Samoon - Alias while working under GENESIS alongside Oroshi. Refers to the hot whirling winds of the Saharan and Arabian deserts which toss around sand and reshape dunes.
Handsome Sam/Pretty Boy - Nickname from his former gang-members, almost exclusively used in a derogatory fashion.
Appearance
Age: 28Gender: MaleEthnicity: CaucasianSam stands at a sturdy 6’2” tall. His muscled frame, though still torn and singed from the many hazards in the wastes, would no doubt be seen as quite attractive were it not for the torn and burned flesh that is the right side of his face. Most of Sam’s body has some type of scar or nick with an accompanying story but his damaged face is unmissable, with burned flesh and chunks littering most of the right cheek, forehead and jaw along with a slight divot dragged down to the neck. Indeed, the damage is such that Sam’s right eye is a cloudy white compared to his, comparatively untouched, left side with its piercing pale blue good eye. The only other remarkable physical feature Sam carries is two tattoo’s along both wrists, detailing a jagged and cruel looking chain locked and tightened in multiple different ways.
Sam’s attire is comprised of a faded blue cavalry hat and matching duster coat, which has been fitted with two bandoliers for supplies and fastened via two leather shoulder guards. Sam also wears a pair of studded leather hand wraps with flecks of dried blood on the steel knuckles. Underneath he wears a dirty dark blue shirt, belt, brown pants and dusty brown cowboy boots (sans spurs). His pants are affixed with a holster for a particularly cobbled together looking sawn-off shotgun.
Personality Traits
■ Stoic
■ Impatient
■ Vengeful
■ Reserved
■ Melancholic
■ Blunt
■ Pragmatic
Backstory
Life is, by the nature of the world these days, grim and often fatal. Yet the early life of Sam was unpleasant even with the unconventional times we find ourselves. Sam’s mother died during childbirth and his father, either taking to it in grief or out of habit which Sam never knew, drank and abused him relentlessly, eventually selling him in to slavery on his early teens for what Sam would later come to find to be a paltry amount.
Sam spent less than a year with his new “owners”, often working menial jobs and running messages, it wasn’t until the group of Slavers were crushed by an unlikely force did Sam’s life truly change. Lysander Cohen, a name most average denizens of the wastes likened to a Raider Lord, had ambushed the Slaver group while they were on the move. Despite the Slaver’s superior numbers and equipment, using manipulation of the sand and graceful techniques Sam had never seen before, Cohen and his few men decimated the forces and freed their captives, gifting them with the Slaver’s own supplies to give them a chance out in the wastes. Cohen took an interest in Sam and some other of the younger slave boys, enamoured by his skill and magnetic charisma, they joined with Cohen’s Gang with the grandiose dream of protecting the people of the wastes. Raiding a dilapidated natural history museum for gear from The Old West to distinguish themselves, and because the world back then in many ways mirrored the current hardships faced now.
Although noble, the gang’s goals and morals could be construed as naive in the world now left, yet regardless they did what they were able to help the poor of the wastes while keeping themselves afloat, given their skill-sets this typically meant their moral codes had to be stretched and bent to accommodate in order to continue procuring supplies and equipment. While Sam was a trusted member of the gang, practically a son to Cohen, he was no more exempt from this than anyone else and had to take on numerous mercenary jobs with a group called GENESIS. The woman he worked with, Oroshi, was his partner on most of these assignments. In Sam’s mind it was a way for GENESIS to ensure he operated within their parameters but over time he did come to bond with her through their mutually tough lives for the benefit of a larger group, as well as answering her questions on what the world outside GENESIS was like.
Eventually, as with most unobtainable goals, cracks began to form in the gang. The longer Sam was away either working for GENESIS or elsewhere, the more things seemed to change when he returned. Cohen, previously unflappable and endlessly optimistic, began showing more signs of growing insanity and narcissism. The group itself started to show more willingness to abandon its own morals in the name of survival. Eventually things came to a head when the group attacked a community allegedly founded by slavers, raiders and the worst type of scum imaginable. Whilst this was partly true it was also home to many of the same kinds of people Cohen’s Gang used to fight in the name of, a fact which had caused Sam to very publicly challenge Cohen over, fracturing their already hollow relationship into one of mutual distrust and broken faith. In the end, while fighting off a large raider brandishing a flaming iron, Sam’s last view was of Cohen in the bowels, turning and leaving him to his fate, before Sam’s face was irreparably damaged.
Despite making it out alive through sheer force of will, the hurt and betrayal Sam felt by his only family imploding left him internally bitter and even bloodthirsty to a point for allowing themselves to fall to madness as he put it. Although the incident was years ago now, to Sam’s knowledge there is still three former members of the gang still operating. And in Sam’s case, time does not heal all wounds.
Developed (partly) by Lysander Cohen and taught to his gang from an early age, this fighting art prioritises the inflicting and receival of pain and hardship above all else, symbolic of Cohen’s Gang’s philosophy of enduring and through enduring comes strength. Although the art has a strong focus on powering through enemy attacks and utilising highly damaging strikes and grapples, the loose and unfocused nature of it means that no two members of Cohen’s Gang necessarily fight in a similar manner or utilise the same moves save for some basic maneuvers taught by Cohen. In Sam’s case, his incredible strength and size allow him to use this art to its full potential, charging or walking his man down with seemingly unstoppable malicious intent and putting on the hurt with highly damaging strikes or nigh inescapable grapples.
■ Downward Spiral DDT
An aerial maneuver on a leaping of thrown opponent. Sam halts them in mid-air, wrapping his arm around the opponent’s neck and twirling them headfirst back onto the ground.
■ You Can’t Escape
Usually preluded by a vicious headbutt or any kind of stun to an opponent, Sam deftly slips behind an opponent’s back and ties his arms around theirs, trapping their wastes and sending them overhead for three devastating german suplexes. Sam can release on the third suplex to send his opponent flying instead.
■ Wastrel’s Welcome
Sam fires his shotgun at a guarded or unguarded opponent sending shrapnel and jagged metal flying at them at high velocity. Due to the nature of martial artists this doesn’t do much if any damage but it does more often than not force them to break their guard or even stun them if not nimble enough to dodge its fire, allowing Sam to get up close and personal.
■ I Feel No Pain
The Lone Outlaw lacks any formal training or superhuman agility, what he most certainly has is ungodly strength and familiarity with punishment. With this, for a short moment, Sam walks his opponent down unblinking, shrugging off blows and debilitating damage, if he catches and grabs the opponent he will deliver a swift and devastating powerbomb hard enough to leave a fighter’s imprint in the ground. That said an uninjured or fast enough opponent has the chance to evade Sam in an open enough environment and if the damage sustained is intense enough it may be an issue when Sam relaxes again.
Weaknesses
Outlaw’s To The End is not just a fancy name, if you are unable to push yourself forward through even the most extreme adversity, you will be dead. For longer assaults the act of taking on a good amount of punishment, even for a powerhouse like Sam, can exhaust and weaken his normally unflappable defense. Furthermore, because the art is, relatively speaking, much looser and free focused as opposed to a rigid doctrine, it struggles against opponents who are considerably fast, needing outside avenues (such as the shotgun) to create a potential opening to get back in the fight.
Trivia/Other Information
■ Sam's drink of choice is whisky, which hurts like hell given his facial scarring but alcohol numbs down the pain from his numerous bits of wear and tear as part of Cohen's Gang.