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Here's everything you need to know about me and my human version of Charlie B. Barkin. Enjoy!
The Player
User Name/Nick: Red
AIM/IM: LilLegalGuru
Plurk: RedGuru
The Character
Character Name: Charlie B. Barkin
Character Journal: nogooddog
Canon: All Dogs Go To Heaven (AU)
Age: 37
From When (Canon Point)?: Variable
Abilities/Powers:
Charlie was never anything special before he died. He is a strong individual both physically and mentally. However, after he died and came back he cannot die unless something happens to his ‘life watch’.
He’ll never make it back to Heaven but if he dies again he will go to Hell. Additionally, he can sense the supernatural depending on how strong the power is and what kind of power it is. If someone is psychic he is not going to really pick up on that but if they’re a fellow ‘zombie’ he can sense that. On the flip side – if someone is able to sense the supernatural they will pick up a faint feel of the Other Side from Charlie. There is something about him that is just off – perhaps evoking the emotion of not belonging for the briefest of moments. And that makes sense since Charlie does not belong in the land of the living. This feeling is only intensified by the fact that he carries in his pants pocket his ‘life watch’ at all times – a relic brought back from Heaven and never meant to be in the living world.
As for just random abilities – Charlie is one heck of a card player, he’s a world-class con man, and he loves gambling of any sort. The only thing that really keeps him from becoming a threat to all as a horrible criminal is that he has a good heart no matter what he contends. Additionally, Charlie doesn't age - he will always look the age he did at the time of his death.
Power Limitations:
I’m not putting limits on Charlie since his powers really don’t influence anything but him. However, I’m not going to be setting him up for constantly testing the bounds of his immortality. Charlie has no desire to put himself endlessly at risk and he can’t afford to be put into a situation where his watch might be damaged.
Inventory [Please list everything that your character will have on them on their arrival- whatever was on their person at the exact moment they were taken should be the only things listed here. This includes the clothes on their backs and any weapons/supplies.] When Charlie arrives in Babylon he will have on him his ‘life watch’, a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, combat boots, and a black duster.
Personality:
Charlie is a man of many personalities. He is first and foremost a con man – in his mind, that is. In the view of others, though, he has the redeeming qualities of kindness toward the less fortunate and intolerance for any type of child abuse. These traits can be traced back to his childhood.
Charlie has a bit of a twisted past. First off – he isn’t sure his last name is his real last name. In the underground life that his parents lived it was common for individuals to make up names. Within their little niche Charlie’s father was known as a ‘dog’. He was a cheat, a scoundrel, a thief, a womanizer, and an alcoholic. Taking this in stride, Burt R. Barkin took on a name which amused him to no end. While ‘Burt’ was undoubtedly his real first name, ‘Barkin’ was probably not his real last name. However, Burt enjoyed his status as a ‘dog’ and had no problem with making his alias a play on words.
On the other side, Charlie’s mother, a prostitute named Loni, was amused by Burt and took on a similar alias for when she was working – Loni A. Bowzer. When Charlie was born the only thing the hospital knew about him was that his father’s name was ‘Burt R. Barkin’ because his mother kept yelling that at the staff. When she died in childbirth and Charlie’s father was nowhere to be found the hospital made the choice to put on the birth certificate the last name which Loni told them – Barkin.
The bastard son of a New Orleans gangster named Burt Barkin and a prostitute named Loni Bowzer – that neatly sums up Charlie’s early life and the events which formed his personality. He never talks about parents for the simple reason that his mother died in childbirth and his father raised him – sort of. Burt was more or less forced to take on Charlie as his son because he was the only family the child had but he let Charlie run wild.
Charlie tried to gain his father’s approval when he was young. He tried to do well in school and even succeeded at first. But when he realized that his father didn’t care if his son got an ‘A’ on a math test, Charlie didn’t see the point any more in aiming for anything higher than survival. Charlie did well enough in school to pass but nothing else. He had no aspirations of college or any kind of future.
However, Charlie picked up street smarts quickly. He never knew how his father would be when he got home – it alternated between some random woman being in the house and his father being passed out, drunk, and everything in between. Charlie learned fast how to duck things being thrown at him by his strung out father. More than that, the child got used to the fact that his house would be a regular target for arson attempts and shootings. Even a youngster could see that Burt was a shady character. When that’s all you know, though, you start to think it’s normal and start acting that way yourself. That was what happened with Charlie.
Unable to gain his father’s love from doing well in school or sports, Charlie studied what made his father happy. He stuffed his insecurities at never been loved or truly ‘raised’ down and threw everything into learning how to play cards, darts, pool – anything – and winning. He also found that he had a natural ability to bet on winners in horse races and the like. Add to that the fact that by age 14 he could drink most anyone under the table and you had a recipe for disaster.
At least that was what would happen with most kids - not Charlie, though. He had luck unheard of in most of his father’s circle of friends and the worse his behavior became the more positive attention he got from his father. Charlie was on his way to becoming his father’s successor in criminal activity in the New Orleans area. However, the moment he showed any hesitation about whether or not he should do something or he expressed anything approaching a conscience his father would turn away from him. Having a heart – being concerned for others – those were weaknesses.
Charlie was trained to exploit the weaknesses of others in order to take whatever he wanted. Still, he does have some semblance of a heart despite his father’s best efforts to stamp it out. This is due much to the fact that Charlie was befriended by a drug kingpin with the street name of ‘King Gator’.
King Gator is a Cajun - born and raised in New Orleans. He isn’t a nice guy but he is a ‘gentleman’ – so he says – and prefers to make deals and compromises as opposed to getting into fights. He does business with Burt on a regular basis because Burt has the right amount of money but he frowns on the gangster’s methods of violence and dominance at any cost. Even more so, King Gator dislikes how Burt treats Charlie. The kingpin has his own family – married with two kids – and he is doing everything he can to make sure his children do not follow in his footsteps.
As Charlie grows up it is King Gator who often comes to his rescue whether it be bailing him out of jail or getting him something to eat. The unlikely mentor nurtures some sense of compassion within Charlie and gives him the beginnings of a moral compass - Charlie won’t kill, he won’t hurt a woman, and he won’t hurt kids. Sure, he’ll scam anyone with money or something he can use to get ahead but he will do everything he can to make sure the person he uses doesn’t know they’re being used and doesn’t get hurt. It’s twisted logic but in his mind it makes sense.
Running scams, stealing, selling drugs, and gambling never lead to good things legally and Charlie spent a good bit of his childhood in and out of juvenile detention. He learned to work the system on the inside and even started some profitable smuggling rings within the detention center for things like magazines or cigarettes by paying off officers and other inmates. It all just reinforced the idea that everyone has a price. However, Charlie hates being confined as a result of his time in juvenile detention and his later prison incarceration. To this day he gets claustrophobic in large crowds or in small rooms.
Charlie has little regard for rules because of his upbringing. Still, he was drafted for the Vietnam War because he had no physical limitations, he wasn’t in college, and, he didn’t have a family - by that point Charlie’s father was dead. Charlie served his country but he came out of the experience embittered. The death of so many – both his brothers in arms and the ‘enemy’ – strengthened his low opinion of the government, law enforcement, and laws. But, his respect for life grew – while he was now trained to kill, Charlie had little interest in committing violent crimes once he was back home. Even when he was put in Angola Prison it was not for a violent crime but for being a drug dealer and running an illegal gambling operation.
As a result of his life and all his experiences, Charlie is not your typical bad guy or your typical good guy. He will happily steal everything you own but he won’t kill you. He’ll kidnap an orphan and use them for his financial gain but then he will turn around and help that kid find a home. He knows he’s a bad guy but he’s not rotten to the core. He loves a life of sin and he never wants to die but he never wants to put his friends in danger. In short, Charlie is Charlie.
History:
Charlie B. Barkin was born September 13, 1952, in New Orleans, Louisiana. The bastard son of a New Orleans gangster named Burt Barkin and a prostitute named Loni Bowzer – that neatly sums up Charlie’s early life and the events which formed his personality. He never talks about parents for the simple reason that his mother died in childbirth and his father raised him – sort of. Burt was more or less forced to take on Charlie as his son because he was the only family the child had but he let Charlie run wild.
When Charlie was eight he realized that the way to get his father’s praise was to learn to play in his world. Charlie studied the fine arts of cards, gambling, pool, drinking, and gambling – all in an effort to be the son that Burt wanted. Eventually, Burt noticed his son during a game of darts – kicking ass and taking names. As Charlie beat the old men at the bar that his father had been forced to bring him to (because Burt had business to do and he wasn’t the type to have a babysitter) the boy saw the closest thing to ‘pride’ he had ever seen on his father’s face. And that’s where it all started.
As discussed in the personality section, it is the attention that Charlie receives from his father that drives his illegal behavior. He had tried to gain attention and praise through the normal channels but when that went unnoticed Charlie had to turn elsewhere. The further down the road of wrong the boy went, though, the more pride his father felt. It was twisted but that was their relationship.
Burt was in business with a man known only as ‘Carface’ Carruthers. The two embarked on a joint venture in 1967. Charlie, who was spending most of his time running errands for his father and scamming tourists, didn’t pay much attention to Carface except to know that he was his father’s business partner and that Carface wasn’t that much older than Charlie.
Carface and Burt were much more for the violent slant on business. The 15-year-old Charlie was willing to go along with the work to a certain extent but it made him uneasy. By this point, though, the younger Barkin was a regular in jail and at the juvenile detention center so he was already in the business too deep to get out of it. The only person in Charlie’s life that had any concern for his being was King Gator. Gator had been a business associate of Burt for many years and didn’t much care for Carface. He thought the thug’s methods were uncouth and unseemly. However, Carface was able to pull in more money than Burt had ever dreamed possible so he continued their partnership in spite of Gator’s misgivings.
It turned out that Gator’s unease was well founded. In 1969, a shoot out between rival gangs – a rivalry stirred up by Carface – ended in the murder of Burt. The son mourned his father’s death in the only way he knew – he decided to seek revenge on his father’s killers, egged on by Carface. In the midst of the chaos, Gator managed to jump in and drag Charlie out of the situation. There was no more need for bloodshed – especially since Gator knew his young friend was no match for his new found enemies. Gator took in Charlie for a year and the boy just barely managed to graduate high school in 1970. He was quickly snapped up in the Draft after that.
Charlie didn’t even bother fighting being drafted. To his way of thinking, this was a better option than sitting around back in New Orleans with absolutely nothing. Charlie hit the ground in Vietnam in late 1970 and was quickly put up front as ‘cannon fodder’. He wasn’t officer material in any sense of the word and so infantry was his assignment for his entire time in the army. He was in Vietnam for six months and he then signed on for additional six when he still didn’t see the point in returning to New Orleans.
Between his time spent in training and his time spent in Vietnam, Charlie didn’t end up back in New Orleans until 1972. By that time, Carface had found himself a good niche in the shadier areas of town. However, business wasn’t as good as it could be. Charlie sought out Carface – much to King’s dismay – and offered to take over where Burt had left off. It wasn’t like Charlie had any better options - the anti-war movement was in full swing and he didn’t have anything aside from a high school diploma and a hatred of violence born of witnessing his own father’s death and killing in combat – so he decided he wanted to return to what he knew best. Carface for his part was barely making ends meet and so welcomed the charismatic, street-smart young man with open arms.
Unfortunately, Charlie was incapable of staying out of trouble. In 1975 he was caught up in a vice sting on his gambling and drug dealing. Carface, unknown to Charlie, caught wind of what was up and bailed before the police closed in on him as well leaving his business partner to take the rap. Charlie, being the good hood that he was, refused to rat out Carface and ended up being sentenced to five years in Louisiana State Penitentiary – Angola.
Charlie made good use of his time, though. As he had done in juvenile detention, the young rogue set about making some money for himself smuggling in magazines, cigarettes, and drugs for his fellow inmates. In the process he made an associate – the man in the cell next to his, Leo Itchiford or ‘Itchy’ for short. The two eventually became close friends and by the time of Charlie’s release in 1980 they had decided to go into business together once Charlie met back up with Carface.
Years pass and the operation grows into a full-blown casino and racing track – all run under the radar. With Charlie as the brains of the outfit all Carface has to do is bring in the grunt-work to handle unruly patrons while Itchy works the technical aspects of maintaining the building. Everything is going along great until Carface decides that 50% isn’t good enough anymore. Carface sets into motion a plot to get Charlie out of the picture.
Carface sets up Charlie as a fall-guy in a failed robbery. Charlie serves a short jail sentence and, much to Carface’s surprise, returns to the casino a few months later. Somehow, the business has survived and Charlie is confused by this given that he was the brains of the outfit for years proceeding his time in jail. He does not realize that Carface is fixing the odds with the aid of a little girl who can talk to animals.
During Mardi Gras 1989, Carface proposes a business split to Charlie. Charlie, unaware of Carface’s greed, eventually agrees to the split and joins Carface for a celebration. After a night of drinking Carface’s thugs take Charlie out to the piers and, in the midst of all the noise from Mardi Gras, shoot the drunken Charlie and toss his body into the ocean.
That should have been the end of it but Itchy witnesses the murder. Too scared to tell anyone what he saw, the loyal friend plans to leave New Orleans forever. Meanwhile, in the afterlife, Charlie is realizing that the Heaven that he was told about was someone else’s Heaven and his Hell. When Charlie finds out that his time on Earth is determined by a ‘life watch’ he begins plotting his escape. He uses his con man’s charm to trick the angel, Annabelle, into giving him his life watch by switching out that watch with the one he was given at the party Carface held for him. A quick wind later and Charlie finds himself hurled back to Earth.
Charlie meets back up with Itchy and the two plot revenge on Carface. Itchy has no idea that Charlie is really dead and doesn’t question the fact that his friend is still among the living. It isn’t long before the two find out about Carface’s secret weapon – Anne-Marie.
Anne-Marie has the amazing ability to talk to animals and is able to find out before a race who is going to win so that Carface can shift the odds accordingly to favor the house. Charlie and Itchy ‘rescue’ Annie-Marie and start using her ability to acquire money so that they can build their own casino to compete with Carface’s. Anne-Marie is an orphan who completely trusts Charlie and Itchy. She believes Charlie’s lies that they are going to help the poor to the point of unwittingly helping the two schemers in pick-pocketing.
After managing to stay under Carface’s radar for several months, Charlie is spotted by one of Carface’s thugs, Killer. With the knowledge that Charlie is alive and has Anne-Marie, Carface launches an all-out war in the streets. He wants Anne-Marie back and he wants Charlie and Itchy dead.
Charlie, panicking at both Carface being back in the picture and Anne-Marie finding out he was stealing and had no intention of helping the poor, stashes the little girl at the old church outside of town where his on again off again girlfriend, Flo, runs a shelter. Meanwhile, Carface and his gang show up at Charlie’s casino and beat up Itchy and burn the casino to the ground - warnings to Charlie that they were coming.
In a moment of desperation, Charlie vehemently denies that he cares about Anne-Marie to the point of telling Itchy that he was just using the girl – pretending to be her best friend – and that they would dump her in an orphanage as soon as they were finished with her. Anne-Marie hears all of this and before Charlie can stop her she runs away and is quickly captured by Carface.
Charlie races out after Anne-Marie while Flo and Itchy run to get help from the only people they know won’t turn them away – a couple who had taken in Anne-Marie for a day when the little girl returned the wallet Charlie had stolen from them. The couple wanted to adopt Anne-Marie but were unable to keep her from running back to Charlie.
At Carface’s casino Charlie finally catches up with the kidnappers and knowingly walks into a trap in order to rescue Anne-Marie. The girl is now extremely ill from exposure and needs a doctor. Charlie knows that the game is done and he needs to get Anne-Marie back to the man and woman who want to adopt her. Before Charlie can escape with Anne-Marie, though, Carface appears with his thugs and attack and prepare to drown Charlie.
When all seems lost a long forgotten friend reappears – King Gator. Having heard from the underground that Charlie was going for a final showdown with Carface the old gangster and his crew run into the fray and save Charlie from certain death at Carface’s hands. In the midst of the chaos Anne-Marie is lost in the water and flames engulf the casino. In what was probably the only selfless act in his life, Charlie dives into the water to save Anne-Marie. He manages to push her to safety but loses his life watch in the process – knowingly giving it up in favor of saving the little girl.
The last thing anyone sees of Charlie is him diving back into the water to search for his watch. Carface is killed as his beloved casino is destroyed and Anne-Marie survives and is adopted.
Charlie knows he is unredeemed and knows full well he should be dead. However, his fierce desire to live drives out fear of what awaits him if he ever allows his life watch to stop. He knows that if he dies again he will go to Hell – he can never go back to Heaven.
First Person Sample: [5-10 Sentences]
You grow up being told that Heaven is for the good and Hell is for the bad. I suppose that’s true to a certain point. But what if you’re good and bad? What if you don’t fall into either category entirely? What do you do then?
Heaven is supposed to be a wonderful place. I guess it is for some – maybe even most. But what if the Heaven you get to isn’t your Heaven? What if you end up in a Heaven that someone else’s? What do you do then?
Easy – you do like I did. You break out.
Prose Sample: [3-5 paragraphs, 3rd Person POV]
The questions had become too much. Charlie had told himself there was no other choice. Still, dragging Squeaker across the ocean smacked of being a kidnapper - among other things. It couldn't be helped, though. There was no one he could trust out there to keep her safe out of Carface's grasp.
Besides, questions were starting to mount about how old he was - how he never seemed to age. It was hard to keep a low profile in the underworld when nothing seemed able to injure or kill you. He needed a fresh start - someplace where no one knew him.
That was how Squeaker and he had come to be in London, England.
Why London? Because it was the cheapest fake papers 'King Gator' could get worked out for him and the kid. It had still cost an obscene amount but they had worked. Charlie would have to send Gator a fruit basket or something to make up for his 'comments' on the pricing and the quality.
So now he sat in a bar that he hadn't bothered to get the name of, getting a bit drunk. It had taken awhile but he and Squeaker had settled into their new lives and she was staying the night at a friend's house so he had the night to himself.
He counted how many empty glasses sat in front of him – four. Of course, that didn’t count the glasses the waitress had taken away. The old dog smirked to himself. He still had it in him to drink others under the table even as a dead man.
Nearby some of the patrons play darts and others are concentrating on pool. Charlie eyed them, sizing up their abilities. It would be too easy for him to take them on and clean them out. He prided himself on being the best at those sorts of activities. However, when one was that good at something it always attracted unwanted attention. Attention was the last thing Charlie wanted right then.
So he remained at his post on the bar stool. It was a noble position if he did say so himself. Besides, the alcohol wasn’t going to drink itself.
The Player
User Name/Nick: Red
AIM/IM: LilLegalGuru
Plurk: RedGuru
The Character
Character Name: Charlie B. Barkin
Character Journal: nogooddog
Canon: All Dogs Go To Heaven (AU)
Age: 37
From When (Canon Point)?: Variable
Abilities/Powers:
Charlie was never anything special before he died. He is a strong individual both physically and mentally. However, after he died and came back he cannot die unless something happens to his ‘life watch’.
He’ll never make it back to Heaven but if he dies again he will go to Hell. Additionally, he can sense the supernatural depending on how strong the power is and what kind of power it is. If someone is psychic he is not going to really pick up on that but if they’re a fellow ‘zombie’ he can sense that. On the flip side – if someone is able to sense the supernatural they will pick up a faint feel of the Other Side from Charlie. There is something about him that is just off – perhaps evoking the emotion of not belonging for the briefest of moments. And that makes sense since Charlie does not belong in the land of the living. This feeling is only intensified by the fact that he carries in his pants pocket his ‘life watch’ at all times – a relic brought back from Heaven and never meant to be in the living world.
As for just random abilities – Charlie is one heck of a card player, he’s a world-class con man, and he loves gambling of any sort. The only thing that really keeps him from becoming a threat to all as a horrible criminal is that he has a good heart no matter what he contends. Additionally, Charlie doesn't age - he will always look the age he did at the time of his death.
Power Limitations:
I’m not putting limits on Charlie since his powers really don’t influence anything but him. However, I’m not going to be setting him up for constantly testing the bounds of his immortality. Charlie has no desire to put himself endlessly at risk and he can’t afford to be put into a situation where his watch might be damaged.
Inventory [Please list everything that your character will have on them on their arrival- whatever was on their person at the exact moment they were taken should be the only things listed here. This includes the clothes on their backs and any weapons/supplies.] When Charlie arrives in Babylon he will have on him his ‘life watch’, a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, combat boots, and a black duster.
Personality:
Charlie is a man of many personalities. He is first and foremost a con man – in his mind, that is. In the view of others, though, he has the redeeming qualities of kindness toward the less fortunate and intolerance for any type of child abuse. These traits can be traced back to his childhood.
Charlie has a bit of a twisted past. First off – he isn’t sure his last name is his real last name. In the underground life that his parents lived it was common for individuals to make up names. Within their little niche Charlie’s father was known as a ‘dog’. He was a cheat, a scoundrel, a thief, a womanizer, and an alcoholic. Taking this in stride, Burt R. Barkin took on a name which amused him to no end. While ‘Burt’ was undoubtedly his real first name, ‘Barkin’ was probably not his real last name. However, Burt enjoyed his status as a ‘dog’ and had no problem with making his alias a play on words.
On the other side, Charlie’s mother, a prostitute named Loni, was amused by Burt and took on a similar alias for when she was working – Loni A. Bowzer. When Charlie was born the only thing the hospital knew about him was that his father’s name was ‘Burt R. Barkin’ because his mother kept yelling that at the staff. When she died in childbirth and Charlie’s father was nowhere to be found the hospital made the choice to put on the birth certificate the last name which Loni told them – Barkin.
The bastard son of a New Orleans gangster named Burt Barkin and a prostitute named Loni Bowzer – that neatly sums up Charlie’s early life and the events which formed his personality. He never talks about parents for the simple reason that his mother died in childbirth and his father raised him – sort of. Burt was more or less forced to take on Charlie as his son because he was the only family the child had but he let Charlie run wild.
Charlie tried to gain his father’s approval when he was young. He tried to do well in school and even succeeded at first. But when he realized that his father didn’t care if his son got an ‘A’ on a math test, Charlie didn’t see the point any more in aiming for anything higher than survival. Charlie did well enough in school to pass but nothing else. He had no aspirations of college or any kind of future.
However, Charlie picked up street smarts quickly. He never knew how his father would be when he got home – it alternated between some random woman being in the house and his father being passed out, drunk, and everything in between. Charlie learned fast how to duck things being thrown at him by his strung out father. More than that, the child got used to the fact that his house would be a regular target for arson attempts and shootings. Even a youngster could see that Burt was a shady character. When that’s all you know, though, you start to think it’s normal and start acting that way yourself. That was what happened with Charlie.
Unable to gain his father’s love from doing well in school or sports, Charlie studied what made his father happy. He stuffed his insecurities at never been loved or truly ‘raised’ down and threw everything into learning how to play cards, darts, pool – anything – and winning. He also found that he had a natural ability to bet on winners in horse races and the like. Add to that the fact that by age 14 he could drink most anyone under the table and you had a recipe for disaster.
At least that was what would happen with most kids - not Charlie, though. He had luck unheard of in most of his father’s circle of friends and the worse his behavior became the more positive attention he got from his father. Charlie was on his way to becoming his father’s successor in criminal activity in the New Orleans area. However, the moment he showed any hesitation about whether or not he should do something or he expressed anything approaching a conscience his father would turn away from him. Having a heart – being concerned for others – those were weaknesses.
Charlie was trained to exploit the weaknesses of others in order to take whatever he wanted. Still, he does have some semblance of a heart despite his father’s best efforts to stamp it out. This is due much to the fact that Charlie was befriended by a drug kingpin with the street name of ‘King Gator’.
King Gator is a Cajun - born and raised in New Orleans. He isn’t a nice guy but he is a ‘gentleman’ – so he says – and prefers to make deals and compromises as opposed to getting into fights. He does business with Burt on a regular basis because Burt has the right amount of money but he frowns on the gangster’s methods of violence and dominance at any cost. Even more so, King Gator dislikes how Burt treats Charlie. The kingpin has his own family – married with two kids – and he is doing everything he can to make sure his children do not follow in his footsteps.
As Charlie grows up it is King Gator who often comes to his rescue whether it be bailing him out of jail or getting him something to eat. The unlikely mentor nurtures some sense of compassion within Charlie and gives him the beginnings of a moral compass - Charlie won’t kill, he won’t hurt a woman, and he won’t hurt kids. Sure, he’ll scam anyone with money or something he can use to get ahead but he will do everything he can to make sure the person he uses doesn’t know they’re being used and doesn’t get hurt. It’s twisted logic but in his mind it makes sense.
Running scams, stealing, selling drugs, and gambling never lead to good things legally and Charlie spent a good bit of his childhood in and out of juvenile detention. He learned to work the system on the inside and even started some profitable smuggling rings within the detention center for things like magazines or cigarettes by paying off officers and other inmates. It all just reinforced the idea that everyone has a price. However, Charlie hates being confined as a result of his time in juvenile detention and his later prison incarceration. To this day he gets claustrophobic in large crowds or in small rooms.
Charlie has little regard for rules because of his upbringing. Still, he was drafted for the Vietnam War because he had no physical limitations, he wasn’t in college, and, he didn’t have a family - by that point Charlie’s father was dead. Charlie served his country but he came out of the experience embittered. The death of so many – both his brothers in arms and the ‘enemy’ – strengthened his low opinion of the government, law enforcement, and laws. But, his respect for life grew – while he was now trained to kill, Charlie had little interest in committing violent crimes once he was back home. Even when he was put in Angola Prison it was not for a violent crime but for being a drug dealer and running an illegal gambling operation.
As a result of his life and all his experiences, Charlie is not your typical bad guy or your typical good guy. He will happily steal everything you own but he won’t kill you. He’ll kidnap an orphan and use them for his financial gain but then he will turn around and help that kid find a home. He knows he’s a bad guy but he’s not rotten to the core. He loves a life of sin and he never wants to die but he never wants to put his friends in danger. In short, Charlie is Charlie.
History:
Charlie B. Barkin was born September 13, 1952, in New Orleans, Louisiana. The bastard son of a New Orleans gangster named Burt Barkin and a prostitute named Loni Bowzer – that neatly sums up Charlie’s early life and the events which formed his personality. He never talks about parents for the simple reason that his mother died in childbirth and his father raised him – sort of. Burt was more or less forced to take on Charlie as his son because he was the only family the child had but he let Charlie run wild.
When Charlie was eight he realized that the way to get his father’s praise was to learn to play in his world. Charlie studied the fine arts of cards, gambling, pool, drinking, and gambling – all in an effort to be the son that Burt wanted. Eventually, Burt noticed his son during a game of darts – kicking ass and taking names. As Charlie beat the old men at the bar that his father had been forced to bring him to (because Burt had business to do and he wasn’t the type to have a babysitter) the boy saw the closest thing to ‘pride’ he had ever seen on his father’s face. And that’s where it all started.
As discussed in the personality section, it is the attention that Charlie receives from his father that drives his illegal behavior. He had tried to gain attention and praise through the normal channels but when that went unnoticed Charlie had to turn elsewhere. The further down the road of wrong the boy went, though, the more pride his father felt. It was twisted but that was their relationship.
Burt was in business with a man known only as ‘Carface’ Carruthers. The two embarked on a joint venture in 1967. Charlie, who was spending most of his time running errands for his father and scamming tourists, didn’t pay much attention to Carface except to know that he was his father’s business partner and that Carface wasn’t that much older than Charlie.
Carface and Burt were much more for the violent slant on business. The 15-year-old Charlie was willing to go along with the work to a certain extent but it made him uneasy. By this point, though, the younger Barkin was a regular in jail and at the juvenile detention center so he was already in the business too deep to get out of it. The only person in Charlie’s life that had any concern for his being was King Gator. Gator had been a business associate of Burt for many years and didn’t much care for Carface. He thought the thug’s methods were uncouth and unseemly. However, Carface was able to pull in more money than Burt had ever dreamed possible so he continued their partnership in spite of Gator’s misgivings.
It turned out that Gator’s unease was well founded. In 1969, a shoot out between rival gangs – a rivalry stirred up by Carface – ended in the murder of Burt. The son mourned his father’s death in the only way he knew – he decided to seek revenge on his father’s killers, egged on by Carface. In the midst of the chaos, Gator managed to jump in and drag Charlie out of the situation. There was no more need for bloodshed – especially since Gator knew his young friend was no match for his new found enemies. Gator took in Charlie for a year and the boy just barely managed to graduate high school in 1970. He was quickly snapped up in the Draft after that.
Charlie didn’t even bother fighting being drafted. To his way of thinking, this was a better option than sitting around back in New Orleans with absolutely nothing. Charlie hit the ground in Vietnam in late 1970 and was quickly put up front as ‘cannon fodder’. He wasn’t officer material in any sense of the word and so infantry was his assignment for his entire time in the army. He was in Vietnam for six months and he then signed on for additional six when he still didn’t see the point in returning to New Orleans.
Between his time spent in training and his time spent in Vietnam, Charlie didn’t end up back in New Orleans until 1972. By that time, Carface had found himself a good niche in the shadier areas of town. However, business wasn’t as good as it could be. Charlie sought out Carface – much to King’s dismay – and offered to take over where Burt had left off. It wasn’t like Charlie had any better options - the anti-war movement was in full swing and he didn’t have anything aside from a high school diploma and a hatred of violence born of witnessing his own father’s death and killing in combat – so he decided he wanted to return to what he knew best. Carface for his part was barely making ends meet and so welcomed the charismatic, street-smart young man with open arms.
Unfortunately, Charlie was incapable of staying out of trouble. In 1975 he was caught up in a vice sting on his gambling and drug dealing. Carface, unknown to Charlie, caught wind of what was up and bailed before the police closed in on him as well leaving his business partner to take the rap. Charlie, being the good hood that he was, refused to rat out Carface and ended up being sentenced to five years in Louisiana State Penitentiary – Angola.
Charlie made good use of his time, though. As he had done in juvenile detention, the young rogue set about making some money for himself smuggling in magazines, cigarettes, and drugs for his fellow inmates. In the process he made an associate – the man in the cell next to his, Leo Itchiford or ‘Itchy’ for short. The two eventually became close friends and by the time of Charlie’s release in 1980 they had decided to go into business together once Charlie met back up with Carface.
Years pass and the operation grows into a full-blown casino and racing track – all run under the radar. With Charlie as the brains of the outfit all Carface has to do is bring in the grunt-work to handle unruly patrons while Itchy works the technical aspects of maintaining the building. Everything is going along great until Carface decides that 50% isn’t good enough anymore. Carface sets into motion a plot to get Charlie out of the picture.
Carface sets up Charlie as a fall-guy in a failed robbery. Charlie serves a short jail sentence and, much to Carface’s surprise, returns to the casino a few months later. Somehow, the business has survived and Charlie is confused by this given that he was the brains of the outfit for years proceeding his time in jail. He does not realize that Carface is fixing the odds with the aid of a little girl who can talk to animals.
During Mardi Gras 1989, Carface proposes a business split to Charlie. Charlie, unaware of Carface’s greed, eventually agrees to the split and joins Carface for a celebration. After a night of drinking Carface’s thugs take Charlie out to the piers and, in the midst of all the noise from Mardi Gras, shoot the drunken Charlie and toss his body into the ocean.
That should have been the end of it but Itchy witnesses the murder. Too scared to tell anyone what he saw, the loyal friend plans to leave New Orleans forever. Meanwhile, in the afterlife, Charlie is realizing that the Heaven that he was told about was someone else’s Heaven and his Hell. When Charlie finds out that his time on Earth is determined by a ‘life watch’ he begins plotting his escape. He uses his con man’s charm to trick the angel, Annabelle, into giving him his life watch by switching out that watch with the one he was given at the party Carface held for him. A quick wind later and Charlie finds himself hurled back to Earth.
Charlie meets back up with Itchy and the two plot revenge on Carface. Itchy has no idea that Charlie is really dead and doesn’t question the fact that his friend is still among the living. It isn’t long before the two find out about Carface’s secret weapon – Anne-Marie.
Anne-Marie has the amazing ability to talk to animals and is able to find out before a race who is going to win so that Carface can shift the odds accordingly to favor the house. Charlie and Itchy ‘rescue’ Annie-Marie and start using her ability to acquire money so that they can build their own casino to compete with Carface’s. Anne-Marie is an orphan who completely trusts Charlie and Itchy. She believes Charlie’s lies that they are going to help the poor to the point of unwittingly helping the two schemers in pick-pocketing.
After managing to stay under Carface’s radar for several months, Charlie is spotted by one of Carface’s thugs, Killer. With the knowledge that Charlie is alive and has Anne-Marie, Carface launches an all-out war in the streets. He wants Anne-Marie back and he wants Charlie and Itchy dead.
Charlie, panicking at both Carface being back in the picture and Anne-Marie finding out he was stealing and had no intention of helping the poor, stashes the little girl at the old church outside of town where his on again off again girlfriend, Flo, runs a shelter. Meanwhile, Carface and his gang show up at Charlie’s casino and beat up Itchy and burn the casino to the ground - warnings to Charlie that they were coming.
In a moment of desperation, Charlie vehemently denies that he cares about Anne-Marie to the point of telling Itchy that he was just using the girl – pretending to be her best friend – and that they would dump her in an orphanage as soon as they were finished with her. Anne-Marie hears all of this and before Charlie can stop her she runs away and is quickly captured by Carface.
Charlie races out after Anne-Marie while Flo and Itchy run to get help from the only people they know won’t turn them away – a couple who had taken in Anne-Marie for a day when the little girl returned the wallet Charlie had stolen from them. The couple wanted to adopt Anne-Marie but were unable to keep her from running back to Charlie.
At Carface’s casino Charlie finally catches up with the kidnappers and knowingly walks into a trap in order to rescue Anne-Marie. The girl is now extremely ill from exposure and needs a doctor. Charlie knows that the game is done and he needs to get Anne-Marie back to the man and woman who want to adopt her. Before Charlie can escape with Anne-Marie, though, Carface appears with his thugs and attack and prepare to drown Charlie.
When all seems lost a long forgotten friend reappears – King Gator. Having heard from the underground that Charlie was going for a final showdown with Carface the old gangster and his crew run into the fray and save Charlie from certain death at Carface’s hands. In the midst of the chaos Anne-Marie is lost in the water and flames engulf the casino. In what was probably the only selfless act in his life, Charlie dives into the water to save Anne-Marie. He manages to push her to safety but loses his life watch in the process – knowingly giving it up in favor of saving the little girl.
The last thing anyone sees of Charlie is him diving back into the water to search for his watch. Carface is killed as his beloved casino is destroyed and Anne-Marie survives and is adopted.
Charlie knows he is unredeemed and knows full well he should be dead. However, his fierce desire to live drives out fear of what awaits him if he ever allows his life watch to stop. He knows that if he dies again he will go to Hell – he can never go back to Heaven.
First Person Sample: [5-10 Sentences]
You grow up being told that Heaven is for the good and Hell is for the bad. I suppose that’s true to a certain point. But what if you’re good and bad? What if you don’t fall into either category entirely? What do you do then?
Heaven is supposed to be a wonderful place. I guess it is for some – maybe even most. But what if the Heaven you get to isn’t your Heaven? What if you end up in a Heaven that someone else’s? What do you do then?
Easy – you do like I did. You break out.
Prose Sample: [3-5 paragraphs, 3rd Person POV]
The questions had become too much. Charlie had told himself there was no other choice. Still, dragging Squeaker across the ocean smacked of being a kidnapper - among other things. It couldn't be helped, though. There was no one he could trust out there to keep her safe out of Carface's grasp.
Besides, questions were starting to mount about how old he was - how he never seemed to age. It was hard to keep a low profile in the underworld when nothing seemed able to injure or kill you. He needed a fresh start - someplace where no one knew him.
That was how Squeaker and he had come to be in London, England.
Why London? Because it was the cheapest fake papers 'King Gator' could get worked out for him and the kid. It had still cost an obscene amount but they had worked. Charlie would have to send Gator a fruit basket or something to make up for his 'comments' on the pricing and the quality.
So now he sat in a bar that he hadn't bothered to get the name of, getting a bit drunk. It had taken awhile but he and Squeaker had settled into their new lives and she was staying the night at a friend's house so he had the night to himself.
He counted how many empty glasses sat in front of him – four. Of course, that didn’t count the glasses the waitress had taken away. The old dog smirked to himself. He still had it in him to drink others under the table even as a dead man.
Nearby some of the patrons play darts and others are concentrating on pool. Charlie eyed them, sizing up their abilities. It would be too easy for him to take them on and clean them out. He prided himself on being the best at those sorts of activities. However, when one was that good at something it always attracted unwanted attention. Attention was the last thing Charlie wanted right then.
So he remained at his post on the bar stool. It was a noble position if he did say so himself. Besides, the alcohol wasn’t going to drink itself.
