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While I've been playing on badlands for a little over a month now, I figured I was long overdue on registering a forum account and introducing myself (or rather my RP counterpart). Just wanted to say I've been having a great time thus far, and I hope to continue meeting new people and enjoying the scenarios they all come up with. Get ready for a lore dump.  The Prelude Troy Valentino, Age: 21, College Dropout, Criminal Misfit, but also just your average friendly neighborhood pothead. He enjoys classic rock, pop, synthwave, and pretty much everything that existed between 1975 and 2005, his mannerisms reflect that. He often romanticizes the past (especially the 80s), and uses slang and terms associated with the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. He's typically a laid back kind of person, and prefers to compromise rather than conflict with most people he meets. His astrological zodiac is Leo, but he doesn't really care about stuff like that. He's obsessed with the paranormal and government conspiracies, and will tell people about them whenever it feels appropriate to him. He tends to carry a lot of bad luck with him, which goes hand-and-hand with his naive innocence. Because of this he tends to get into a lot of trouble when he doesn't need it, but it doesn't help that he's addicted to the adrenaline rush that comes along with felonies. Originally from North Yankton, Troy was introduced to petty crime at a relatively young age by his former friend: Reginald Mannson (Now known as America Mann(son)). In high-school Mannson (who was about 6 years older than Troy) would act as an enabler to Troy and his friends; providing them with illicit substances, alcohol, tobacco, and pretty much everything else you could possibly think of, in exchange for money and/or favors. Typically the favors involved some form of robbery or theft, and as such Troy and company would often find themselves in all sorts of inconvenient situations. Sometimes they'd get into trouble with the local gangs, but most of the time the trouble was with the police. Troy was detained about 6 times before reaching age 18; however by some mad stroke of luck he was never incarcerated into juvenile detention. Despite all of this, Troy Valentino and Reginald Mannson became something that resembled friends. Troy's real criminal misdeeds began after his 18th birthday. On that day, Mannson decided that, as a right of passage, Troy and himself would rob a convenience store. Troy was skeptical at first, as at that time he was trying to straighten himself out of the winding road that crime creates; but after much coaxing, Mannson convinced Troy to be the get-away driver. After a lot of preparation, planning, and acquisition of disguises, the robbery was a surprising success. The two made off with a substantial amount of money after evading the police in a volatile chase. This singular event however, was the catalyst for a very self-destructive adrenaline fueled addiction for Troy and Mannson. Troy lived for the car chases, and Mannson lived for the rebellion against authority. Their disguises became more convoluted, and the two continued to rob stores in a lengthy spree. Everything was going fairly smoothly up until a few days after Troy's 20th birthday. After a substantial hiatus from store robberies. Troy and Mannson were beginning to feel the ever present itch to do crime once again. Mannson had decided it was time for a bank heist, an armed bank heist. Troy didn't like this idea very much, as up until this point all of their robberies had been non-lethal, no firearms involved. Troy valued the lives of others, and never felt ill will towards the police or the people he stole from; Mannson was the opposite however. Mannson despised authority and grew up in utter poverty, he blamed others for the harsh living conditions and conflict he experienced while growing up. He had nothing but hatred for the police and people of the upper and middle classes. Knowing that Troy would never agree to shooting up a bank, Mannson convinced Troy that the firearms would just be a deterrent, and wouldn't be used to harm anyone. While skeptical, Troy's love for adrenaline got the better of him, and he agreed to participate in the heist. After months of planning Troy and Mannson brought on two additional members (old friends) to assist in the heist. The bank was local and not overly substantial so a good drill would suffice to crack open the safe, which Mannson, of course, had on hand and at the ready. The plan was relatively simple, Mannson and the two friends would crack the safe and manage hostages and negotiations, while Troy was to wait nearby in a four-door awaiting instructions via text for the get-away. It was supposed to be easy, and it might have been, if not for the fact that Mannson had made several mistakes leading up to the heist. Turns out Mannson had been doing a substantial amount of smaller robberies leading up to the heist without the other's knowledge, and in one of those robberies Mannson had made a terrible mistake. A witness saw his face when he was leaving the scene of a theft and snapped a photo with their phone. Mannson had removed his mask early due to it being very hot that day, a foolish and amateur mistake to be sure. This prompted an investigation by the police, and as such, knowledge of the bank heist reached their just as the heist was about begin. Police drove up on the bank shortly after Mannson & Co. walked through the doors of the bank, and in a confused panic Mannson fired on the police with his handgun. A shootout ensued and one of the additional robbers was killed and several civilians were injured in the crossfire. In the get-away car Troy watched from afar in horror as the bullets ripped innocent people into shreds. Mannson was not about to give up however, so he and the last remaining robber proceeded in an attempt to crack the safe while holding off the police with the remaining civilian hostages. It was at this point that Troy began to question his actions and the morality of this heist.  As far as Troy was concerned Mannson had just broken his promise regarding non-lethality, and as a result killed a good friend of theirs (the downed robber). For a time Troy considered firing on the police in an attempt to save Mannson and his remaining friend, but Troy was no cop killer. Troy was beginning to get cold feet, and the pressure was beginning to get a tight hold on him. Meanwhile Mannson was doing his best to keep the police at the doorway while cracking the safe. He was holding a women hostage and had incapacitated several officers, but many more remained at the ready. Mannson was heavily wounded and low on ammo. As for the other robber, he had been incapacitated and was currently bleeding out. Eventually Mannson got the safe open, and in a fever of greed he began stuffing his duffel bag full of money, but let his eye off the hostage, and she got away. With no real leverage on Mannson's side, the police breached. Mannson had decided he was getting out no matter what, and shot a text to Troy to be at the front of the bank so he could make his get away. When Troy received the message, his uncertainty had peaked. With fear, panic, desperation, and shame in his heart, he hit the gas pedal and fled the scene in the hopes he wouldn't be caught; leaving Mannson to his fate. Mannson was trying to gun his way through the police, but was heavily outnumbered. He took quite a few officers down before going down himself. He was incapacitated, detained, treated, and then finally incarcerated. Mannson's fate would be unknown to Troy for quite some time. Needless to say the heist was a total tragedy, many people died, including both of the two additional robbers.  Troy fled back to his parent's home in a rural town in Yankton, where he gathered the last of his money as well as some necessities and went into hiding. He only told his sister (Trisha Valentino) what had happened and where he was going. A little under 2 years later Troy would relocate to San Andreas at age 21 looking for work and opportunity using the last of his money. That's where we find Troy today, doing odd jobs and mechanic work in an attempt to straighten out his life one last time. However, we all know old habits can relapse hard, and Troy is no exception. He's already gotten into some nasty business. In the month he's been in Los Santo's Troy has witnessed ghosts, kidnappings, potential police corruption, street pumas, crack addicted hobos conspiring against mole people, gang wars, and even extraterrestrial pugs with laser beams (He gave one a taco and some cola). Despite it's oddities, Troy welcomes Los Santos, as it's much more lively than his life in North Yankton (Aside from the robberies). He's met all sorts of interesting individuals, and plans on meeting many many more. So he dawns his sunglasses, Imponte hat, canvas shoes and walks towards the sunset to await the dawn of a new day. Freeze-Frame