his arms, are numerous small black, interlocking ring tattoos in an asymmetrical pattern.
Regulated Information
Brand/ID Tattoo Placement: Right Wrist
Assets and Bank Account
The way his occupation works, he does differing jobs which make his funds fluctuate, though never less than the minimum for his father’s medication. Though, he possesses three different bank accounts, two originating in Korvan, and one that receives payments from Eden. Not to be too specific, if he were to do what he does long enough he could eventually end up in Eden.
Gang Affiliation
Has had jobs related to both but never found himself directly part of them.
Occupation: Mercenary
Sanction: Korven
Personality
Iron-Willed, Honorable, Contemplative
Withdrawn, Wrathful, Remorseless
Rha is rather reserved as a person and most often prefers to keep to his inner circle. He’s fairly laid back though when his emotions are flared, it is a sight to behold. The young man frequently has a thousand yard stare that can make it appear as though he sees right through a person. When he sets his mind to something, it’ll take the world to end for him to change course. What’s more, he’s not too much of a talker, and the combination of these factors could make him very intimidating.
Favorite Season
Winter
Likes and Dislikes
L - Music, Reading, Children, His Father, Animals, Observing
D - Stereotypical Rich People, Liars, Rain, Red(Color), ‘His Creators’,
Hobbies and Interests
Freerunning, fighting, sports, history, exploring, and finding the truth.
Small Biography
A lot of Rhamses' past is shrouded in mystery, even to himself, as his farthest memory back is when he was six years old. Everything before that, blank. He grew up with two parents, Baba and Karen. When he was young, he at least remembered, he thought that she was his mother, though, he didn’t look like her at all. Or anyone else. He asked why but that was when she told him where he came from. The story shattered whatever childhood he had.
He was...created? Experimented on by the ‘Reapers’? Supposed to be the one that left the town that could survive the wastelands? To escape the trap? Baba saved him; and Karen. But not his mother? Baba always spoke about his mom, yet, that woman wasn’t Karen. Rha never saw the woman he talked about.
Whenever he asked about it, Baba cried, so, Rha stopped asking him about it. Karen tried to take the truth back when Rha hounded her with questions instead. Pushing him to live his life. To do his utmost to gain the life in Eden his father tried to give him. That some things were better left untold. He didn’t believe her. That phrase didn’t exist in Korven.
One thing was for sure, that The Seeker would find the truth.
Name: Jason Ryker Nicknames/Alias: In fights, his nickname is The Raven Age: 24 Gender: Male Sexual Orientation: Straight Ethnicity: Caucasian
Appearance Details: As a Lightweight fighter, Jason stands at about 5' 10" and weighs approximately 154 lbs. He sports an athletic, muscular build from working out and, of course, fighting. He sports jet black hair that is usually streaked back and shaved at the sides, a characteristic that earned him the nickname "Raven".
Tattoos, Piercings, Scars, Other: Jason's body sports plenty of scars from his violent past, most notably a large stab wound beneath his left pec (just missing the heart and lung). He also bears a tattoo of the Pure's insignia on the centre of his back, which he is unable to hide in fights. Brand/ID Tattoo Placement: ID Tattoo on the left wrist Assets and Bank Account: Not being in any of the Eden pro circuits means Jason isn't a global star fighter, so his account has around $800, and an 'apartment' which consists of a sleeping bag, a table and two chairs, a microwave and a punching bag. He does, however, own a classic Harley Davidson Ratrod
Jason usually keeps to himself. In his eyes the less people he has connections with, the less chance his past will catch up to him and hurt those he now cares about. He's usually calm and quiet, but he can no longer turn a blind eye towards injustice. While crime is rife throughout Korven, Jason holds the particularly deplorable in high contempt. If you hurt the purely innocent or someone he cares about, then the curtain peels back and his old, violent nature begins to seep through once more until his job is done. By fighting for competition and no longer for his own gains, Jason seeks his own redemption from his past.
Likes and Dislikes: ✚ Fighting within matches ✚ Eden's food ✚ Training ✚ Music ✚ Motorbikes
✖ Needless Violence ✖ Injustice ✖ The Past ✖ Cheaters ✖ The Pure
Hobbies and Interests: As his occupation suggests, his main hobby/job is pro fighting... well... as Pro as you can get in Korven. He enjoys all aspects of it, including training and preparing for fights. While he's skilled in most areas of MMA's, his true skill lies in strikes such as punches, elbows, knees and kicks.
Small Biography: Jason grew up in the lowest slums of Korven, his mother earning income as the local whore while his father was busying himself with drinking and scrapping with anyone who looked at him the wrong way. Looking at it this way, fighting was kind of in Jason's blood. This pretty much gave him free reign to do practically anything when he was growing up. Following his father's footsteps, Jason would see his fair share of fights throughout his teen years. At 15, he stole some tapes from a window and managed to find a player. They were clips of old fights... Like Scrap fighting but a little bit more tame. Jason would watch the tapes religiously, practising some of the motions as he did.
Through this, it helped further his fighting skills and he started to become a lot better at it. A year later, he stole from the wrong people and they noticed. Two gang members decided to teach him a lesson. He tried to put up a good fight but it was clear these guys were in another league compared to Jason. However, they saw the potential and decided to give him a shot. With no one to tell him no and the promise of power, how could he resist? Jason joined the Pure at 16 and slowly worked his way up to becoming one of the top Enforcers. The Pure gave him a new route to channel his skills to hone them into a lethal level.
No one in the gang knew for sure, but after seeing and committing many atrocities in the Pure's name, Jason left. To this day, his acts still keep him up, and his past always seems to catch up. With a brand on his upper back representing the mysterious Gang, Jason can run as much as he wants to but no one ever really leaves. In an attempt to battle his demons, Jason uses his skills for competition and, in certain cases, defending those who cannot.
Family Members: None, either dead or no longer on speaking terms. Relationships: Enoch. His ex-leader and commander for the better part of 7 years. While he's managed to stay clear from the Pure for about 6 months, he's not sure if he's out of their sights just yet and if Enoch ever forgave him.
"There I saw another vision; I saw the habitations and resting places of the saints. There my eyes beheld their habitations with the angels, and their resting places with the holy ones. They were entreating, supplicating, and praying for the sons of men; while righteousness like water flowed before them, and mercy like dew was scattered over the earth. And thus shall it be with them for ever and for ever. Amen."
Name: Enoch Nicknames/Alias: The Patriarch
Age: Eternal (34) Gender: Female Sexual Orientation: Bisexual Ethnicity: Caucasian
Appearance Details: Enoch might be a larger than life figure but in truth she stands at a modest height of 5'7" though she still cuts a rather imposing figure thanks to her physical presence. She has a body that has shown the signs of hard living, cut from marble, not bulky muscular but toned, fit, and with enough strength to bloody her knuckles with few punches. Her hair is kept short, short enough that the branded emblem of The Pure is always visible on the side of her neck. Her clothing skews to the darker color, to blend with the environments as she goes; ultimately she looks no different from a regular citizen, other than perhaps the fact that she is clearly not wanting for food or succor, this, of course, is by design. It adds to the belief that the leader of The Pure can be anyone, can be anywhere, can see everything, and be everywhere.
Tattoos, Piercings, Scars, Other: The most prominent tattoo is more of a scar, a branding of the insignia of The Pure that she has forever marked on her neck, just above her left collarbone. Numerous scars, including a burn, mar the right side of her body, up to her shoulder. The worst of it she has covered with a sleeve of tattoos, none of which mean anything. Her deepest scars are the ones that aren't visible; they exist in her head. Brand/ID Tattoo Placement: Left Wrist Assets and Bank Account: Every child of The Pure must pay their tithe in offering to The Patriarch which gives Enoch more than a decent amount of money even before factoring in the payments she takes on the sly from those in Eden who might need a helping hand from a heavenly father to do some dirty work. If The Kings control the more prominent clubs and hotspots for the Korven residents, it is The Pure who control the lifeblood of those establishments and the more hidden establishments for those whose tastes run a bit more secretly decadent. As Enoch does not donate her offerings, she is doing quite well for herself, as much as a gang leader can be considered doing well.
Gang Affiliation: The Pure Occupation: The Patriarch of The Pure Sanction: Korven Favorite Season: Spring Personality: Charismatic. Manipulative. Enigmatic. Tenacious. Merciless. Resolute.
A woman in Enoch's position has little left in the way of humanity, that was stripped away the moment the brand went on her neck. But she is not without her vices and attachments; she might not truly value the lives of others even her own 'children' but she does not end lives unjustly or cruelly. In that way perhaps she does know mercy. She is still rather fond of certain passions and though she shies away from illicit substances herself she is not above distributing them. This doesn't make her a hypocrite in her eyes, no more so than a weapon seller is a hypocrite if they practice pacifism. Enoch is a well read woman, inasmuch as can be read, and knowing full well the way people think of her children and the citizens of Korven this is an edge she uses to her advantage. She can play the dirty bottom feeder as long as she needs, she has endured this long by knowing when to strike and when the bide her time.
Likes and Dislikes: +Pleasures of the flesh, and not just those of a carnal nature +Noodles, specifically the broth +Watching a good fight, particularly those that are sanctioned. Doubly so if it's a death match. +Sermons
-Music other than those that have a piano/organ -Drugs and those addicted to them -Children who question her word -The ostentatious nature of The Kings
Hobbies and Interests: Reading from old texts and books of scripture Gardening, or what constitutes as such in the conditions Exercising
Small Biography: Enoch wasn't born Enoch, in fact 'Enoch the Patriarch' is, of course, a title she inherited once she become the new leader of The Pure. The Pure's system of hierarchy is such that only those in the upper ranks know the truth: that she IS Enoch; the Children of The Pure see Enoch as more of a Metatron figure, delivering messages and sermons from a faceless leader. It works, for the most part, and in this way a new voice for Enoch can be swapped out should she be rendered unable to do her job. Enoch has forgotten her birth name at this point, she's been Enoch for over ten years while having been a Child of The Pure from the age of five. She was discovered in an alley outside a drug den and was taken in with the promise of food and shelter. She was too young to realize it was a lie. She was too young for a lot of things.
Her survival instinct was what saw her through the ranks of The Pure. Her gender is what got her in with the previous Enoch, and it was those same survival instincts that she used to usurp the position for herself. There were some objections, but they were promptly silenced. Under her leadership, The Pure have become more visible in their activities, encroaching on The Kings territory but not yet crossing over the line to out and out gang warfare; she's even had meetings with Eden bigwigs. She has plans for The Pure, beyond just the immediate; that so few others who called themselves Enoch saw the true benefit in a cult-like gang of followers is beyond her. Sure, she has indulged in some of the sins of the past fathers, but her aim is much grander.
The question is how long until the next Enoch comes knocking.
Family Members: The Children of The Pure Relationships: Jason Ryker - He was once a child of The Pure and while The Patriarch has let him leave the flock, a good shepherd is always mindful of her sheep, even the wayward ones. It would be wrong to consider them friends.
"Stopping power is a myth until we start talking about landmines. Speaking of which, don't touch my stuff."
Known Aliases: 'Sammy'; 'Sharp' Age: 38 Years Gender: Male Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual Ethnicity: White British
Appearance Details: The former staff sergeant sports a tall and wiry athletic build, standing at about 6"0, bound with deceptively dense muscle and sinew. His hair is dense, thick, and untidy, dotted with streaks of grey and white. His eyes seem to dart constantly between any company he keeps, the door of the room they're in, and his own gun.
Tattoos, Piercings, Scars, Other: The left side of his face and head is peppered with streaks and dots of scar tissue from a fragmentation grenade explosion at medium range some years ago. His left arm bears a MARCO Security Solutions division tattoo, complete with regiment name, rank and serial number, and medical identifier - to be specific, the original insignia is a kite shield of blue and white, bearing a black sword crossed with a black hammer in front of it, all upon a field of cross-hatching. It used to glow thanks to implanted NanoLEDs, but no longer, as the entire design has been crossed out with a pair of scars inflicted with a kitchen knife. The term 'EOD' is still identifiable, however. His right arm is also tattooed with a full sleeve of cultural design, utterly covered with the intricate interlocking branches of an oak tree in an old celtic design. In minute text between some of the branches text in Welsh can be seen. Even Sharp doesn't know what it says. The area around his ID tag has been mutilated during several tampering attempts, and is now a mangled mess of purplish scar tissue that he is barely able to hide with makeup during his brief trips into Eden.
Brand/ID Tattoo Placement: Left wrist, integrated with the regimental sleeve tattoo of the MARCO Marines. Notably, it is surrounded by scar tissue left over from tampering.
Assets and Bank Account: Disseminated throughout a number of small private accounts with various different smaller banks, a grand total of 3000$ worth of currency can be found. A further $3K is stored in secure, intricately and paranoiacally trapped lockboxes, buried (or sunk into water) in a variety of discreet locations in Korven. In some of these lockboxes additional assets such as fake IDs or weapons can be found, but that's hardly reliable. For a lot of this, Sharp wasn't sober - either hopped up on combat stims, or in the depths of the paranoia. There may honestly even be boxes he doesn't remember and didn't record, containing money that is entirely lost to him.
Gang Affiliation: Sharp takes exceptional care to avoid antagonising either of the gangs, or being seen as favouring one or the other, at all. For him, the Kings are too overtly violent and unpredictable - even if this, in its own way, made them all too predictable - to be around. Their constant displays of bravado, their concept of face and honour and standing, it makes them prone to acting irrationally and finding people to blame. People like Sharp. The Pure are almost - but only almost - worse; their religious fanaticism and their obsession with subtlety make them equally dangerous and potentially much harder to plan for, and their involvement in the trade of humans, in part or in whole, is more than even Sharp will tolerate.
Occupation: Former MARCO Security Solutions explosive ordinance disposal specialist - informally, the MARCO Marines - and currently a private detective of sorts operating in both Korven and Eden (the latter more limitedly) out of a ramshackle office in the inner part of the Korven sanction. Nobody ever visits this office, of course, as it is wired to all fuck with explosives. After all, they're probably still looking for him, there's no way they don't know he survived.
Sanction: Permanent residence(s) in Korven, limited operations in Eden, under a false name and identification.
Favorite Season: Early autumn. The growing smell of decay and the increased rainfall, paired with decreased temperature leading to reduced diffusion of particulate matter through the air as a result, means that tracking via olfactory and thermal detection is more difficult. If you can't be tracked, you can't be found, killed, dismembered, and disposed of.
The former EOD Staff Sergeant Samuel Swinston is a pale shadow of his former self, half consumed by paranoia and fear, the remaining half kept from decay and destruction by nothing more than the breadth of a hair and the abuse of copious chemical stimulants; now known primarily as Sharp for the quickness of his mind and the nature of afflicted existence, stripped down to a ragged edge from the person he used to be. Even his bed is practically wrapped in tripwires - a holdover from the days where a smartly placed claymore was all that came between his life and a knife at night. In spite of all this, however, Samuel is still a genuinely bright and intelligent man, educated too. He thinks quickly and sees more than he lets on, drawing conclusions and working with them like a flash of lightning, sifting lies from truth and connecting the dots of the plot behind the plot. Apart from that, there is only the rare turn of compassion or generosity to show you that Samuel Swinston still exists as anything other than a legal name. Sharp is his name now.
On a psychological level, Sharp suffers intensely from survivor's guilt and PTSD.
Likes and Dislikes:
Likes:
Safety
Caffeine
Nicotine - but never through cigarettes or flavoured vapes, they smell too much, it lets people know you're there.
Adderall, ritalin, et al.
The rain, and the quiet. Thunderstorms too, ironically, but only when the thunder is more like a distant rumble. It's like white noise, it helps him take his mind off of... well, everything. It just keeps things under wraps.
Tea
Dislikes:
THE ENEMY
MARCO corporation and their various lackeys. They have eyes, they have eyes and they're always watching, just waiting for you to slip up. You slip up and then suddenly you're covered in your best friend's blood, ears ringing and your face stinging. Some of them - though only a few of them - might even remember what his face looks like. He still has nightmares every night, every single night.
The taste of watermelon. He's only actually had it once, but it wasn't sweet enough for him.
Overbrewed tea, or tea with too much milk. Or milk. It isn't really milk.
Being lied to.
Hobbies and Interests:
Electronics and electrical engineering
While it isn't much more than a hobby in passing at this point, Sharp found his skill with booby traps plateauing and started to pick up hobbyists manuals on the electrician's trade. They were surprisingly hard to find, as not many people want to go through an apprenticeship with no job at the end of it, but he has his contacts and he got his hands on them eventually. Now he's gone through his entire home with a fine toothed comb, looking for bugs. He found one once and rewired the receiver to pick up a pirate radio station broadcasting nothing but erotica from the 1980s. It was very amusing, and mostly by accident.
Demolitions and explosives
Another thing that Sharp finds oddly satisfying is the careful mixing of chemicals to produce exceptional booms. This he figured out mostly from his secondary education in Eden. It simply wasn't worth the risk of asking about, even in the shady environment of the Korven underworld. What he enjoys most is actually the weighing of individual ingredients and components more than the mixing or the results - nice, full, round numbers.
Journal writing
It's really more like reconnaissance notes, but Sharp keeps a journal. It's written in code, which itself is coded twice further, but it genuinely contains his deepest thoughts and innermost feelings. This is where those fleeting reflections of the original Samuel Swinston most frequently show themselves, even if most of it is still detailed notes on the passers-by of his flat and office.
Instant meals, takeaway food, and coffee left two minutes too long to be adequately hot or fresh
It's weird, you know. You stay on stakeout for too long, you follow marks too far, and you leave your home behind entirely... and eventually you simply forget what food you cook yourself tastes like. Or what food cooked for you by family tastes like. Eventually you become a sort of connoisseur of mediocrity and consumerism, learning the intricate differences between one questionable kebab and another, the delicacies of one brand of instant 'coffee' and another, the safer places to eat and the more dangerous food poisoning-y ones. It's a sad twist of reality, because when he lived in Eden good food and real cooking was actually his hobby there too - only he was the one doing the cooking, with real, hydroponically grown ingredients. Now he finds that anything he used to love turns his stomach and makes him upset. It's been years since he had tomato soup. It was his favourite food.
Small Biography: Samuel Swinston was born in the urban core of Baruel, in the heart of Eden, to a loving family as their second child of four. For Eden they were not well off, living a comfortable but stressed and cramped life in a home slightly too small for all of them, but well appointed and supplied nonetheless. Sam did not want for nothing, but was satisfied with what he had and lived a happy life. Despite the stereotypes of sibling relationships he also got along well with his brother and two sisters, developing close bonds with them and learning to easily enjoy their company in the downtime they had - and when the time came, he would follow his older brother's example and step into the MARCO Security corps as a tactical strike officer. Where the beat cops of MARCO are more like calmer SWAT, and the SWAT of MARCO are like poorly trained commandos, the TSO make up for it; they're given advanced and varied training in both sides of their job, police work and active combat, they're equipped with some of the best MARCO has to offer... and most importantly, they're all ready and willing to give their lives for the corporation, some of them even excited at the prospect. Their indoctrination is all but absolute, being groomed for the Tactical Strike Office since before their standard education certificate exams, being taught that MARCO is the last bastion of Order, Peace, and Purpose in the postmodern world after that, even being told that to die in service is an end to your life above all others, the surest way to guarantee your place in the halls of fame and the minds of the people. Sam took to the indoctrination for sure - but he was nothing compared to his brother. Stephen Swinston was a radical young man his entire life and everybody knew he would go far one way or far the other - a radical subversive, or a radical supporter - and it just so happened that he went in what everyone thought was the 'right' way. In his spare time his favourite topic of conversation was the duty they had to MARCO, the gifts MARCO had given them, and what they would do to the people threatening MARCO.
Immediately after that, his next favourite topic of conversation was craft beer, and girls. His brother always had the nicest smile. The squad had taken bets, they all reckoned he would settle down and get married first out of all of them.
Sam was put under his brother's command when he graduated from the MARCO Security Protocol academy, and served there first as a trooper and then as his brother's First Officer for a total of 7 years. It was a long and distinguished career that saw their squad go from reactive work to proactive work very quickly. Eventually they were selected to undertake support operations for the Clandestine Operations Office - which is to say, spy work - but the first blow came before even that.
There was an armed robbery ongoing in the outskirts of Eden, a few blocks in from the boundary keeping Korven out. Six suspects, four armed with long bludgeoning weapons, one armed with a machete, and the leader armed with what seemed to be a homemade shotgun from intelligenec reports at the time. The job they were trying to pull - snag some valuables from a luxury vendor and pull back into Korven before anyone showed up - had gone wrong before the police were even called, when one of the store workers had tried to pull a taser on their assailants and had her hand cut off for her trouble. Intelligence also suggested that these men were members of the Kings, which in conjunction with the fact that a civilian had already been maimed, and that some mid-level manager had a personal interest in the plae, meant that SWAT wouldn't cut it and the TSO were being deployed. Their squad was made of ten men, four going in with riot shields through the front door, two coming in from the roof, and the remaining four split between the side entrances.
Sam had been expected crazed killers, torturing their hostages, painting themselves with blood, killing indiscriminately and too drugged up to care about anything but hurting people... and instead, when he came in through the roof, he found two of them weeping and holding eachother, paralysed by fear. They were brother and sister, it would later turn out, and they weren't members of the Kings or the Pure. The sister had been the one to overreact when her brother was tazed, and she had swung without thinking - she hadn't even really taken the hand off, that had been another misreport (accidental or otherwise) by the scouts. They'd just panicked. They were just people, they were only doing this because they were starving. All of this didn't occur to Sam until later, however, and they killed them both in cold blood.
The fight lasted less than a minute after entry. The only serious resistance came from the guy with the shotgun, which turned out to be a prop without ammo that he just tried to use as a club. All six of their broken and perforated bodies were dragged into the street and laid out like meat, and that's when Sam started thinking, at long last finally thinking. These people had at their oldest been no more than 20, their youngest no more than 15, and his brothers in arms had slaughtered them - he had slaughtered them, like they just didn't matter.
He tried to shower it away and he couldn't. Scrubbing couldn't get the dirt out. Drinking did.
In a weird subversion of what you would expect a rational man to do when confronted with the moral darkness of his life, he threw himself deeper into his work and clung onto his brother's strength even harder. He woke up every morning with their faces - broken and fractured and pulped as they were, stained with tears and blood - fresh in his memory, clearer than anything else he had ever seen, and then he went to work and trained harder than any man had ever told him he could. He went from a fine point to a razor's edge, with a quick trigger finger and a mind like cut glass - Sharp, and Clear. As his team matured and passed the trial by fire customary for their kind, they began to specialise as individuals too - Stephen, his brother, took advanced training in negotiation and leadership, the Koslov twins took marksmanship and sniper school classes, Brigitte decided she really liked the riot shield and started practicing at what they called 'Dynamic Battlefield Alteration'.
Sharp, as he'd started getting called, was getting knee deep in demolitions and bomb disposal. His superiors reckoned he had the nerve for it and in the beginning they were completely correct.
But he never forgot the Outskirts Six, and it kept happening, not just to people from Korven. He grew hard and cold, the easy charisma and intuitive, empathic personality being washed out of him like colour from a painting. His mind became calculating and flint - but through it all, regret and fear began growing.
With the regret and the fear, there finally came the idea - what if I tell my brother? I have to tell my brother. He needs to see, he would want me to make him see what we're doing. He's a good man, he deserves to be free of this, if I feel like I do then how must he be feeling? I can't let him be alone in this, we have to get out. It's our duty now to abandon our cause, that's all the duty we have. We have to get out.
Before they could get out though, they were pulled deeper in.
The Spy work they did mostly consisted of armed support and heavy hitting for a group of intelligence operatives on the barest outskirts of Korven, in the shittest and darkest corners of the un-city, doing some real shady shit for some shadier people. Their official area of operations was normally limited to Eden when they were functioning as a police unit, which meant that they were acting illegally as cops, or above the law as something else. Sharp, not being stupid, was not under the illusion that the police had ever been under the power of the regular law, and similarly was not constrained by the belief that they were anything more than disposable, deniable assets at this point. His training as an explosives officer was instrumental to the operations they were undertaking - namely, demolishing a slum block suspected to house a drug lab exporting into Eden as part of the token efforts by the police to control the drugs crisis, burying everyone inside it with the building. This was the kind of thing that would be attributed to the lab itself suffering a catastrophic mixing failure, or something like that, and it was part of a larger series of sting-and-boom operations in the same few year span, but while undercover in Korven he kept his eyes open and started seeing what the people there would do if they realised what was going on. They would do the same thing plenty of the folks in Eden would do in the same situation.
They'd tear MARCO apart, staff included.
MARCO had to know this. They were idiots sometimes, but they knew their shit - after all, even if they somehow lacked a particular expertise they could just hire it in. This then led Sharp to believe that in the name of information quarantine, his own squad would be on the chopping block - or under the burning rubble, as it might be - as soon as the op was over. In a stroke of mixed luck, the squad believed him when he broke down and told them - and in a stroke of undeniably poor luck this then led the rest of them to the natural conclusion of confronting their Intelligence Operative handlers.
This didn't go well.
"You must think we're really stupid if you think we haven't seen what happens next, spy boy." Stephen growled, hand reflexively bound to the matte polymer of his sidearm, tucked into a concealed holster in his jeans.
"I dunno what you're talking about mate. We stick together, your kind and ours." Their covert colleague retorted, his eyes bloodshot in the yellow glow of the basement lighting. They'd been using the place as a meet spot for the past week and Sharp had a feeling this guy was allergic to it. The spy was a thin, sallow man with filthy blonde hair and stained teeth. Some of it was a disguise. All of it was disgusting.
"Don't lie to me any more than you have. Eden would burn if Korven figured what we were doing here, so you're burning us before we can leak the secret." Stephen snarled back at him, pressing on the conversation. They had the spy outnumbered three to one in this, Stephen, Sam, and Brigitte, with the twins upstairs with the Spy's other mates and the other half of the squad across town. If it came to a fight, one of the squad might take a bullet or a knife wound assuming the guy was faster than they expected or he got the first move in, but he would go down sure as shit.
The spy inhaled sharply when Sharp took a menacing step forwards with fury in his eyes and an improvised dagger.
"Fuck! Fuck, fine! Yeah we did! We had instructions to burn the team at the end of the op or if you started getting paranoid - clearly I waited too fucking long!"
Stephen punched him in the mouth with a wet crunch, sending the operative to the dirty brick floor and knocking off his fake nose. Sharp hadn't noticed that one.
"You're gonna call it off, tell them we're too useful and that we can be trusted, and then we're gonna hit the last spot and head back to Eden for pink gin and lemonade, alright handsome?"
"Jesus, are those teeth real? I was hoping they were the fake bit." Brigitte chimed.
"Sure, but it's not me who makes the call. It's gotta be done with my whole team. It's an anti-subversion measure - hey, don't hit me again, please."
Sharp's hair stood on end.
"What?" Sharp muttered, the prickling on his neck keying a realisation.
"What." Stephen replied, louder, not taking his eyes from the folded form of the spy on the floor.
"What?" The spy added.
"That doesn't make any sense. You wouldn't even need to vote on it, you'd just give the signal - and what if some of you got killed? The whole process doesn't make any sense for burning a team... unless..."
The spy's eyes widened, the stain of pain in his expression giving way to a similar realisation.
"Unless it didn't matter what we said. Unless they were gonna burn us all anyway."
"They've probably had a team on hand the whole time," Sharp began, "we've been being watched the whole op, we just didn't think to look for other spies like us because we figured nobody from Korven was gonna be on our level."
As the tension reached fever pitch a wave of 'oh fuck' crossed the room.
"They were always planning to kill us all."
"We've gotta get everyone out of here, both our teams need to bug out right fucking now, we can head for the edge of the city and see if working for the gangs will get us anywhere in terms of a bolt hole." The Spy began climbing to his feet. "Guys, I'm sorry about our differences, but we're gonna have to work together if we want to-"
The floor above them exploded into action, the harsh rattle of gunfire raking the room and the screams of their cohorts getting torn up piercing the air.
The fight didn't last long. A strike team from the TSO had been called in to launch an assault on a building in Korven where a rogue TSO squad had been hiding out and collaborating with members of the Pure and a bunch of ID chip smugglers, and they'd been the scapegoat. The Koslov twins and the pair of spy-types upstairs had gone down in the first wave of gunfire, riddled with holes with only enough time to turn their heads to the door in surprise when they heard the guns cocking. Stephen caught a bullet in the leg when the strike force started shooting blind through the floor and into the basement, and when the spy boy made a run for the back door he ended up literally being hit in the face with a frag grenade - the same one that gave Sharp his facial scars and probably killed Brigitte. The poor spy was blown to pieces, absorbing enough of the blast that it didn't kill the rest of them outright. Sharp had the good sense to fall back into a corner and play dead, but Brigitte was actually dead, and Stephen was going to try and fight it out anyway. The strike force came in and killed Stephen personally, but evidently fell for Sharp's play despite the noise he made when his brother bought it.
Or maybe they thought he was gonna die anyway when they brought the building down on him. It didn't quite work.
He managed to recover the go-fund for the operation and transfer it to a new bank account he opened with a fake ID, putting what was left over into dead drop boxes wired to fuck with frags and HE grenades. Once he had a small safehouse up, he got to work trying to remove his own ID chip and scratching out the old regimental tattoos he'd been left with. If he could help it, he wouldn't have traitor ink in his skin.
A year passed. He was living in body, but dead in heart and dying in mind. The TV held a memorial service for his squad, claiming they were all killed in a counter terror operation, even going so far as to hold a funeral with what looked like real bodies in the coffins - and the real Sam had gone down into the ground with them when they did. His neighbours knew him as Sharp, and in truth everything other than Sharp had been torn out of him when his brother got double tapped, and they brought the building down on top of the still-moaning Brigitte and the rest of the squad. His depression and his guilt ate him away from the inside as he gradually became obsessed with the idea that MARCO might know he's still alive, and come to finish the job. Sometimes he still has idle one sided conversations with their ghosts, while he works on his gun or checks the traps in his flat, telling them all about how he wouldn't let MARCO take him too. The paranoia was like a cancer, robbing him of his personhood and making him violent.
After a while and having burnt through most of the spy cash on stimulants and illicit homecooked explosives, he got it through his head that he would need to work at some point, and he went back to the only thing he'd ever done well.
Technically, he's a private detective. Really, he'll do most things if it pays well. He won't let the bad guys get him, even if he doesn't have anything to live for other than spiting them any more.
He just doesn't realise they'd forgotten him as soon as his brother died.
Family Members:
Parents:
Jack Swinston, 64, his father, who had believed his sons to be dead for the past seven years and only been over it for a month.
Maria Swinston, 62, his mother, who still thinks that at least one of her sons is alive and will never know the truth
Siblings:
Hazel Swinston, 34, his immediately younger sister, who studied law and still writes to Stephen and Sam in her diary
Ruby Swinston, 21, who has tasted HALOs and heroin at the same time, and wants to be writer
Relationships: None presently. Some scattered contacts and contract work, nothing significant.