goldenboy

Name: Arun "Johnny" Tang

Age: 25

Gender: Male

Type: Dreamer

Appearance:

Johnny is Asian, of Cambodian descent, and it shows as much with his almond eyes - although he is unusually tall and lanky for his heritage, standing at 6'0. He's kinda smug looking, and a bit of a pretty boy. Probably not as much as a pretty boy as he thinks he is, as his hair's usually unwashed and in need of a cut, and he has a rather sallow complexion. He dresses in loud, expensive clothes, and is never not carrying at least one gun, or a set of brass knuckles. His accent is way more American than any of his other family members (he forced himself to affect it in order to fit in) although there's still the odd hint of something more "exotic" with certain words. He exaggerates his "R"s in order to avoid that "dumb Pidgin chink" stereotype.

Personality:

Johnny is brash. He's loud, he's casually violent, he uses people up and tosses them away, lives for the moment, and shows off. Constantly. He has to be the centre of attention. His sense of humour is cruel and inappropriate, he likes to be in control and he fights dirty. He's a bully, and feels like he's entitled to a good, easy life, because hey - his family worked themselves up from the dirt as immigrant "chinks" and settled themselves into one of the city's biggest crime niches. Johnny feels like the infamy of the family name gives him a right to do whatever the hell he wants, and damn the consequences. This is why he tends to stick to Chinatown - leave the laundries and the opium dens and the "taste of the orient" brothels behind, and Johnny's just another dirty slit-eye who nobody gives a shit about - but on his home turf, he's God. Or at least, he thinks he is, and people mostly pander to him out of fear. Johnny subscribes heavily to his own propaganda.

Johnny lies and exaggerates to make himself look good - he's very concerned with appearances. He is easily offended (or pretends to be, so that he can start fights) and tied up with the superficial. He's too lazy to have ambition really - if he found an easy way to climb the ranks of the Syndicate and get himself out of Chinatown and into the big leagues, he would do it, but if it takes too much effort he's not going to bother - being a big fish in a small pond does him just fine, and he has some insecurities about his race that he would never ever vocalise that tend to hold him back from trying to do anything outstanding. Not that Johnny has the intelligence or the capability to be particularly outstanding, but he could probably do better than being a casually violent playboy who sometimes plays muscle for his Daddy's drug deals.

Sexuality:

Straight. Suggesting otherwise will get you a severe kicking.

City History:

Johnny's parents moved to Eidolon from Cambodia with the original consignment of the Jade Lotus ten years ago. Johnny's father, Heng, was already an established small-time people trafficker and the Syndicate hand picked him for to promotion to America. So Johnny, his older brother Rutep, his little sisters Sitha and Sun, and his Mother Mai-Xiou (A Chinese woman ten years his father's junior, as she'd been married to him as payment from her family) all upped sticks and came to America. The kids all picked up English and the "American" way of life pretty quickly, but none so much as Johnny, who seemed to lose his accent very fast, and picked up the dress-sense and attitude of the Western world like he'd been born here, rather than an illegal "F.O.B."

It was made clear to Johnny from day one that his older brother would be the one who dealt with the business side of things. Johnny was too young, too Westernized, and not intelligent enough - of course only the first of these three points was made known to him. He didn't do well in school though, and was always in trouble for bullying the other kids. He collected a posse of bigger kids who were dumb enough to like him, and basically did nothing for a long ass time. He bummed smokes, mooched around Chinatown, spoke big about his dad and generally just harassed people.

That's the way it's been for ten years, only the partying kicked up. He and his gang (unimaginatively named "Johnny's Golden Boys") intimidate people and collect debts, put the frighteners on people, but mostly they just live big and easy within the confines of Chinatown. Johnny's also crossed lines - he's raped two women, killed an old man in cold blood, and caused a lot of people a lot of problems. He doesn't feel bad about any of it - but there are doubtlessly a bunch of pissed off residents of Chinatown who aren't involved with the Lotus who despise him and want him dead.

Special Skills and Abilities:

Johnny has absolutely no valid life skills. Seriously. He can't even make himself a sandwich, that's what the underlings are for. He's even forgotten a lot of the Khmer and Mandarin he spoke as a child (although he knows enough to bark orders and insult people).

Weaknesses:

Addict - Johnny lives fast and hard. He likes drinking, smoking, women and amphetamines. He's a coke head, and not opposed to a little chasing the dragon either. This means when Johnny hasn't used for a while, he is even more easily irritated and very prone to headaches.

Deluded Bastard - Outside of his direct family, no-one really likes Johnny, unless they are completely dim and impressed by flashy shows of violence and all his swagger. People suck up to him, because he is mad, bad and dangerous to know, and has an ability to get free drinks in the right sort of establishment, but really? The guy doesn't have any genuine friends. And he's kind of convinced himself that the opposite is true. Johnny thinks he's hardcore, that he's the big man, that everyone wants a piece because he is just that awesome.

Coward - Johnny talks the talk, sure, and it's one thing to kick the snot out of a guy if he's with all his friends, or hold a knife to some little girl's throat for kicks, but if shit really gets serious? Johnny's gonna do some bullshitting and try to cut and run. He always looks out for number one. He puts on a good show, but right in his core? He's yellow.

Criminal - Johnny beats people up, steals, deals and does drugs, and has on occasion raped women. Seriously. He's a thug, and a bastard, and eventually either his own belief that he's one of the untouchables will get him caught, or someone will rat on him, or just flat out lose their shit and kill him for the good of everyone.

Useless - Johnny doesn't know how to look after himself. He thinks he's some independent big man, but without his Mother cooking him dinner and his Father sending him on assignments? He's lost. There's no way Johnny can fend for himself, and unsurprisingly, he's not very bright. He's never read a book in his life, and his street smarts are pretty lax, too, because he's spent his entire life coasting along on the coattails of his family

Strengths:

Family Business - Johnny acts like your average thug, but really? His parents and his older brother are the backbone of a lot of Lotus "business". They've got his back, and he knows it, and he acts like a fucking Prince because of it.

Loyal - Despite the fact he's a massive douchebag, Johnny does believe in loyalty to the Lotus. He'll never snitch on or betray a fellow member of the brethren (at least not knowingly), and while it's hardly enough to make up for the rest of Johnny's shortcomings, it's his one somewhat decent quality. He does, however, expect the same fealty. Although he tends to use a perceived slight towards his "posse" or himself as an excuse to beat someone's teeth in, so maybe it's not all that awesome.

Family or Connections:

Jade Lotus. He has an older brother and two little sisters, and both of his parents are around. He's also got his "Golden Boys", a group of 6 Lotus boys who make up for in muscle what they lack in brains.

Residence:

Chinatown. Johnny has his own place which is a fairly nice (well, nice for Chinatown) apartment, but he spends most of his non-partying or crime time hanging out in his parent's place above the giant Lotus Laundry because his mother and his sisters do his washing and make him food.

Career:

Criminal, and heir to the Jade Lotus empire (but not really)

PB: Takashi Sorimachi