- Joined
- Sep 8, 2019
- Messages
- 108
- Points
- 28
Character Name
Raymond Clarke
I Agree
Yes
Has this character appeared in a previous lore?
Yes
Age
70
Blood Type
O+
Personality
Ray is an eccentric man. He is very single-minded, stubborn, and sensitive to perceived slights against him. He is a difficult man to get along with and struggles to connect with people intimately. A lifelong bachelor with few close connections, he feels his loneliness deeply. However, he buries it under his work, which he doggedly pursues and attributes the utmost importance to. Ray struggles to see anything besides the job at hand as important, and finds anything that he's not currently working on to be utterly inconsequential. He is odd and idiosyncratic, with a strange and unhealthy attachment to his gun. Many people who first meet him think he's crazy, however those who stick around or catch him at the right moment are quick to notice his talents. Deeply analytic, intelligent, and perceptive, Raymond's intellect is arguably genius. He certainly has an exceptionally impressive ability to make connections, notice patterns, and perceive small details. Despite his seeming inability to feel apart of humanity, he has a stunning ability to understand the motivations and desires of others.
Character Motivations
Ray is deeply committed to his concept of justice. He wants to catch people who do bad things and make sure they can't continue to hurt people. He views himself as an agent of justice and a protector of mankind. Ray has resigned himself to a sad, lonely life dominated by death and injustice. He views this as an almost messianic sacrifice towards ensuring other people can have the lives he always wanted for himself. In addition to this motivation, Ray gets an immense amount of satisfaction from solving cases and bringing justice, finding it to vindicate him from the people of his past who made him feel dumb and small in school, showing he is in fact capable of superior intellect and astute powers of observation. He also feels a deep loyalty to CPF and a desire to serve for their Coalition.
Physical Appearance
Ray is an older man and it shows. He has a weathered face with a white beard and thin, white hair. He stands at 5'9" and weighs a mere 135 lbs. He has expressive, blue eyes.
Character Image Link
https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/NFE_portrait/2013/12/walkingdeadhershel.jpg
Mechanical Occupation
Infantry (for the aim xp)
In-Character Occupation
Ranger
Biography
Raymond Clarke was born in Chicago, Illinois on February 23, 1958. His father Bill was an eccentric World War II veteran who was fond of sharing war stories. His mother Lauren was a good deal younger than her husband and was a reserved, highly intelligent woman. She worked as a journalist in the fiercely male dominated field and during interviews she could show a passionate, opinionated side that deviated from her usual quiet and polite demeanor. Ray struggled significantly in childhood, finding himself struggling to relate to other children and learn in a classroom environment. As a kid, he used to fancy himself a Martian as an explanation for how different he felt from his classmates. He had a firm sense of right and wrong and often saw the world in a very black-and-white manner, becoming angry when other boys would tease one another. One source of respite for him was his relationship with his parents, with whom he was very close. He shared his father’s infatuation with guns and would often accompany him and his war buddies to the shooting range, where Ray quickly proved himself a stellar marksman. He competed in shooting competitions alongside his dad and enjoyed learning about their operation and maintenance. His father’s prized possession was his rare Singer-produced M1911. During WWII the demand for 1911s was so great that many companies that did not produce firearms were called upon to produce them. Singer produced a mere 500 and they became rare, highly prized collector’s items after the war’s completion. Bill was lucky enough to get issued one during his service and stormed Omaha beach with it faithfully strapped to his side. His father dubbed it ‘Betsy’ and after the war, inscribed the name on the gun’s grip.
Ray’s fine attunement to justice coupled with his stellar marksmanship inspired him to apply to the Chicago Police Department after graduating high school, hoping to become a detective. He got the job, however he quickly found it insufferable. Ray hated his time at the police academy and struggled to get along with the other cadets. However, Ray was determined, bordering on obstinate, and dutifully kept with the program. Similarly, Ray disliked working the beat. He struggled with the daily interactions on the job, disliked the conflict involved in arrests, and struggled to connect with the people around him. Still, Ray was single-minded about his intent to become a detective and tried diligently to do the best work possible during his time on the job. Two years into his police work, a big and dramatic gunfight broke out between police and a gang while Ray was on duty. His stellar marksmanship paid off, with Ray killing two perpetrators and wounding another. Even in high-crime areas such as Chicago, such dramatic and large-scale shootouts were exceptionally uncommon in the often mundane daily role of a police officer and Ray was quickly revered for his conduct. This high-profile event likely helped him attain a position as a detective one year later.
While Raymond struggled in his work as a beat-cop, he found himself having a natural affinity for detective work. He was able to effortlessly make connections others missed, ask the right questions, and notice small, seemingly insignificant details others wouldn’t notice. He immediately excelled and within just one year he was moved from working property crimes to working as a homicide detective, an extremely quick advancement in the ranks. Soon after this promotion, his father suffered a fatal heart attack. Ray was devastated by this loss and took a leave of absence to mourn. In his father’s will, he left him Betsy and Ray soon petitioned for permission to carry the gun as his service weapon. This request was granted and Ray once again put Betsy into a position of service. Some fellow gun enthusiasts Ray was friendly with were irked to see such a rare collector’s item be used in a service role, but Ray got great comfort and felt a connection with his father using Betsy in his police role, and he took great care to ensure she was properly maintained.
Raymond had great success as a homicide detective, having an unusually high rate of case clearance and a bull-headed determination that he brought to every case he was assigned. He had no aspirations for moving up within the force, not considering himself somebody well-suited for leadership roles. While he was friendly with many of his fellow officers, he still struggled in feeling connected to others and didn’t feel close with anybody. This difficulty followed him into his personal life, where he struggled significantly in pursuing romantic relationships.
Nine years into his work as a homicide detective, a string of high profile killings occurred in the Chicago area, suspected to all be perpetrated by one serial killer. Ray was assigned to work the case on a task force and the FBI was quickly called in to assist. The agent in charge of the FBI was named Rick Wilkerson and Ray felt a kinship with the man, instantly taking a liking to him. Raymond always became extraordinarily hyper-focused on his cases,to the detriment of his mental health, however this was exacerbated to an almost troubling degree in this instance. Every waking moment was spent thinking of the case and sleep remained highly elusive. At first, Ray would coordinate with Rick after hours about his inordinate amount of theories and ideas, however after months with minimal progress not everybody kept Ray’s level of excessive interest and thus coordination off the clock became minimal as people’s work-life balance regained some semblance of normalcy. Ray, however, still didn’t have a waking moment not spent on the case.
One late night, Ray followed a long-shot lead, some seemingly insignificant pattern he noticed in the locations of the killings that seemed far more likely to simply be a meaningless correlation than anything of note. However, much to Ray’s own surprise, he found the killer in the process of torturing a young woman. Ray quickly drew Betsy and demanded the killer’s surrender. The man turned around slowly, imitating surrender before drawing a firearm with stunningly quick speed. The perpetrator managed to get a shot off, hitting Ray in the heart as Raymond himself fired a bullet less than a second after getting hit, shooting the man center mass, through his own heart. As Ray felt himself fading quick, he realized the bullet hit something vital and therefore emptied his magazine into the perpetrator to ensure his death as Ray himself bled out. He managed to call for help mere seconds before passing out, attempting unsuccessfully to mutter words of assurance to the young woman.
Paramedics quickly transported Ray to the hospital. The shooter was dead on the scene. It turned out the first bullet decimated his heart, killing him instantly. The perpetrator turned out to be a man named Frank Lemmings, an ex special forces soldier with no criminal background who wasn’t even on the police’s radar. If it hadn’t been for Ray following his far-out lead, he might’ve continued operating for years. The young woman he was torturing upon Ray’s arrival, while deeply traumatized, would survive her injuries. The extremely dramatic nature of the encounter coupled with Ray’s past reputation during the shootout and the horrifically brutal nature of Frank’s slow and torturous killings quickly caused the case to gain the attention of the media. Ray’s heart was badly damaged. His valve was badly damaged and had to be replaced by a pig’s, and the trauma damaged his heart’s electrical system necessitating a pacemaker to be installed. He didn’t wake up for 72 hours and when he did, he found he had been raised to near hero status within the city of Chicago with his hospital overwhelmed with gifts, balloons, and notes from fellow officers, citizens of Chicago, and even people around the country who tuned into the details of the high-profile and almost cinematic event.
While Ray’s superior officer was furious about his decision to pursue a lead, off-duty, without telling anybody where he was going, the nature of the case and the massive attention it received ensured that punishing him for this act would amount to career suicide. Ray himself was deeply off-put by the attention, finding it very uncomfortable and unwanted. He was in the hospital for two weeks before being cleared for release and he was eager to hear when he could go back to work. Much to his disappointment, Ray was informed that due to his heart condition, he would not be cleared to return to field work. He was offered the option to either work a desk job, working cases at the precinct without the clearance to serve warrants to make arrests, or to retire from the force with a partial pension and disability which would add up to a full pension. Ray, feeling personally offended by their unwillingness to let him resume his previous position, decided to retire.
He quickly acquired a new job working as a manager at a gun store / shooting range. He engaged in competitive shooting, taught lessons in gun use and safety, and sold firearms. Ray enjoyed working with the guns but he found the work considerably dull and it wasn’t long before he began to deeply regret his decision to leave the force. He kicked himself for his obstiance, deeply missing his role as a detective. After six miserable and lonely years working at the gun range, Ray met his first serious romantic interest. A constant patron of the gun range, she was enamored with Ray’s shooting ability, his reputation for his past police work, and his eccentricities. She also happened to be a good deal younger than him, only 21 while Ray was now 38. The two began a passionate relationship, full of feeling and lust. It was as brief as it was intense, with her leaving him six months after they got together. Combined with the lingering depression caused by his disability, Ray was devastated. He stopped coming into work and ultimately lost his job, subsisting off his meager pension. During this time, his beloved mother died, rendering him an orphan with no family left in the world, no close friends, and decimated hopes for any romantic future. He genuinely considered the option of having Betsy take him away from his pain and suffering, however he feared she would not be properly cared for after his demise - Ray really did have a strange relationship with his sidearm.
During this time of self-loathing and depression, Ray was approached by a documentarian who was creating a documentary on Frank Lemmings and his killings. He asked to interview Ray both for his research and in the documentary itself. Ray was uplifted by the idea, feeling a zeal for life that had eluded him since his relationship had ended. He eagerly agreed, constantly calling the documentarian in the middle of the night with new memories and fresh ideas on Frank’s motivations. He delivered a well-spoken and intelligent interview during the documentary itself which made him out to be some kind of expert on the subject. The documentary released with some acclaim, elevating Ray back into the public spotlight. Rick Wilkerson, Ray’s old friend from the FBI, called Ray to catch up after watching the interview. The two got lunch and ultimately, Rick asked Ray for his assistance consulting on a case he’d been working on. The documentary’s portrayal of Ray as an expert in the field, despite his retirement from police work, worked in his favor, incentivizing the FBI to take him on as a formal consultant for the case despite his relative lack of experience and education. While Ray might have lacked the education the FBI looks for, he certainly was highly qualified and he was extremely helpful for Rick in solving the case. In fact, Ray had no trouble jumping right back into detective work and again proved near genius at forming connections and finding small details that’d elude the common man. His work was so instrumental in solving the case that Rick recommended his friend to the brass as a regular consultant.
It was many months before Ray got called back in to consult for another case. Despite his popularity and his positive track record, higher ups were reluctant to take on an uneducated man. However, once given the new opportunity Ray proved his qualifications once more, showing his past good work was not a fluke, but a pattern. It wasn’t long before the cases started flowing in, with Ray constantly being hired as a civilian expert consultant on a variety of cases. Ray found his life to have purpose again. Determined to meet the demands required from him but lackluster in a formal education environment, Ray began to educate himself, fervently reading and studying books on crime, serial killings, and corruption to ensure he’d be able to handle anything brought his way.
Ray continued this lifestyle for many years, up until the world began to fall apart. Wilkerson and Ray stayed in contact during the early stages, giving Ray inside information about the severity of events. When he lost contact with Wilkerson, Ray came to the conclusion that the world as it had been was gone and civilization as he knew it was a thing of the past. With that intense grief, another thought occurred. He was due for a major heart surgery in four years to replace the valve in his heart. He might be able to survive as long as five years without it, but he’d surely die and he was confident nobody would have the resources to perform such a complex procedure in this new world he found himself living in. Thus, Ray was essentially living with a timer in his chest, counting down the days until his death.
Ray found it to be a strange feeling knowing around when he was going to die. He began to think about what it was he wanted to do with the remainder of his life. He quickly came to the understanding that people like Frank would now be able to operate with impunity in this new world, and many people would be emboldened to go around the country, raping and murdering along the way. Therefore, Ray decided to spend his final years on Earth as an agent of Justice, going around solving crimes and bringing bad people to justice, doing what little he could to protect the innocent and keep people a bit more safe in this deeply unsafe world. Due to the resources around him, Ray determined that justice would mean death and he gave himself permission to play judge, jury, and executioner to anybody he deemed worthy to die. For years, Ray did just that. He went around the country, finding people murdering others for reasons he deemed insignificant and consequently murdering them. He tried to see the grey area, letting multiple people go who were able to convince him that they had killed for justifiable reasons. However, many might find this kind of vigilante justice unethical.
Ray also helped wipe out whole camps of bandits, working with various communities he came across to help them take out antagonistic groups. Due to his impeccable skills with a firearm, Ray was able to take out whole groups of people at a distance with a rifle before they even knew what was coming. During these years, he lost track of the amount of people he’d killed. That said, he slept soundly, feeling secure in his knowledge that these deaths were making the innocent people of the world safer and more secure.
Five years into this endeavor, Ray could feel his heart begin to give out. His chest was in constant pain and he knew death was imminent. Determined to work one last case, he found another community known as CPF. There was an unsolved murder within the community of a young man and Ray worked volunteered his services. As the people of CPF already had a well established peacekeeping force, they were reluctant to allow an outsider to assist. However, when Ray convinced them of his qualifications, they let him help however he could. Ray managed to find a break in the case, finding the killer and handing him over to the CPF leadership to do with him whatever they deemed just. Thoroughly impressed with his analytical skills and his marksmanship they observed through an encounter with some undead, they offered him an immediate position with their Rangers despite his advanced age. Ray reluctantly informed them of his situation, declining due to his imminent death. However, knowing he was so close to death that he’d be unable to work another case, he did ask them for a comfortable bed to die on.
Incidentally, CPF’s capital happened to have a world-renowned cardiovascular surgeon who had put together an OR for surgeries. Ray was in disbelief, he spent the last five years convinced of his impending doom, living as if his life were on a timer. Now he was being told there might be a chance. Still convinced he’d die, Ray was reluctant to have them waste the resources but ultimately capitulated to their wishes and was escorted to their capital. There, the surgeon harvested a valve from a pig and expertly prepared it for transplant, a procedure requiring extreme knowledge and skill. His anesthesiologist put Ray under, and Ray made his peace beforehand, certain he wouldn’t wake up. However, he did and the operation proved to be a success. After recuperating, Ray took them up on their offer. Due to their saving of his life and their like minded pursuit of justice and security throughout the wasteland, Raymond quickly developed an intense loyalty for the Coalition. He has quickly gained a reputation as an eccentric, but extremely talented Ranger. Many laud him as a genius and while everybody is acutely aware of his advanced age, disability, and subsequent diminished physical capabilities, his almost supernatural abilities with a firearm are well-known to offset these challenges in the field. Ray doesn’t miss. He prefers to work alone and usually always has a case to keep him busy. He remains committed as ever to pursuing justice and is more than happy to have a larger justice system to pass any perpetrators onto, relieved he no longer has to play judge, jury, and executioner.
Would you like your character to start with any items?
A 1911 renamed 'Betsy' with as many additional magazines and bullets as you feel comfortable providing me.
Is your character a member of a group?
Yes
Is your character a member of one of the world factions?
C.P.F.
Please detail your position within the faction, as well as your reason for being in The Barrens.
See bio
Raymond Clarke
I Agree
Yes
Has this character appeared in a previous lore?
Yes
Age
70
Blood Type
O+
Personality
Ray is an eccentric man. He is very single-minded, stubborn, and sensitive to perceived slights against him. He is a difficult man to get along with and struggles to connect with people intimately. A lifelong bachelor with few close connections, he feels his loneliness deeply. However, he buries it under his work, which he doggedly pursues and attributes the utmost importance to. Ray struggles to see anything besides the job at hand as important, and finds anything that he's not currently working on to be utterly inconsequential. He is odd and idiosyncratic, with a strange and unhealthy attachment to his gun. Many people who first meet him think he's crazy, however those who stick around or catch him at the right moment are quick to notice his talents. Deeply analytic, intelligent, and perceptive, Raymond's intellect is arguably genius. He certainly has an exceptionally impressive ability to make connections, notice patterns, and perceive small details. Despite his seeming inability to feel apart of humanity, he has a stunning ability to understand the motivations and desires of others.
Character Motivations
Ray is deeply committed to his concept of justice. He wants to catch people who do bad things and make sure they can't continue to hurt people. He views himself as an agent of justice and a protector of mankind. Ray has resigned himself to a sad, lonely life dominated by death and injustice. He views this as an almost messianic sacrifice towards ensuring other people can have the lives he always wanted for himself. In addition to this motivation, Ray gets an immense amount of satisfaction from solving cases and bringing justice, finding it to vindicate him from the people of his past who made him feel dumb and small in school, showing he is in fact capable of superior intellect and astute powers of observation. He also feels a deep loyalty to CPF and a desire to serve for their Coalition.
Physical Appearance
Ray is an older man and it shows. He has a weathered face with a white beard and thin, white hair. He stands at 5'9" and weighs a mere 135 lbs. He has expressive, blue eyes.
Character Image Link
https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/NFE_portrait/2013/12/walkingdeadhershel.jpg
Mechanical Occupation
Infantry (for the aim xp)
In-Character Occupation
Ranger
Biography
Raymond Clarke was born in Chicago, Illinois on February 23, 1958. His father Bill was an eccentric World War II veteran who was fond of sharing war stories. His mother Lauren was a good deal younger than her husband and was a reserved, highly intelligent woman. She worked as a journalist in the fiercely male dominated field and during interviews she could show a passionate, opinionated side that deviated from her usual quiet and polite demeanor. Ray struggled significantly in childhood, finding himself struggling to relate to other children and learn in a classroom environment. As a kid, he used to fancy himself a Martian as an explanation for how different he felt from his classmates. He had a firm sense of right and wrong and often saw the world in a very black-and-white manner, becoming angry when other boys would tease one another. One source of respite for him was his relationship with his parents, with whom he was very close. He shared his father’s infatuation with guns and would often accompany him and his war buddies to the shooting range, where Ray quickly proved himself a stellar marksman. He competed in shooting competitions alongside his dad and enjoyed learning about their operation and maintenance. His father’s prized possession was his rare Singer-produced M1911. During WWII the demand for 1911s was so great that many companies that did not produce firearms were called upon to produce them. Singer produced a mere 500 and they became rare, highly prized collector’s items after the war’s completion. Bill was lucky enough to get issued one during his service and stormed Omaha beach with it faithfully strapped to his side. His father dubbed it ‘Betsy’ and after the war, inscribed the name on the gun’s grip.
Ray’s fine attunement to justice coupled with his stellar marksmanship inspired him to apply to the Chicago Police Department after graduating high school, hoping to become a detective. He got the job, however he quickly found it insufferable. Ray hated his time at the police academy and struggled to get along with the other cadets. However, Ray was determined, bordering on obstinate, and dutifully kept with the program. Similarly, Ray disliked working the beat. He struggled with the daily interactions on the job, disliked the conflict involved in arrests, and struggled to connect with the people around him. Still, Ray was single-minded about his intent to become a detective and tried diligently to do the best work possible during his time on the job. Two years into his police work, a big and dramatic gunfight broke out between police and a gang while Ray was on duty. His stellar marksmanship paid off, with Ray killing two perpetrators and wounding another. Even in high-crime areas such as Chicago, such dramatic and large-scale shootouts were exceptionally uncommon in the often mundane daily role of a police officer and Ray was quickly revered for his conduct. This high-profile event likely helped him attain a position as a detective one year later.
While Raymond struggled in his work as a beat-cop, he found himself having a natural affinity for detective work. He was able to effortlessly make connections others missed, ask the right questions, and notice small, seemingly insignificant details others wouldn’t notice. He immediately excelled and within just one year he was moved from working property crimes to working as a homicide detective, an extremely quick advancement in the ranks. Soon after this promotion, his father suffered a fatal heart attack. Ray was devastated by this loss and took a leave of absence to mourn. In his father’s will, he left him Betsy and Ray soon petitioned for permission to carry the gun as his service weapon. This request was granted and Ray once again put Betsy into a position of service. Some fellow gun enthusiasts Ray was friendly with were irked to see such a rare collector’s item be used in a service role, but Ray got great comfort and felt a connection with his father using Betsy in his police role, and he took great care to ensure she was properly maintained.
Raymond had great success as a homicide detective, having an unusually high rate of case clearance and a bull-headed determination that he brought to every case he was assigned. He had no aspirations for moving up within the force, not considering himself somebody well-suited for leadership roles. While he was friendly with many of his fellow officers, he still struggled in feeling connected to others and didn’t feel close with anybody. This difficulty followed him into his personal life, where he struggled significantly in pursuing romantic relationships.
Nine years into his work as a homicide detective, a string of high profile killings occurred in the Chicago area, suspected to all be perpetrated by one serial killer. Ray was assigned to work the case on a task force and the FBI was quickly called in to assist. The agent in charge of the FBI was named Rick Wilkerson and Ray felt a kinship with the man, instantly taking a liking to him. Raymond always became extraordinarily hyper-focused on his cases,to the detriment of his mental health, however this was exacerbated to an almost troubling degree in this instance. Every waking moment was spent thinking of the case and sleep remained highly elusive. At first, Ray would coordinate with Rick after hours about his inordinate amount of theories and ideas, however after months with minimal progress not everybody kept Ray’s level of excessive interest and thus coordination off the clock became minimal as people’s work-life balance regained some semblance of normalcy. Ray, however, still didn’t have a waking moment not spent on the case.
One late night, Ray followed a long-shot lead, some seemingly insignificant pattern he noticed in the locations of the killings that seemed far more likely to simply be a meaningless correlation than anything of note. However, much to Ray’s own surprise, he found the killer in the process of torturing a young woman. Ray quickly drew Betsy and demanded the killer’s surrender. The man turned around slowly, imitating surrender before drawing a firearm with stunningly quick speed. The perpetrator managed to get a shot off, hitting Ray in the heart as Raymond himself fired a bullet less than a second after getting hit, shooting the man center mass, through his own heart. As Ray felt himself fading quick, he realized the bullet hit something vital and therefore emptied his magazine into the perpetrator to ensure his death as Ray himself bled out. He managed to call for help mere seconds before passing out, attempting unsuccessfully to mutter words of assurance to the young woman.
Paramedics quickly transported Ray to the hospital. The shooter was dead on the scene. It turned out the first bullet decimated his heart, killing him instantly. The perpetrator turned out to be a man named Frank Lemmings, an ex special forces soldier with no criminal background who wasn’t even on the police’s radar. If it hadn’t been for Ray following his far-out lead, he might’ve continued operating for years. The young woman he was torturing upon Ray’s arrival, while deeply traumatized, would survive her injuries. The extremely dramatic nature of the encounter coupled with Ray’s past reputation during the shootout and the horrifically brutal nature of Frank’s slow and torturous killings quickly caused the case to gain the attention of the media. Ray’s heart was badly damaged. His valve was badly damaged and had to be replaced by a pig’s, and the trauma damaged his heart’s electrical system necessitating a pacemaker to be installed. He didn’t wake up for 72 hours and when he did, he found he had been raised to near hero status within the city of Chicago with his hospital overwhelmed with gifts, balloons, and notes from fellow officers, citizens of Chicago, and even people around the country who tuned into the details of the high-profile and almost cinematic event.
While Ray’s superior officer was furious about his decision to pursue a lead, off-duty, without telling anybody where he was going, the nature of the case and the massive attention it received ensured that punishing him for this act would amount to career suicide. Ray himself was deeply off-put by the attention, finding it very uncomfortable and unwanted. He was in the hospital for two weeks before being cleared for release and he was eager to hear when he could go back to work. Much to his disappointment, Ray was informed that due to his heart condition, he would not be cleared to return to field work. He was offered the option to either work a desk job, working cases at the precinct without the clearance to serve warrants to make arrests, or to retire from the force with a partial pension and disability which would add up to a full pension. Ray, feeling personally offended by their unwillingness to let him resume his previous position, decided to retire.
He quickly acquired a new job working as a manager at a gun store / shooting range. He engaged in competitive shooting, taught lessons in gun use and safety, and sold firearms. Ray enjoyed working with the guns but he found the work considerably dull and it wasn’t long before he began to deeply regret his decision to leave the force. He kicked himself for his obstiance, deeply missing his role as a detective. After six miserable and lonely years working at the gun range, Ray met his first serious romantic interest. A constant patron of the gun range, she was enamored with Ray’s shooting ability, his reputation for his past police work, and his eccentricities. She also happened to be a good deal younger than him, only 21 while Ray was now 38. The two began a passionate relationship, full of feeling and lust. It was as brief as it was intense, with her leaving him six months after they got together. Combined with the lingering depression caused by his disability, Ray was devastated. He stopped coming into work and ultimately lost his job, subsisting off his meager pension. During this time, his beloved mother died, rendering him an orphan with no family left in the world, no close friends, and decimated hopes for any romantic future. He genuinely considered the option of having Betsy take him away from his pain and suffering, however he feared she would not be properly cared for after his demise - Ray really did have a strange relationship with his sidearm.
During this time of self-loathing and depression, Ray was approached by a documentarian who was creating a documentary on Frank Lemmings and his killings. He asked to interview Ray both for his research and in the documentary itself. Ray was uplifted by the idea, feeling a zeal for life that had eluded him since his relationship had ended. He eagerly agreed, constantly calling the documentarian in the middle of the night with new memories and fresh ideas on Frank’s motivations. He delivered a well-spoken and intelligent interview during the documentary itself which made him out to be some kind of expert on the subject. The documentary released with some acclaim, elevating Ray back into the public spotlight. Rick Wilkerson, Ray’s old friend from the FBI, called Ray to catch up after watching the interview. The two got lunch and ultimately, Rick asked Ray for his assistance consulting on a case he’d been working on. The documentary’s portrayal of Ray as an expert in the field, despite his retirement from police work, worked in his favor, incentivizing the FBI to take him on as a formal consultant for the case despite his relative lack of experience and education. While Ray might have lacked the education the FBI looks for, he certainly was highly qualified and he was extremely helpful for Rick in solving the case. In fact, Ray had no trouble jumping right back into detective work and again proved near genius at forming connections and finding small details that’d elude the common man. His work was so instrumental in solving the case that Rick recommended his friend to the brass as a regular consultant.
It was many months before Ray got called back in to consult for another case. Despite his popularity and his positive track record, higher ups were reluctant to take on an uneducated man. However, once given the new opportunity Ray proved his qualifications once more, showing his past good work was not a fluke, but a pattern. It wasn’t long before the cases started flowing in, with Ray constantly being hired as a civilian expert consultant on a variety of cases. Ray found his life to have purpose again. Determined to meet the demands required from him but lackluster in a formal education environment, Ray began to educate himself, fervently reading and studying books on crime, serial killings, and corruption to ensure he’d be able to handle anything brought his way.
Ray continued this lifestyle for many years, up until the world began to fall apart. Wilkerson and Ray stayed in contact during the early stages, giving Ray inside information about the severity of events. When he lost contact with Wilkerson, Ray came to the conclusion that the world as it had been was gone and civilization as he knew it was a thing of the past. With that intense grief, another thought occurred. He was due for a major heart surgery in four years to replace the valve in his heart. He might be able to survive as long as five years without it, but he’d surely die and he was confident nobody would have the resources to perform such a complex procedure in this new world he found himself living in. Thus, Ray was essentially living with a timer in his chest, counting down the days until his death.
Ray found it to be a strange feeling knowing around when he was going to die. He began to think about what it was he wanted to do with the remainder of his life. He quickly came to the understanding that people like Frank would now be able to operate with impunity in this new world, and many people would be emboldened to go around the country, raping and murdering along the way. Therefore, Ray decided to spend his final years on Earth as an agent of Justice, going around solving crimes and bringing bad people to justice, doing what little he could to protect the innocent and keep people a bit more safe in this deeply unsafe world. Due to the resources around him, Ray determined that justice would mean death and he gave himself permission to play judge, jury, and executioner to anybody he deemed worthy to die. For years, Ray did just that. He went around the country, finding people murdering others for reasons he deemed insignificant and consequently murdering them. He tried to see the grey area, letting multiple people go who were able to convince him that they had killed for justifiable reasons. However, many might find this kind of vigilante justice unethical.
Ray also helped wipe out whole camps of bandits, working with various communities he came across to help them take out antagonistic groups. Due to his impeccable skills with a firearm, Ray was able to take out whole groups of people at a distance with a rifle before they even knew what was coming. During these years, he lost track of the amount of people he’d killed. That said, he slept soundly, feeling secure in his knowledge that these deaths were making the innocent people of the world safer and more secure.
Five years into this endeavor, Ray could feel his heart begin to give out. His chest was in constant pain and he knew death was imminent. Determined to work one last case, he found another community known as CPF. There was an unsolved murder within the community of a young man and Ray worked volunteered his services. As the people of CPF already had a well established peacekeeping force, they were reluctant to allow an outsider to assist. However, when Ray convinced them of his qualifications, they let him help however he could. Ray managed to find a break in the case, finding the killer and handing him over to the CPF leadership to do with him whatever they deemed just. Thoroughly impressed with his analytical skills and his marksmanship they observed through an encounter with some undead, they offered him an immediate position with their Rangers despite his advanced age. Ray reluctantly informed them of his situation, declining due to his imminent death. However, knowing he was so close to death that he’d be unable to work another case, he did ask them for a comfortable bed to die on.
Incidentally, CPF’s capital happened to have a world-renowned cardiovascular surgeon who had put together an OR for surgeries. Ray was in disbelief, he spent the last five years convinced of his impending doom, living as if his life were on a timer. Now he was being told there might be a chance. Still convinced he’d die, Ray was reluctant to have them waste the resources but ultimately capitulated to their wishes and was escorted to their capital. There, the surgeon harvested a valve from a pig and expertly prepared it for transplant, a procedure requiring extreme knowledge and skill. His anesthesiologist put Ray under, and Ray made his peace beforehand, certain he wouldn’t wake up. However, he did and the operation proved to be a success. After recuperating, Ray took them up on their offer. Due to their saving of his life and their like minded pursuit of justice and security throughout the wasteland, Raymond quickly developed an intense loyalty for the Coalition. He has quickly gained a reputation as an eccentric, but extremely talented Ranger. Many laud him as a genius and while everybody is acutely aware of his advanced age, disability, and subsequent diminished physical capabilities, his almost supernatural abilities with a firearm are well-known to offset these challenges in the field. Ray doesn’t miss. He prefers to work alone and usually always has a case to keep him busy. He remains committed as ever to pursuing justice and is more than happy to have a larger justice system to pass any perpetrators onto, relieved he no longer has to play judge, jury, and executioner.
Would you like your character to start with any items?
A 1911 renamed 'Betsy' with as many additional magazines and bullets as you feel comfortable providing me.
Is your character a member of a group?
Yes
Is your character a member of one of the world factions?
C.P.F.
Please detail your position within the faction, as well as your reason for being in The Barrens.
See bio
