Gordon Harris

Another character bio.

Name: Gordon Harris

Gender: Male

Age: 35

Occupation: Pet breeder. His best sellers are canaries for the mines and large toothy dogs.

Residence: Gordon lives near the center of the street level. He made his initial advance payment for a small shop and the room above it with his Led money and uses his pet business to keep up with his rent. The apartment complex he lives in consists of a shop level on the ground floor containing six small businesses, above which are groups of one-room apartments on subsequent floors. The landlord lives in the first floor of the next apartment complex over; his apartment is bigger and cleaner than the ones he rents out. Gordon keeps most of his pets in wire crates and cages on the ground floor where people can see them and lets one or cats and dogs take turns running around his apartment on the first floor after he closes up shop. Upstairs in his apartment he basically lives in one room with a bed. There's a bathroom and kitchen down the hall that he has to share with his neighbors. The little old lady two doors down is nice enough to cook breakfast for him on some weekends.

Appearance: Wears straight dark gray pants with suspenders, dull and scuffed black shoes that are still in good condition and a subtly striped second-hand button-down jacket that is nevertheless better than his coal-stained mining clothes were. He is a bit on the tall side at 6'1'' and has a slim but slightly muscular build. He used to be more heavily muscled but has since lost weight. His face is lean with a squarish jaw, a narrow nose and a seemingly perpetual five-o-clock shadow. He has a hat like the one on the top left. His hair is short, brown, and nondescript. His eyes are also dark brown. His left leg and left arm have been replaced by steel clockwork, and some light scarring would still be visible on his left cheek if he shaved more often. His long-sleeved jacket and pants cover these mechanical additions to his body but he is still shy about them. In private he has to polish his mechanical arm and leg every day to keep it from corroding.

Personality: A laid-back type of guy that doesn't get spooked easily. In a quiet way, he cares about people and is comfortable around children. He is detached from the lives of animals because he knows they're all going to die much faster than him anyway, but that doesn't stop him from taking good care of them. Gordon is your classic analytical leader; the miners wouldn't want someone making hasty decisions on where and how to build the support structures that keep the roof from collapsing on their heads. He considers all facts carefully and while his social skills lag behind his intellect, he does have a good idea of how people he knows well enough can fit seamlessly into the structure of his plans. He is capable of putting actions before thoughts in an emergency but normally he hates being pressured into that mindset. He needs to have a drink or two before he can open up to people, otherwise he's pretty quiet and reserved. He knows that the bulk of the Doramraz City Police Department are slackers but is still afraid of the off-chance of being arrested or attacked by a group opposing The Mraz Family. The Mraz Family is extensive enough that he's more cautious than worried. He sound of collapsing buildings or explosions makes his body freeze up and his mind race to conclusions for a second because he affiliates them with catastrophic tunnel collapses from his mining days, but he has learned to recover from these moments quickly and go on with his work. He is afraid of becoming addicted to Led like his mother was, so he doesn't touch the stuff himself. However, he isn't nearly as careful when it comes to alcohol. With any subject he doesn't have a gut feel for, Gordon is a slow learner. He is afraid to try new things and prefers the tried and tested route.

History: His father was a Pit miner and died in a natural gas explosion before Gordon was even born. His mother was an on and off Led addict who just happened to hook up with his father while the former was relatively sober and the latter was off his shift. Gordon's mother tried to stay clean during her pregnancy and the following years but spiraled back into addiction while Gordon was still very young. She became neither financially nor mentally capable of taking care of him, and Gordon ended up working in the Mines. At four he was constantly going up and down the elevator to the upper mines running errands and delivering messages for the foremen. Every morning he also fed and cleaned the cages of the canaries that dropped like flies in the noxious gasses of the Pit. At six he moved lower into the mine itself, starting with lifting rocks and shoveling debris out of small spaces, then later moving on to shoveling coal onto mine carts as he grew stronger. He spent his subsequent years digging tirelessly with a pick-axe and pushing loaded mine-carts uphill. At seventeen he miraculously survived a mine collapse that buried most of his body in rocks, but his left arm and leg had to be replaced with clockwork and he had to rest and recover for an entire shift before returning to work, this time in the less physically demanding job of constructing support structures. Having been in the mines for so many years, he had already gained a feel for how the supports and the surrounding rocks were supposed to look. Only months later, before the terror of his accident had faded into background noise, he became adept enough to lead the construction team.

Just two years ago, he retired early under the pretense that mining was ruining his health. While his beautiful black lung cough compliments his mechanical arm and leg nicely, the real reason he left was because he and his mining team found a lode of Led crystal, which they stashed away amongst themselves and sold to the Mafia one by one. He still has connections with the low end of The Mraz Family, selling them guard dogs at discounted prices when the cops aren't looking or making it look like a perfectly normal transaction when they are. Selling canaries was the only decent idea that came to him rather than his childhood dream; he has become numb to the beauty of their songs their short-lived fate. His miner friends who 'retired' with him help him work on his advertising and social skills, network with the mob for customers and good deals, and generally spread the word about his business. They're also his drinking buddies and they make some minimal effort in trying to hook him up with some random girl at the bar but they tend to abandon him when they get too drunk or they find some girls to hang around with.

Skills: Some veterinary skill but has more skill in identifying 'good' and 'bad' coal seams, the stability of a rock structure, where to put the supports etc. Has a worn old pick-axe he never bothered selling sitting in a dusty corner of his apartment as a reminder of his roots; he can use this effectively as a weapon if he needs to but his skills may be a tad rusty. Working in the mines made him develop a sort of sixth sense for danger. He is improving in making his business more people-oriented. He also has a very convincing poker face for when the cops arrive. This also makes him good at cards but he generally makes excuses not to go because he thinks it's a waste of time and money. He is reasonably good at holding his drink but isn't the type to get into a drinking contest in the first place. He has grown accustomed to walking and climbing around normally with his mechanical arm and leg but his hand isn't as strong or dexterous as it was before and he has become a slow and awkward runner. Thus, he tries not to get into fights but he knows he could land an iron punch if he has to. He has a great tolerance for being able to eat the same foods over and over again without becoming completely sick of them. He knows enough about cooking that he can fry something very basic (like a sunny side up or scrambled eggs) and he can boil water and put stuff in it, which means he can cook rice or cabbage or some kind of simple vegetable soup. Most of his diet consists of non-perishable items, e.g. rice, lentils, pasta or stuff from a can. Having lived on mining shifts for the majority of his life, he has the ability to fall asleep just about anywhere in any amount of noise.