YoshiSkittlez — Roleplayer Guild

See. You say that, but then I got inspired for a Lost One as well and frantically wrote this up. I'm not saying it's as long or detailed as Giovanni, but I felt whimsical and wrote while I had the muse.

Fancy

Alias/Nickname(s):

"I go by 'Fancy' because I'm dirt poor and covered in shit half the time. Get it?"

Age:

19

Gender:

Homeless Man

Sexual Preference:

"Sex is just a tool of the church, man. I'm still working out the details on how though, but trust me- I'll figure it out."

Appearance:

Fancy is probably the least-fancy person you'll ever meet. His hair is dyed white, he wears hoodies, jeans, sweatpants, far-too-large shirts, big puffy jackets-- basically anything that'd let him hide things under his clothes, or have more pockets. He is never without his messenger satchel, however.

And it is extraordinarily clear that the boy is homeless- he's always filthy to some capacity, smells horrid most of the time, and is often covered in the grime of the city.

He is average height, very thin, and surprisingly quick on his feet. He's calloused and hard from the elements, but still maintains enough of his youthful appearance to possess an edge of vulnerability in his appearance.

Gang Affiliation:

"We're all just a little lost, ain't we? I like to think of myself as caring more about the journey than the destination-- Oh. That's not what you meant. Yeah, yeah, the Lost Ones are my dudes- er...dudes and dudettes. Homies. Yeah let's go with homies."

Brief History:

"At 55 miles per hour, a sign viewer travels 80 feet per second. This means that if you're gonna hold up a sign, it's gotta be noticeable fam. Noticeable, rememberab...Is 'rememberable' a word? Shit, I don't know- anyway, it's gotta stick in their head. Like, stick hard, and leave 'em thinking about that shit. If they don't give you something at first, as long as it sticks in their head they might come back later. It's corporate, man, that's all it is. Corporate tricks applied to a little homeless ingenuity."

Fancy spends his mornings either in the Haven, or on the edge of it out of the police radar. He finds a spot on the side of the road at approximately 3 AM, and sets up his sign. After his sign is in a satisfactory spot, held up at the right angle by the wall he has chosen to lean against, he plops himself down beside the sign and lets himself get comfortable- He's gonna have a long morning after all.

By the time the sun rises, the young man- now wearing thick glasses and wielding a long white cane in one hand, and a heavy steel cup in the other- looks as if he's been there for decades, a part of the scenery.

Cars begin to drive past, in and out of the rich neighborhood of the Haven, and to many people's amazement, Fancy actually gets handouts.

What does his sign say?

'It's a beautiful day and I can't see it.'.

That's right- Fancy is pretending to be blind to get handouts.

Fancy is, probably, the greatest con man his age in all of New York.

"See...Conning someone isn't...it like...it isn't stealing, you know? You've got a certain image, product, or idea that you're trying to peddle, and the job is to make the other dude buy into it. If they're giving me their money of their own volition, or in return for a product, then...it's not stealing, yeah? It's capitalism, and if you disagree then you're a communist. And nobody likes a commie, dude. Don't be a commie."

-----

By the time afternoon rolls around and the bulk of traffic has died down, the aristocrats safely at work or shopping or back home from early day errands, Fancy is 'picked up' by a fellow Lost One assisting his con, guiding the 'blind man' out into the slums and out of the sight of his prime conning targets.

This is the part where he counts up his cash, figures out how much he's made, then figures out how he's gonna spend it. Today, for example, Fancy decides that he's gonna proceed to use his proceeds on a new pair of shoes, his current ones falling apart from overuse and time.

"The trick with shoes is...you can't let 'em look new, even if they are. That's the most important part of the image. You gotta have shitty shoes or folks will assume you're, well...conning them, yeah? I've seen rich folks park their big SUV's, walk around a corner, and hold up a cardboard sign for a few hours, score a decent haul, then go home to their wife and kid. They were wearing clean clothes- but their shoes looked like shit. That's all it takes. Bad shoes."

Fancy's standard method of 'breaking in' shoes, as it were, was to descend into the sewers of the city and spend about half an hour stomping them into the sewage with his old pair, before pulling them out and scraping the interior clean, and changing out his old shoes for the new ones.

The point isn't cleanliness, it's image- looking like shit helps him make money, but he needs shoes that'll hold up for longer than a week like his old pair. Hence the switch.

Then he'll do something particularly clever with his old shoes. He'll walk through the sewers for a while until he's satisfied with his location, climb back to the surface, and find an alleyway with a suitable isolation for thought and focused work.

"If you're gonna be homeless, you gotta be genius man. Like pure genius, good with your hands and brain, otherwise you're just doing it all wrong man."

He'll work the laces out of the shoes, separate the soles from the leather, then take the tough leather of his old shoes and work them into a new pair of gloves to switch to when his current pair gets soaked.

He typically ends a day like this by heading down into Lost Ones territory, to spend the rest of his day gambling what remains of his earnings away to his fellow Lost Ones- sometimes losing it all, sometimes doubling up on his cash for the day. Regardless of the outcome, he gives whatever money he has away at the end of the day to someone else who needs it more than he does.

Because at the end of the day, where it all counts, Fancy is a good guy, who looks out for others.

"Yeah. In my biography- and thusly guaranteed biographical movie, where I'll be played by whoever is voted 'sexiest man alive' by that year's girly magazine- they'll denote me as a 'Philanthropist'. Know what that means? Idiot who gives away all his money is what that means, except for me they'll change the definition to...'Genius'. Yeah. Genius. Fancy, you're a genius".

----

The truth of the matter is--

"Hey, no. Nonono. Narrator, this is my story. I ain't about to let you spill the beans, no sir. Flip that script over, I wrote a new one."

Fancy, this script is-

"Pure Genius. I know, right?"

Fancy no-

"You're a fuckin' commie aren't you? Just read the script, it'd be the patriotic thing to do. My past is mine, and what I wrote is what I want them folks to know. Do it for me, pal? Chum? Friend-o?"

Alright, Fancy. Fine. We'll do it your way.

"The genius way. Yeah."

..Ahem...

Fancy is homeless of his own choice, to keep things simple. He doesn't talk about himself much, not even to his fellow Lost Ones, but he is a unique and whimsical individual. His comments, paranoia, and unique perspective on problems often offers a different way of handling things that nobody else even thinks of- not to mention the fact he's a font of near-useless trivial information.

He spends more time in the sewers of New York than anybody ever should, let alone wants to, and knows them like the back of his hand- making him one of the Lost Ones' biggest scavengers. More importantly than this, Fancy is a friend to all, even if his words can get more...extreme, than he means them to.

W-...Wow fancy, that's fairly modest.

"It's to lull them into a false sense of security. Flip the page, the next paragraph is what I wrote in case people disrespected my genius."

Fancy, you do not know Muay Thai.

"Pff. But they don't know that."

Extras

Theme: Fancy Feels Fine, I Promise and No really, he's okay
Likes: Witnessing acts of pure Genius. Getting a hot meal, acts of random kindness.
Dislikes: Po-lice. The Church. Corporations and corporate nonsense. Decadence.
Fears: Communists. Spies. The Government. - "On a metaphysical level I like...I fear god, you know? He's pretty high up there."
Hobbies: Helping folks out, defeating the communists or corporations, and creating various counterfeit goods.
Goals: "Fam, I want to make the world a better place."
@Fading Memory

What a very unique character! It got me laughing a few times haha.

@sly13
Between you and me, Yoshi, just as a secret, shhhhh...!...I think it's fine if the Lost Ones outnumber the wolves, since that's what the setting info seems to say as well. The Wolves have a lot going for them in their willingness to kill, break the law, and generally be jerk-faces, that makes it quite hard for the Lost Ones to compete without a numeric advantage in my eyes. That's just my two cents though, and from a GMing standpoint I understand wanting more of a balance for the sake of ease of storytelling.@Fading Memory

You make a really good point here - one I'm not sure Blitz or I have thought about or discussed. That being said, I was hesitant on accepting your character merely on a balance level. But now that you've brought this up, I think it's definitely changed my mind. I'll wait for Blitz for conformation, though.

@sly13 The image was not working for me, either. But on the character as a whole, I'm really happy to see your interest in the Wolves, however as I was reading about him, I couldn't help but to notice quite a few similarities between him and my character, Deon. While yes, Boxing and cage fighting is different, their passion and what drives them seem to be very similar, so I'm a little hesitant to accept. I'll await what Blitz has to say on the matter.
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