[CHARACTER] Barlow Gates

Name: Barlow Gates
Phenotype: Basic
Gender: Male
Age: 32
Profession: Carrier/Scavenger

Appearance: Barlow is 6'4'' with short black hair and a beard. He wears a heavy, well-worn coat that's been stitched back together too many times to count. He usually has a mask rolled up on his head as a hat to be pulled down in windy conditions. He carries an old canvas messenger bag. His skin is marked by scars and burns. Despite his injuries and the solitude of his work, he can usually be seen with a smile on his face.

Likes: Books, travelling, conversation, meditation, kids, animals, mementos, fresh air, and baked beans.

Dislikes: Violence, tight spaces, loud noises, guns, isolation, and boring books.

Equipment: Barlow carries a first-aid kit along with basic necessities of the job, including rope, matches, a compass, maps, and a knife. For defense, he primarily uses an improvised wooden baton, which he gave a coating of rubber to keep it from breaking and preventing it from hurting people too badly, just enough to keep them on the ground while he makes his escape or restrains them. He also carries a revolver only out of necessity and insists on using rubber bullets, despite the fact that literally everyone tells him it's his funeral. He reluctantly carries actual bullets in case he encounters a larger threat, but never keeps them in the cylinders.

Strengths: Hand-to-hand combat. He doesn't like fighting, but if he has to defend himself or others, he's practically unstoppable at close range. He's more proud of his strength in negotiating and reasoning with people.

Weaknesses: Despite how many people have tried to betray, hurt, or kill him, Barlow is still very trusting. He's not naive, as he can recognize the signs of someone who's up to no good, but he makes himself more vulnerable than he should by giving everyone he meets a chance. In terms of physical weakness, his left knee has been dislocated before and is weaker for it. He also has an old stab wound on his lower back where a small piece of the shiv was left behind. A direct hit will cause him considerable pain, and it sometimes causes him discomfort to bend down.

Theme:

Personality: Barlow is, in many ways, a kid at heart. He appreciates every new sight as something miraculous and beautiful. Still, he has seen many things in his life that have forced him to grow up, but none of it has managed to make him cynical. He appreciates the world not only as a child seeing it for the first time, but as an adult realizing that it is fragile and irreplaceable, and understanding just how precious every part of it truly is. Even though he frequently deals with violent people who want to steal from him or kill him, he is still welcoming and friendly to everyone he meets. He loves openly and without hesitation. The hardships of his life have not made him callous, but have instead made him see everything and everyone as unique, beautiful, and worth preserving. He makes friends quickly, and is very protective of his friends.

Biography: Barlow Gates was born out in the Ashen Agony, part of a small nomadic group who traded whatever goods they could muster, mostly clothes and items found in ruins. From the time he could walk, he was taught basic skills of survival, everything from tying knots to cutting throats, but his parents told him that violence only leads to more violence, and that if he truly wanted to survive, he needed to know how to end fights without throwing a punch. When he was ten years old, his group crossed paths with another party who laid claim to the wreckage Barlow and his family were scavenging on. They demanded half of the group's findings, food, and children as payment for the transgression. A fight broke out and the children were told to run. Barlow, his siblings, and his friends all ran into hills as screaming and gunfire echoed in the burnt, dusty air behind them. They kept running, keeping each other in their sights, until a cloud of ash and dust came sweeping across the barren plains, blinding them. When the dust cleared, Barlow was alone. His footprints had been erased, and everyone he had ever known was gone.

He traveled for days through the black desert, before coming to the same ruined buildings his group had fought over. He took shelter inside a demolished library and started reading books. Most of them fell apart in his hands or no longer had visible words, but he read whatever he could find. Suddenly, he didn't feel alone. He thought he was living on a long, sad page of a book, and there was always a chance for something better when the page turned.

By age thirteen, Barlow had found a new home in a permanent settlement where he was cared for by a new family and brought up as one of their own, but he wanted to go out into the world and see what was beyond the Agony, and maybe find his family along the way. He walked, he explored, he met new people, but he never found his family or anyone he had known as a child. He made peace with that, and treated every stranger like family. He started working as a carrier, delivering messages and packages for people, and scavenging whatever goods he could find to cover his own costs or give away to people in need. He does most of his business out of Metro-Polis, but will go wherever the job demands. He only has three rules: no packages exceeding thirty pounds, no charge you can't afford, and no killing. Beyond that, everything is fair game. The road is always open.