Character's Full Name: Charles "Zap" Osborne
Character's Age: 23
Character's Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan
Character's Residence: Atlanta, Georgia
Character's Occupation: Pilot for hire, treasure hunter
Character's Gender: Male
Character's Race: Human
Original Character's Powers and Abilities: Zap is a moderate pilot, a mediocre bar fighter, and has no martial arts training. Zap's in descent physical shape, and can hold his own pretty well. He carries a 9mm semi-automatic pistol, a pocket knife, and occasionally a wood boomerang. The boomerang is is more of a spare time hobby, but if he's out of bullets what has he got to lose? He enjoys treasure hunting, and has a love for antiques. This usually won't pay the bills, so he'll haul cargo for his customers. If money is really tight and his bookie is giving him death threats, he'll occasionally fly a smuggling run. He owns two aircraft, both based on a small airstrip just outside of Atlanta, Georgia. One is for his personal treasure hunting, the other for cargo hauling.
His first plane, the "Amber Eyes," is a Lockheed PV-2 Harpoon. The Amber Eyes is a Navy surplus anti-submarine patrol bomber with two Pratt & Whitney R-2800-31 piston engines. It is a sleek and elegant airplane with rounded nose, rear tapered wings, and a twin tail. It has a light blue above white below Navy paint job, and has a painting of a cheetah (the real animal) on the nose. It can haul a maximum of 4000 pounds of cargo, usually in the form of people or crates. If the cargo is something large it has to be able to fit through the bomb bay doors. With a full load the Amber Eyes cruises at about 170 miles per hour, and can haul a full load over 1,700 miles. The Amber eyes can have up to 9 .50 cliber machine guns to defend her, with 5 in the front nose, two in the dorsal bubble turret, and two in the tail gun. The four defensive guns require crew members to fire them however, so they are usually replaced by painted broom sticks to save weight.
Zap's second plane, a modified Messerschmitt Me-163 Komet, is called the "Blue Blooded Beauty." This plane serves no true practical purpose for cargo hauling, but it serves the same purpose to Zap as do sports cars for other people. The Beauty has a olive green and white snowfield camoflage paint job, and a painting of a white cat on the nose. The plane is relitively short and squat (it is only about 19 feet long). It has swept back wings, no horizontal tail fins, and uses a liquid fueled rocket engine. The aircraft is known to be the most futuristic and bizarre ever to see action in World War Two. It is a very agile and manuverable aircraft in flight, and can fly close to the speed of sound. Even with Zap's modifications however, it's range is quite limited with the plane only being able to travel about 500 miles. Once or twice Zap actually has used this aircraft for smuggling purposes because it's small size and great manuverability make it hard to detect. Plus it can more adequitely defend itself with it's pair of 30mm cannons in the base of its wings and its 24 air to air underwing rockets. Zap will also occasionally use the Beauty for treasure hunting when speed is important to get to a destination before his competitors.
Original Character's Weaknesses: His favorite sports team is the Detroit Tigers, and will get angry if someone mocks them. He is over protective of his airplanes, and will either get mad at or challenge people who bad mouth them. This often gets him into trouble. He can throw punches pretty well, but has no martial arts skills. He usually stays on the right side of the law, and rarely fights, except in the above two cases. He is reluctant to bring his planes into combat because they are his babies, but he will defend himself. He has a weakness for antiques, and he'll often drop everything to go hunting for one.
Original Character's Bio/Background/History: I grew up in Detroit, Michigan. I never really liked it there. I always thought it was way to cold and polluted. The fact that the Detroit river has concrete banks always bothered me. So I decided to get away from it all and see the world. When I was 18 I signed up for one tour of duty with the U.S. Navy. They taught me to fly, and after my tour I became a cargo pilot for hire near my old base on Hawaii where it was warm and full of wildlife. I had to leave Hawaii and move to Atlanta however, because business was bad, my gambling debts were high, and I heard that Atlanta's economy was booming. Atlanta's no Waikiki, but at least it's warm. In my trips with the Navy I saw interesting places with interesting things which caused me to develop a love for finding antiques and treasures. My love for antiques is reflected in my choice of aircraft, which are both over 50 years old. I go treasure hunting whenever I have the money to do so. My adventures take me to all of the corners of the globe.
Original Character's Physical Description: Zap Osborne is a fairly large somewhat intimidating man, who has been darkly tanned from many hours of working (or relaxing) in the sun. He is about six feet two inches in height and weighs about 220 pounds. He is somewhat built and muscular, but his physique has been slowly slipping away since his years in the Navy. He has blue eyes and light brown hair, which he usually keeps pretty short. He usually wears short sleeved multi-colored Hawaiian shirts and old sun bleached blue jean shorts. He prefers to walk in sandles or old stained and discolored tennis shoes. He often wears either shark tooth or puka shell necklaces. He always wears an old Detroit Tigers baseball cap, which he views as being "lucky." He has no visable scars, but he does have a VPB-135 Squadren tatoo on his left shoulder.
How will you play this character? Please be descriptive! My character has three things on his mind: finding antiques, his airplanes, and paying off his bookie. As far as money is concerned he will haul cargo for other players and barter and trade things. He also may gamble for money. If there aren't any cargo hauling jobs available he'll either hang out in the local bars or try and find an adventure to go on with other characters. He loves treasure hunting more than work and will go on any adventure where he can explore the corners of the globe, meet interesting people, or just get rich.
In your character's own words, how does he/she feel about the Diggers sisters? The Diggers sisters? They are my competition! They've taken many things that I have searched for, always beating me by a month or so. They also fly with that "Ace" guy. Since I've moved here I've heard he's pretty good, but what has he got that I haven't got? Sure he has a larger airplane that's jet powered, but hey, me and the ol' "Amber Eyes" fly in style! I mean have you ever seen an airplane that was so beautiful?
All text and original multimedia is © 2001 Daniel Keller. All other information is copyrighted by their respective owners.