history
ooc - this post locked against all but doc laylor.
When/how did you learn to read and write?
I know most people who grew up on the Plate don't think so, but there are schools in the slums. They're just tiny, poor, dirty, understaffed, and have low attendance rates. I went to school on and off (more off than on, 'f course) until I was 11 or 12. I was a smart kid; I picked things up quick, plus, my younger sister Kina's a real genius and used to get me interested in her books an' things. These days, I dunno much about algebra or Shakespeare, but I can read, write, and do all but the most complicated, useless math just as well as the next guy.
How/why did you join a gang?
I was 12 an' had to take the train from Sector 2 every afternoon to get to "work" by night at the Don's place in Sector 6, where I'd been workin' nights since I was 9. I know you're prob'ly expecting some violent story or somethin', but it was relatively tame. There was a skinny Wutain kid--maybe 14 or 15--sittin' next to me one day, an' he started talkin' to me. In the slums, you don't make nice with strangers, but this kid was real cool; we both made good impressions on each other, an' he gave me the address of a place to stop by if I was interested in meetin' more guys like him. I was an idiot; a few days later, I went to it. I'm damn lucky they were fairly innocent and weren't tryin' to scam or rob me. Turns out, the kid's name was Ichikoh, an' the beat up basement in Sector 3 was the headquarters of the Digs, a gang that was becomin' better'n better known in the city. I liked the guys there, an' ended up joining them after a few weeks of stoppin' there every day before goin' to the Don's. My ma didn't like it too much, but she was startin' to fade, then; startin' to get a lil crazy, an' she didn't stop me from spendin' as much time as I could in that shitheap of a basement, underneath a restaurant that was really a front for the coke being dealed out of the kitchen.
Back then, all of Midgar's gangs had their own livelihoods. Ours was stealing. The youngest were pickpockets, an' then the older ones pulled armed robberies all over the city, an' the occasional inside sort've job. All straightforward an' brute force. Then there was me an' Ichikoh. I had a damn good instinct for cat burglary, an' he was a master of it an' trained me. It didn't take much time for me to get even better'n Ich. I made more'n the rest combined; slipping inside jewelry stores and art museums on the Plate after they closed. No matter how much we made, though, there was never enough; we'd each take a small cut of it, an' the rest just got sucked up by booze, drugs, and sex. Other than stealing, we didn't do much; scrawled "Dig" all over everything, randomly vandalized things, and occasionally went to war with nearby gangs. We always won.
I left school after I joined the Digs, an' because I wasn't needed at the Don's til night (an' even then, not every night), I'd spend my days with them. I started out as one of the youngest an' smallest of the boys, but by the time I left the gang when I was 18, I was well-respected an' feared, an' was leading them, after the original leader bit it in a driveby when I was 17. Made some damn good friends; especially Ichikoh, who was really like a fourth brother to me, and Twenty, a scrawny, scrappy kid from Sector 7 who'd earned the nickname after he bragged--at age 7--that that was the number of guys he'd killed. Over the years, I never actually told any of 'em what I did; I think they assumed I was hustling or dealing like the rest of 'em were. I wonder if any of 'em knew.
What were the circumstances behind the first time you killed?
Was wonderin' when you'd get to this. I was 12 an' had just joined the Digs. As luck would have it, the day after I joined up, a Pic killed one of ours in Wall Market. So I went along on an assault on the Pic headquarters. But hell, I was damn small, young, an' didn't know nothin' about fighting. So one of the guys handed me a beat-up, shit sniper rifle, showed me how to use it real quick, stuck me in an alley across the street, an' told me to basically sit an' shoot guys I didn't recognize.
I'd seen plenty of guns before, but never shot one. But it turned out I just had a natural talent with 'em; an affinity. I fired a couple've times an' nicked a couple've guys on the street while the two gangs brawled. Then a Pic noticed me an' started comin' toward me, with a big metal pipe in his hand. He didn't see the gun; it was on the ground beside my hand, hidden by the shadow of the dumpster above me. So I waited til he was almost close enough to hit me, then picked up the rifle an' shot him. The first bullet hit him in the shoulder, an' he kept coming. The second blew off a chunk of his head, an' he died. An' I felt nothing.
We beat the shit out've the Pics that day; they're not around anymore. Ich saw how naturally good I was with that rifle an' taught me how to use it; we had more call for a sniper than you might think, an' I got to be fairly good at it. Within the next couple of years, we'd raid a police armory an' fence the guns, an' my marksmanship'd become famous among petty criminals an' hustlers as I got comfortable with the Steyr-Manlicher I picked up on that raid. I still use that same gun on missions to this day. I didn't just learn to shoot from far away, though; the boys taught me to shoot up close, and to fight. When I was 17 an' 18, I was the baddest motherfucker the Sectors had seen in years.
Were you involved in drugs?
Why? You want me to hook you up?
Nobody who grew up in the slums wasn't. I snorted huge amounts of coke for a couple've years, personally, which I finally quit after a few years when my mother threatened to kill herself if I didn't stop. That was a hellish experience. A lot of my money went into crack and the occasional shot of heroin. I smoked a lot've weed back then, too. These days, I don't touch anything hard; Tseng'd have me out on my ass in a second if I was addicted to anything but nicotine an' booze. Doesn't want junkie Turks.
Damn, lady, got any questions that don't involve my past? I thought you were supposed to be fixing 23-year-old me, not me as a kid.
When/how did you learn to read and write?
I know most people who grew up on the Plate don't think so, but there are schools in the slums. They're just tiny, poor, dirty, understaffed, and have low attendance rates. I went to school on and off (more off than on, 'f course) until I was 11 or 12. I was a smart kid; I picked things up quick, plus, my younger sister Kina's a real genius and used to get me interested in her books an' things. These days, I dunno much about algebra or Shakespeare, but I can read, write, and do all but the most complicated, useless math just as well as the next guy.
How/why did you join a gang?
I was 12 an' had to take the train from Sector 2 every afternoon to get to "work" by night at the Don's place in Sector 6, where I'd been workin' nights since I was 9. I know you're prob'ly expecting some violent story or somethin', but it was relatively tame. There was a skinny Wutain kid--maybe 14 or 15--sittin' next to me one day, an' he started talkin' to me. In the slums, you don't make nice with strangers, but this kid was real cool; we both made good impressions on each other, an' he gave me the address of a place to stop by if I was interested in meetin' more guys like him. I was an idiot; a few days later, I went to it. I'm damn lucky they were fairly innocent and weren't tryin' to scam or rob me. Turns out, the kid's name was Ichikoh, an' the beat up basement in Sector 3 was the headquarters of the Digs, a gang that was becomin' better'n better known in the city. I liked the guys there, an' ended up joining them after a few weeks of stoppin' there every day before goin' to the Don's. My ma didn't like it too much, but she was startin' to fade, then; startin' to get a lil crazy, an' she didn't stop me from spendin' as much time as I could in that shitheap of a basement, underneath a restaurant that was really a front for the coke being dealed out of the kitchen.
Back then, all of Midgar's gangs had their own livelihoods. Ours was stealing. The youngest were pickpockets, an' then the older ones pulled armed robberies all over the city, an' the occasional inside sort've job. All straightforward an' brute force. Then there was me an' Ichikoh. I had a damn good instinct for cat burglary, an' he was a master of it an' trained me. It didn't take much time for me to get even better'n Ich. I made more'n the rest combined; slipping inside jewelry stores and art museums on the Plate after they closed. No matter how much we made, though, there was never enough; we'd each take a small cut of it, an' the rest just got sucked up by booze, drugs, and sex. Other than stealing, we didn't do much; scrawled "Dig" all over everything, randomly vandalized things, and occasionally went to war with nearby gangs. We always won.
I left school after I joined the Digs, an' because I wasn't needed at the Don's til night (an' even then, not every night), I'd spend my days with them. I started out as one of the youngest an' smallest of the boys, but by the time I left the gang when I was 18, I was well-respected an' feared, an' was leading them, after the original leader bit it in a driveby when I was 17. Made some damn good friends; especially Ichikoh, who was really like a fourth brother to me, and Twenty, a scrawny, scrappy kid from Sector 7 who'd earned the nickname after he bragged--at age 7--that that was the number of guys he'd killed. Over the years, I never actually told any of 'em what I did; I think they assumed I was hustling or dealing like the rest of 'em were. I wonder if any of 'em knew.
What were the circumstances behind the first time you killed?
Was wonderin' when you'd get to this. I was 12 an' had just joined the Digs. As luck would have it, the day after I joined up, a Pic killed one of ours in Wall Market. So I went along on an assault on the Pic headquarters. But hell, I was damn small, young, an' didn't know nothin' about fighting. So one of the guys handed me a beat-up, shit sniper rifle, showed me how to use it real quick, stuck me in an alley across the street, an' told me to basically sit an' shoot guys I didn't recognize.
I'd seen plenty of guns before, but never shot one. But it turned out I just had a natural talent with 'em; an affinity. I fired a couple've times an' nicked a couple've guys on the street while the two gangs brawled. Then a Pic noticed me an' started comin' toward me, with a big metal pipe in his hand. He didn't see the gun; it was on the ground beside my hand, hidden by the shadow of the dumpster above me. So I waited til he was almost close enough to hit me, then picked up the rifle an' shot him. The first bullet hit him in the shoulder, an' he kept coming. The second blew off a chunk of his head, an' he died. An' I felt nothing.
We beat the shit out've the Pics that day; they're not around anymore. Ich saw how naturally good I was with that rifle an' taught me how to use it; we had more call for a sniper than you might think, an' I got to be fairly good at it. Within the next couple of years, we'd raid a police armory an' fence the guns, an' my marksmanship'd become famous among petty criminals an' hustlers as I got comfortable with the Steyr-Manlicher I picked up on that raid. I still use that same gun on missions to this day. I didn't just learn to shoot from far away, though; the boys taught me to shoot up close, and to fight. When I was 17 an' 18, I was the baddest motherfucker the Sectors had seen in years.
Were you involved in drugs?
Why? You want me to hook you up?
Nobody who grew up in the slums wasn't. I snorted huge amounts of coke for a couple've years, personally, which I finally quit after a few years when my mother threatened to kill herself if I didn't stop. That was a hellish experience. A lot of my money went into crack and the occasional shot of heroin. I smoked a lot've weed back then, too. These days, I don't touch anything hard; Tseng'd have me out on my ass in a second if I was addicted to anything but nicotine an' booze. Doesn't want junkie Turks.
Damn, lady, got any questions that don't involve my past? I thought you were supposed to be fixing 23-year-old me, not me as a kid.