Howard "Trip" Lawrence- Howard “Trip” Lawrence the third
- 26 Years old Trip Lawrence is a serious but easy-going young man in his mid-20s. He’s in a way the perfect big brother: the nicest, most popular hunk in college, only 5 times as gifted, 5 times as cool, 5 times as smart – and 10 times as dedicated.
A broad-shouldered, handsome man, Trip has most girls raving about how dreamy he is. Tousled jet black hair frames his face and draws out intelligent blue eyes. He isn't burly or overpoweringly muscular like Ashton, but has a leaner form, wirly and nimble. Trip, when out of costume, usually dresses in simple clothes with a general sportive feel – running shoes, jogging pants, etc. He will approach everything with the confidence born of amazing talent and incredible training. Yet he manages to never seem pretentious in the slightest, always caring for others and being genuinely attentive. At times, a casual observer might think his motivation is 'Thrill of Adventure'. He finds rooftop acrobatics or fighting crime plain fun, gets an obvious sense of satisfaction from bringing justice and happiness to the people, and has always some light banter ready for combat. Although he’s not a motormouth, he usually seems very relaxed when donning his vigilante suit. However, what actually makes him tick is a deep, burning desire to make the world a better, safer place where justice actually exists. Like Reckoning, he wants no kid to ever suffer the losses he went through. Unlike his mentor he does not see the world as a cruel and harsh place, but remembers the wonderful childhood he had. This profound difference in memories lets Euchre fight for a better, safer world for honest people around him while his former mentor fought to crush evil. While Reckoning follows his own obsessive rules, Trip is actually sane and a part of society. Unlike the rest of his family, which will go through any means for the good of the majority, he has a very strong “nobody dies on my watch” code. Trip’s courage is astounding. He has faced so much danger and monstrous opponents straight from textbook nightmare since his early teens that he seem to be fearless and takes physical pain in stride without much of a shock. To him it’s a mere part of his job, and he can defy physical or mental torture with a smile. Even when badly hurt, he’ll still act in a stalwart and generous way, saving innocents and bearing little grudge. Likewise, although his life has been a terrifying emotional grinder, he’s outgoing, gentle and well-adjusted. Despite being a huge hit with the ladies with his attractiveness, confidence and boy next door charm, his romantic life keeps turning into a minefield through little fault of his own. He keeps trying, though and has an easy, flattering, gently flirting manner. With the death of Reckoning, Trip is learning to work alone. Before that, he had always been half of a duo or the leader of a full team. While it flatters his confidence, he isn't entirely at ease with the solo gig. He often relies on Matrix’s ideas and investigation. While he knows he’s very smart, he’s also quite aware Nathaniel is a genius. Albeit he’s an excellent detective, he’s not really into the “plans within plans within plans within paranoia” genius of his former mentor. He tends to go with the flow and try various approaches instead of obsessively taking intellectual control of any situation. Lately, Trip has taken more and more Reckoning-like qualities. Operating alone in a rotten situation, he has driven himself more and more harshly to live up to his impossible responsibility, becoming colder, more tired and more driven. |
"Ahh, stop. Howard, was my father and Mr. Lawrence was my grandfather. Call me Trip, everyone does, and before you ask no, it's not because I fall down alot. It's because I'm the third, so you know Trip, like triple. "
|
- Trip loves being a big brother just a little too much, and he's always a little overbearing with his siblings. He also loves to invent spur of the moment nicknames for them.
- His favorite color is green, any green will do but mostly dark greens. - He is literally a walking music playlist. Trip can't decide if "Brother" by NEEDTOBREATHE is his favorite song or if "Angles in Chelsea" by Rachel Platten is. - Practically everyone he meets he views a potential friend. - Is very smitten with the idea of "Family Movie Night" which he invented. Every wednesday the whole gang sits down and watches a movie without killing one another. - Loves food, but if he had to chose it would be Thai food, anything spicy. -Can't draw for shit - For some reason horror movies really scare him -Loves roller coasters, like more than Thai food (well, maybe not that much) -Sometimes when he can't keep up his happy facade, he calls his friend Ella who works on the police force and crys to her while they talk about Star Trek. - Is obsessed with Star Trek. - Sings in the shower, loudly, so he can wake up his siblings. - Probably out of all his siblings he is the closest to Malcolm, would want Rosetta on his side in a fight, would attack anyone who hurt Ashton (well, that goes for granted for all his siblings, but especially Ash) and would like to rant to Nathaniel about how crazy everyone is on the couch while marathoning a TV show. - He is the only one in the family to have a good relationship with every single one of his siblings. - Loves running, he wakes up in the morning and runs, sometimes for hours. - Early riser - Sometimes he can be a bleeding heart. - Dislikes fish - Can speak French and Spanish as well as read them, and claims he can speak latin (which he kindof can) just to annoy people. - He lets Malcolm sleep with him at night because he knows the kid hates being alone (even if Mal denies it.) And sometimes Ashton will come in his room after a nightmare and he lets both brothers sleep with him. - Can't cook that well. (He can't cook at all, one time he started a fire trying to make eggs.) - Koi are his favorite animal, doesn't know why (maybe that's why he hates eating fish) - When people don't call him Trip, and instead it's Howard he pretends he can't hear them. - Finds magicians very interesting. - Loves playing pool - Despite his alter ego being Euchre, he can't play the card game all that well. Although he seems to do very well at blackjack. - Is a big hugger - Has no concept of personal space - He goes to the grave of his parents every year on the anniversary of their death and tells them about what's going on. He knows they would love his siblings - believes in karma - bad habit of chewing his fingernails |
The first in the long line of Jonathan Rowland's adoptive wards, Trip was trained to bare the codename Vigil, the partner to Jonathan Rowland’s Reckoning. His skill in acrobatics and his acute mind made him a natural pick for Jonathan's partner. Not to mention the fact that his orphaned state was due to the man’s direct actions.
Trip, unlike most of the residents of Vlostock, was born into a fairly stable and loving home. Both his parents had medium income jobs as Emergency Room Doctors at Sunrise Hospital in the heart of the crime ridden district that was Vlostock’s downtown. They instilled a sense of caring and fairness in Trip that they believed everyone should have: no matter how far a person has fallen doesn't mean they are lost to the void. The young boy spent his days studying, on the track field, and at multiple outreach programs with his parents. He wanted to go to the olympics and become a veterinarian, smiling his parents told him through hard work he could do both. Around the age of eight, a Vigilante swept through the streets vowing to bring the corrupt underbelly of Vlostock to it’s knees. Trip’s parent where not sure of this new figure clothed in black that brought broken bones and a slew of unfixable bodies into their ER, but their son was entranced, mystified by this man who stood up for his city and what he believed in every night. The criminal’s of the city called him Judgement or Judas, while the city called him Reckoning and after a while if you were out at night it wasn’t uncommon to feel a presence. Not dark or foreboding, just an extension of the night itself. Life continued on and Trip grew into an eager young boy, about to become a teen, that loved his city and wanted to heal it. When he was twelve his parents worked a night shift at the hospital, pulling double shifts to combat the wounds caused by Reckoning’s war on the mafia. And that’s when it happened, Trip saw it unfold right before his very eyes on the television. A high speed car chase was taking place between Reckoning and the current DA, a corrupt man who's kill list stretched longer than the vigilante who pursued him. The caped man sped after the DA in a stolen car, seeming to will it to go faster with his mind. And BOOM, Trip gasped the fledgling doctor inside of him muttering that the DA was very, very dead in the smoldering, careening, fireball of a car that was left after the collision. And he watched, glued to his seat as the car spiraled, and landed with a fiery crash into a bustling restaurant. And he watched as the restaurant was engulfed in flames the firefighters stuck, useless on the freeway in the mayhem the high speed chase had caused. And he watched in sick fascination as the blaze consumed building after building of the downtown area, and the wooden construction long in need of repair cracked and fell ontop of itself. And he watched, dread pooling inside every fiber of his body as the flames reached the hospital and the doctors, patients and nurses flooded out screaming. Watched, as people succumbed to the flames. Watched as Reckoning gathered people to safety, directing them calmly through the flames. And Trip saw though the television the tears that poured down the man’s face as the fires licked at the people he had sworn to save, and felt the wild despair that radiated off the Vigilante. Then the lights flickered, and died the television switching off as the flames consumed the power lines to the city. And then he waited, and waited, and waited for the parents that he refused to accept where never coming home again. And then he wandered, out of his homes unscaed by the flames, to the nearest victims shelter and asked if anyone by the name of Laurens was check in there. He left when the woman sadly informed him no, and trudged on to the next shelter and the next, until there were none left. And he sat, defeated and oh so alone, in the rain that had begun to fall. Rain that doused the flames, hours too late to save his family. Then he felt a presence, like an extension of the night, although it was nearing dawn, beside him. A shadow that muttered, “Who are you looking for, son?” And Trip looked up through the tears and saw his idol, the cause of his parents death, and replied, “No one alive.” The man, not the symbol of hope to the city, just a tired, defeated person brought Trip to the orphanage. He saw the hollowed eyes of children who could be his peers and the marks of abuse upon them and decided that he couldn’t sit quietly day after day, until they all blurred together. So he left, deciding to tough it out on the harsh streaks of Vlostock. The spark that made him such a bright thing, nearly extinguished in the downpour, changed. Grief and anger became the only things keeping him sane, and the he burned with one thought - vengeance. It was up to him to get justice for his parents. The law in Vlostock was a mockery of the name, who would hold the ‘hero’ accountable? Trip searched and searched, grasping onto every hint of speculation and whisper of the man that was more of a myth. He almost gave up, when at near fourteen years old, he found him. He was standing outside an apartment complex, wondering when the last time he had taken a warm shower or eaten a full meal when a man approached. He looked tired and nothing marked him as very remarkable except the rather expensive looking suit he wore. Then Trip’s eyes latched onto his and he knew. He confronted the man, and one Jonathan Rowland took him inside where instead of his angry ranting speel, words of forgiveness sprung forth and he broke down into tears. Jonathan told him he could stay for however long he wanted. For the first time in a long time, he smiled hope building as he looked into the eyes of the city’s savior. He trained, hard, eager, and steadfast until the day Reckoning allowed him to exit the base with him as Vigil, a small but deadly creature. And he stayed with Reckoning and outgrew Vigil, and donned a new identity for himself as Euchre, and watched as his mentor and friend found a new Vigil in Ashton, a daughter in Rosetta, a like minded son in Nathaniel, and finally welcomed a blood relative, Malcolm. He finally was part of a family again, and slowly the haunted look in his eyes faded away. Although he is never again the ignorant, idealistic young boy he once was, the anger drained away leaving a man that is optimistic about the future and sure about his place as Euchre. He smiles, treating them all as his family. The jokester, the glue holding them all together, the big brother. Until Reckoning died, and Vlostock goes to hell. |
Jonathan Rowland AKA “Reckoning” - “Oh, ‘lance? He was a father to me, stern but he loved us and any of us would have died in his place. The city’s going to hell because he’s not here.” His relationship with Reckoning was rather complicated. Rowland simply did not have the tools to express how much he cared for the young man who was for all intent and purpose his son. They tended to be awkwardly and silently defensive toward each other, with a lot of things left unsaid – although they'd fight along with each other in a heartbeat.
Ashton Charles Wilson AKA “Venger” - “Ash's great! Although he deflects my hugs, and yells when I go into his room in the morning, and sometimes aims his gun at me and tells me to shut up, I know he doesn't mean it. He’s had a hard time, and some more hugs will make him right as rain, right little brother?” Ash or whatever nickname Trip has derived for his first brother, was the second Vigil. Despite being separated by two years of age, and the fact that Ash has a good four inches on him, Trip treats him like a little brother. He knows Ash has some serious problems, which causes Trip to sometimes act like an overbearing father. While he may not outright say or show it, Ash loves Trip just as much as the latter loves him. Rosetta Reynolds AKA “Phoenix” - “Rosie's alot like me, actually. She's really the only non brooding, kill later talk first person in our family. Though she's more thoughtful, I suppose. She also has a mean right hook, so you know? Kind, smart, good in a fight what more could you want?” Trip's middle sibling and only sister, he and Rosie (or Wildfire as he likes to call her) are the most alike out of all of their siblings. Surprising they disagree the most as well, Rosetta strongly feels like 100 could be killed to save 1000 which Trip disagrees adamantly with. Nevertheless, he loves her and the feeling is returned though with a sigh. Nathaniel Larsonn AKA “Matrix” - “Gee, I love this guy. Have I ever told you guys how much I love him? He’s so smart he had old ‘lance struggling to keep up!” Trip cares a lot for Nathaniel, like he loves all of his brothers. Though he never treats him as a kid, he knows Nate is the closest thing to a little brother he will ever have. He enjoys teaming up with him, and will help to train him when he can, usually running Nate through old training routines the Reckoning designed for him as Vigil. He never treats him any differently because of his use of a wheelchair, and knows that his brother is probably the smartest person he will every meet. They have clear chemistry and respect between them. Malcolm Rowland AKA “Vigil” - “Mal is fun, he's like 'Lawrence! I will not be demeaned by nicknames’ and 'Lawrence hugs are for children!’. It's really cute, he'd kill me if I say that but really it is. He refuses to call me 'Trip', something about demeaning nicknames or something, but the way he says Lawrence is like a nickname in itself! I love him so much. I'll never let anything bad happen to him ever again now that he's back with us. ” Trip's youngest brother is Rowland's nephew. He was brought to Rowland when he was a year old, and was kidnapped by Reckoning's enemies and was presumed dead until his attempt on Rowland's life, Trip remembers him as a baby though none of the others do. Mal was trained as a weapon, and Trip wants to make sure that he gets to be a kid now that he's back where he belongs. Now that Rowland is dead, Trip is Malcolm's only real friend and confident not that he ever would admit it. |
EUCHRE - Euchre was developed after Trip outgrew Vigil. He wanted to come into his own as a hero, without the shadow of Reckoning, but still be part of the overall loop.
His end work resulted in the development of Euchre and the connected comm system that the family uses today. Euchre was designed to be a much more connected vigilante than Reckoning was. He works with the police more often and is more likely to call for backup or invoke help in the first place. He jokes with others in the family on patrol and often spouts quips while crime fighting. Ashton likes to say that compared to Reckoning, "Euchre is a ray of sunshine." That is not to say that Euchre isn't a threat to the criminal population, he takes out crime efficiently and safely. He just prefers to give a face to the suit, rather than rely on Reckoning's fear tactic. Euchre only kills when it's him or them, and doesn't believe that any life should be sacrificed if absolutely possible. He, unlike Ashton, tries and mostly succeeds in bringing criminals to the penitentiary alive instead of in bodybags. The Euchre suit was designed to draw in the eyes and be slim fitting. Black Kevlar wraps around his body that ripples with each movement. Starting halfway across the back vertically, there is an extra bit of green Kevlar that reaches across to the right shoulder. The flap diagonally buttons down, creating a storage area for whatever gadgets and weapons Euchre needs for patrol. His left hand is gloved green, while the other black. A small leg satchel adorns his right leg and stores more weaponry encase he can not reach the green flap. The suit sports the trademark white mask, obscuring his face. The \/ that marks him as part of Reckoning's family is done in the familiar off white of the whole 'clan', leaving Trip's tousled black hair and blue eyes for all to see. He feels like people should be able to see into the eyes of who they are fighting. Malcolm marvels how Trip has managed to keep his secret identity a secret. The green flap allows him to store all of his needed weapons, and the suit's underlying Kevlar protects from bullets. The boot's contain thrusters that allow easier rooftop chases and his mask has a built in comm system so he can hear Matrix's orders back from base and communicate with the rest of the family. |