Name: Christopher Schwartz
Gender: Male
Age: 17
School: Davison Secondary School
Hobbies and Interests: Electronic music, video games (especially rhythm games), computer science, Internet culture, tabletop role-playing games, sketching.
Appearance: At a height of 6'2" and a weight of 140 lbs, Christopher's lanky frame stands out in a crowd. Due to his lack of any real exercise, Christopher has almost no muscle to speak of. He has messy curls of dirty blond hair that reach just past his ears. His head is in the shape of an oval, with light brown eyes, a long hooked nose, and thin lips. He has a small amount of facial hair, which he shaves regularly. His skin is slightly scarred with acne, but it isn't incredibly noticeable.
Christopher's outfit is incredibly casual, consisting almost entirely of t-shirts, jeans, and loose-cut pants. His shirts usually bear a video game reference on them. On Casting Day, Christopher was wearing a green 1-up t-shirt and brown cargo pants. He was also wearing a new pair of black running shoes, bought only six days ago.
Biography: Christopher was born on February 27th to Franklin and Janine Schwartz, a pair of third generation German immigrants. They had met in college, both being members of several clubs together. They quickly fell in love, married five years later, and birthed Christopher four years afterwards. Another year after that, the second child of the family, Alice, was born. The Schwartz family has a comfortable life because of a good source of income. Franklin works as a lawyer for a well known law firm, and Janine is a computer technician.
Because neither parent could afford to spend their entire day looking after their children, they hired a housekeeper early on to keep an eye on them. The housekeeper was one Roberta Oliver, a family friend who was at the time unemployed. Roberta took the two children under her wing, and was the most prominent authority figure in both Christopher's and Alice's childhoods. Because of this, Christopher thinks of Roberta as his primary parental figure, even though he still loves his parents very much.
Christopher was a very imaginative child growing up, and in primary school he spent his time drawing his thoughts on paper. During recess, he did play with the other kids, but would lose interest in conventional activities more easily than his peers. While Christopher wasn't opposed to playing with other people, he found it slightly easier when he didn't have other people to worry about. Nonetheless, he still made a few friends in primary school. Christopher liked to act out his imaginations during recess, and drawings became ideas for games he could play with his friends. Although Christopher got bullied, it was very minor, never amounting to more than small cases of name-calling, and they gradually stopped over the course of primary and middle school.
When Christopher was ten, his parents had saved up enough money to buy Christopher his own computer. They had given him a high-end gaming computer; both Franklin and Janine were gamers and they wanted to share their interest with their son. Christopher was soon hooked on the device, using it not only to play video games but also to browse the Internet, listen to music and so on. Christopher would browse website such as Reddit and 4chan, becoming accustomed to Internet culture quickly.
Christopher's interest in electronic music started with his love of video game music. As he listened to the songs, he began to look for the songs on Youtube. There he would stumble upon remixes, and from there to original electronic tracks. It wasn't long before Christopher became hooked on the electronic genre, specifically "harder" genres such as gabber, breakcore, and speedcore. This love of music also led to what would become his favorite type of video game: rhythm games. He began to download freeware rhythm games such as Stepmania and osu!.
As Christopher grew older, his love of putting pictures to paper resurfaced, and he began to sketch again. It started as small doodles of his favorite video game characters, and became larger from there, with the subject matter broadening as he saw things that he wanted to put to paper.
When Christopher entered high school, he saw that one of the programs offered was computer science. Intrigued, he took it as one of his electives and became fascinated by it. He loved the idea of learning how software worked, and he saw it as a way to better understand how his favorite games worked.
At around that time, one of Internet friends asked Christopher if he wanted to join in on an online Dungeons and Dragons session. While Christopher had heard of tabletop role-playing games before, this was his first opportunity to try one. Figuring he had nothing to lose, he decided to give it a try. It took a while for it to grow on him, but eventually he became engrossed in the fantasy worlds that his friends were a part of. He is now part of a group that plays regular sessions.
Near the end of freshman year, he began to make his own electronic music. He spent his first few months just playing around with the production software, learning how all the tools worked. Christopher learned quickly though, and soon he was releasing songs under the alias MidnightGopher. By the end of sophomore he even had a small fanbase.
Academically, Christopher grades are above average, his report card being a half-and-half mix of As and Bs. His strongest subject is computer science, followed closely by art. Christopher pays as must attention as he can in class, but on bad days can be preoccupied with ideas for his next song.
Christopher is of two minds about SOTF-TV. On one hand, Christopher enjoys the storylines and drama that inevitably stem from the situation. On the other, his stomach churns thinking about how lightly they take the deaths on the show. In his mind, the true monsters are the people in charge, not the participants themselves.
Christopher is friendly, but doesn't like to be at the center of attention. As such, he has a small but close circle of friends. Christopher has more friends online, and enjoys spending more time with them, simply because they share more of his interests. While he wants to be closer to his parents, they aren't around enough for that to happen. He is, however, close with his younger sister, Alice. His enthusiasm for video games rubbed off on her, and they frequently play games together. When not with his friends, Christopher will browse the Internet, play video games, or work on his music. Christopher doesn't mind spending time alone, because he feels it gives him more breathing room to pursue his interests.
While Christopher isn't sure what he wants to do after high school, he's hoping that he can become famous enough with his music that he can start making a living out of it. If that doesn't happen, though, he figures he will just go to college for computer science.
Advantages: Christopher has a close circle of friends that he can trust. He is also used to being alone and should be able to cope by himself.
Disadvantages: Christopher's indoor lifestyle and lack of any real exercise means that he has almost no strength or stamina to speak of. His tall frame would make him an easy target for players.
Designated Number: Rainbow Parrots 5 (RBP5)
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Designated Weapon: Pony Pogo Stick
Mentor Comment: "Look on the bright side - any kill is automatic highlight reel, you feel me?"
Evaluations
Handled By: CondorTalon, Mini_HELP
Kills: Genesis Bradley-Baker, Erik Sheely, Christine Wallis
Killed By: Christine Wallis
Collected Weapons: Pony Pogo Stick (discarded), Winchester Model 1897 "Trench Gun" (from Valerie Fitzroy)
Allies: Naomi Young, Cathryn Bailey
Enemies: Valerie Fitzroy, Genesis Bradley-Baker, Erik Sheely, Christine Wallis
Mid-game Evaluation: Chris awoke in the aqua-museum, quickly thinking through his situation and trying to come to grips with the fact that he'd have to kill in order to survive. Deciding that survival was paramount to him, he took advantage of Valerie Fitzroy's distraction to run up to her and steal her gun, then used that gun to demand her bag. When she tossed it to him, however, he only took the ammunition out of it, leaving Valerie with most of her supplies as well as his own assigned pogo stick.
Chris paused briefly at the boardwalk, marveling at his success and renewing his resolve to do whatever it took to survive, even if it meant killing, then made his way to the bowling alley. There, he encountered Davis Todd, and the pair spoke briefly, comparing weapons. The sounds of Dee Dixon lurking nearby briefly distracted the boys, but they soon returned to business, with Chris offering Davis an alliance. Davis, however. declined, feeling that Chris wasn't trustworthy since they barely knew each other. Davis departed, and Dee entered the building, also briefly chatting with Chris and comparing weapon pulls, but before long Dee took offense at not being given the same offer as Davis and left, and Chris moved on himself soon after.
His next stopping point was the hotel, and it was there that he was reunited with Naomi Young, his girlfriend, who was in the company of Cathryn Bailey, Zoe Walker, and Lukas Graves. Noting that Naomi was on a different team than his, Chris became concerned with how they might both survive, realizing that they might have to pursue the ten kill release. Lukas and Zoe quickly took their leave, and Chris and Naomi spoke, with Naomi confirming that she would attempt to score the ten kills, stating that she wanted to spare Chris the burden. Chris briefly questioned whether Naomi was ready to put herself into such a high-pressure and risky situation, but she assured him that she was. The pair set out, with Cathryn in tow.
They next stopped in The Orchard, and Chris stepped away for a moment to relieve himself and managed to get separated from the girls. During that time, Naomi got into an altercation with Jewel Evans and was killed, and Cathryn fled; Chris stumbled upon the aftermath, but was unable to do anything.
Chris next turned up in the nature walk, where he was drawn by the sounds of gunfire followed by conversation and stumbled into Christine Wallis, Erik Sheely, and Genesis Bradley-Baker, the latter of whom was visibly distressed. Chris asked the other two what they'd done to Sissy, only for her to accuse him of having attacked her. Sissy spun a story about Chris having attempted to rob her, but was quickly countered by Saachi Nidal, who turned up and claimed that she'd seen Sissy firing her own gun into the air, and that she was thus fabricating the entire story. Sissy claimed that Saachi was Chris' accomplice.
While the baffled Christine and Erik tried to make sense of the proceedings, Chris spoke, stating that he didn't know who Sissy was, explaining that he'd seen disturbing things in the game, and revealing Naomi's death. He then said that if Sissy really wanted him to be a monster set on killing her, he'd gladly oblige, and shot her in the face. Chris then turned his gun on Saachi, managing to severely wound her but only after unknowingly expending all of his ammunition, something he discovered when he tried to also attack Erik and Christine. Suddenly at a disadvantage, Chris took off into an area of heavy vegetation down the slop near where the encounter had taken place.
Chris managed to lose his pursuit, and made his way to a safe distance to reload and compose himself, then circled back around a time later. In his absence, Erik had killed both Eden Bishop and Shadi Williams, and had been seriously injured in turn by the latter, though he and Christine had treated that injury as best they could. Erik was searching for Shadi's gun when Chris got the drop on him, gunning the boy down and then turning his attention to Christine, who he also shot. The mortally wounded Christine, however, managed to coax Chris closer to her, then lunged for him, slashing his neck with her meat cleaver. While Chris shot her again, dropping her to the ground and killing her in short order, her attack had been true, cutting into an artery. Chris stumbled away, but soon collapsed and died as well.
Post-Game Evaluation:
Memorable Quotes:
- "Alright, no sudden movements, slowly, toss me your bag." - Chris mugs Valerie Fitzroy
- "Who's there?" - Chris calls out to the unknown party in the bowling alley
- "Condolences for having a name like that." - Chris responds when the answer is "Just me."
- "Are you ready to paint such a big target on your head?" - Chris questions Naomi's resolve to get ten kills
- "So let's make it simple. You want me to be some monster, shooting at you for no reason? You want that? Okay." - Chris responds to Genesis Bradley-Baker's claims that he'd attacked her...
- "Are you happy now? Was it everything you wanted?" - ...then speak to her once again, after shooting her in the face
Other/Trivia
Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Christopher, in chronological order
Sandbox:
SOTF-TV:
Your Thoughts
Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Christopher. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!
- I thought that Chris had some real potential to go interesting places, especially given what seemed to be the setup for a player-couple arc with Naomi. A pair on the same wavelength is pretty uncommon for SOTF, and seeing two good writers play off each other is always fun. I liked that the two of them had a pretty normal scene together in Sandbox, though I do wish we'd seen more of Chris outside of that thread (he has two posts in the extremely crowded party thread, but they don't amount to much). That said, his role as something of a straight man to the chaos ties into another strength of Chris': that he's set up as a pretty normal guy, and that to a degree carries even into his slide towards villainy.
That said, there are a few issues Chris stumbles into in the game proper. There's a reason handlers having their own characters interact is a pretty maligned trend, and Chris' iteration of it is certainly not as smooth as it could be; the ability to move a scene quickly in this case results in a scene that develops at such a clip it's a little hard to keep up, with neither character getting as much focus as they otherwise might. Characters who play right out the gate are also hard to manage, and I don't think Chris really quite sells his villain turn until his meeting with Naomi; we're told he's super fixated on surviving but don't really see the whys behind it (even in the one-shot wholly devoted to establishing his mentality), while his willingness to compromise himself for Naomi is better established. His interactions with Davis and Dee also are a bit off, as they're much more relaxed than what sandwiches them; they feel more like a start-of-game state than Chris' actual opening threads.
Aside from that, the biggest thing that's a shame is that nobody actually bid to adopt Chris when Condor put him up for grabs. That ended up creating a situation where Chris slightly awkwardly vanishes from Naomi's story, then gets sucked into the inactive purge much later, and I do think he could've gone other cool places had that not happened. - MurderWeasel