James Barnett

Name: James Barnett
Age: 33
Sex: Male

Place of Birth: Utica, New York

HeightL 6'1
Weight: 190 lbs

Background:
James was born in 1923 to a middle-class family in upstate New York. His father was an honest man who loved Franklin Roosevelt and who tried to instill values of hard work and cooperation in his son. His mother came from an old money family who married down despite her parents' protests. Although college educated, she was a housewife for most of her life. She did use her advanced education to try to instill an appreciation of the arts in her son. He had an older brother whom he always looked up to named Ronald.

After James graduated high school, he took up his father's carpentry business and married his high school sweetheart Mary Crowell. They would go on to have three kids, Judith, Jerry and Joyce (from oldest to youngest). By all measures, they were a model of the 1950's nuclear family.

Although James enjoyed his modest carpentry trade, he always dreamed of something bigger. Though he greatly admired his father, he often wondered why he never wanted to make a bigger impact on the world; to do something that would forever leave a mark on history. At night he would enjoy reading about civilizations like the Egyptians, Greeks, and Mayans who built magnificent structures with their bare hands that stood for thousands of years. Structures that were beyond even the ability of modern civilization to recreate. His wife often teased him for his bookish nature but appreciated his willingness to expand his mind.

In 1942 he followed his brother to fight in the war. Serving in the Third Infantry division, James was a highly decorated and well respected soldier. He eventually earned the rank of Sergeant First Class and was highly decorated for saving two soldiers from a burning tank during an attack on the German Siegfried line. Unfortunately, his brother Ronald's destroyer was sunk by a Japanese submarine in 1944. His death proved to be a turning point in his life. Depressed, and wanting to get away from things that reminded him of Ronald, he abandoned his carpentry business in Utica and moved to New York City, doing odd construction jobs for many years.

James' big break came when he landed a project for wealthy industrialist, Andrew Ryan. The job involved working on one of Ryan's lavish penthouses and paid far more than his normal work They needed money and this job came at exactly the right time. While on the job he met a man named Bill Mcdonagh.A hardworking, good-natured man with a great sense of humor, they quickly became good friends and regular drinking buddies.

His life took an unexpected turn when helping Mcdonagh on some plumbing work for one of the posh bathrooms in Ryan's estate. Mcdonagh was using superior brass fittings instead the shabby tin ones his supervisor requested. Even though he was picking up the pricey fittings with his own money, his supervisor was furious that Mcdonagh was, in his eyes, trying to make him look bad. After hearing a heated discussion between the two, James interjected with a few choice words regarding the general contractor's quality of work. Thinking he was fired for sure, James braced for the worst. Instead, the general contractor muttered something under his breath and stormed off in a huff. The next day, Ryan fired the old contractor and promoted Mcdonagh to his position. Ever since that day, James would be one of Mcdonagh's most trusted colleagues

A couple years later, McDonagh told James about some of the basic plans for Rapture. An underwater city for the world's best and brightest and Mcdonagh wanted James to go with him. This whole thing sounded like it was exactly what James wanted. It was something big, something that would allow him to say that he genuinely left an impact on the world in some way.

When he presented the idea to his wife, she wasn't entirely enthused. She didn't want to take the kids to some crazy underwater city that could flood or collapse at any given moment. James understood her concerns, and in a way he didn't really want his family to go down there either. He was just going to go down there for a year or two, earn some big bucks, and come back home to an early retirement. It wouldn't be any different than military service, only this time he will come back a wealthy man and have a few good stories for his kids.

James said goodbye to his family and left for Rapture in March 1947, a few months after his friend Bill. James was amazed at what he saw. A city of infinite beauty where the limits of a man's greatness was only his imagination. He enjoyed this time in Rapture, and made a name for himself as one of the better construction workers. He gained a lot of respect supervising the construction of the basement in the Worley Winery, a task that several other contractors turned down.

His infatuation with the city only lasted so long though. When Ryan officially passed the "one law", forbidding contact with the surface, his heart sunk. How was he going to be able to get back to his family now? He had known from the beginning that Ryan didn't like the idea of people leaving Rapture for the surface but he always figured that once the city was established Ryan would come to his senses. After all, a businessman like him would probably want as much tourist money as possible right? If nothing else, he was sure Bill could pull some strings for him. But he underestimated Ryan's complete aversion to any form of surface contact.

Things got worse as the situation with Ryan and Fontaine escalated. Although, he was not particularly enthralled Ryan, he knew that Bill had a lot of respect for him and if Bill thought he was a good man, that was good enough for him. However, he has heard whispers that Fontaine's smugglers were using mini-subs to smuggle contraband into Rapture from New York and Boston. The surface, it's been so long since he has seen his family. Have they forgotten about him by now?. If only he could get his hands on one of those subs...


Appearance: He is about 6'1, short dark hair, clean shaven and slightly muscular build form his years of manual labor. He can be usually seen wearing long sleeve dress shirts and either a fedora or pork pie hat on his days off of work. If he is just off of a job, he might be wearing a plain shirt and raw denim overalls.

Alignment: Good/Ryan Loyalist

Class: Engineer

Attributes
Weapon: The Tool
Pistol 3 clips of standard ammunition
ADAM Hypo Needle, Four First Aid Kits, Two EVE Hypos
Bonus Item: Pack of Oxford Club Cigarettes

Gene Bank
Plasmid Account (1/1): X
Physical Account: (1/2): X
Combat Account (1/2): x
Engineer Account (2/4): Safecracker, X

Weapons and Equipment
The Tool
Pistol 3 clips of standard ammunition
ADAM Hypo Needle, Four First Aid Kits, Two EVE Hypos
Pack of Oxford Club Cigarettes

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