Johnny Stonehand

Rick's older brother, antagonist

early/mid 40's

Male

Johnny Harper (this is his family name--Stonehand is a title he earned as an adult)

Human

thick beard

short, cut very close on the sides

reddish-blond/orange (he has his mom's hair color, Rick has their dad's)

6'5.5"

202 lbs.

pale blue

none

A pattern of geometric tattoos on his arms, neck and torso made to resemble a Deorn's adult markings. He earned them when he earned his title.

Built like a bear that hits the gym every week

fair, heavily tanned

Johnny is a man of strong opinions and quick judgements who tends to stubbornly defend his beliefs even if they're obviously wrong. He's not afraid to share his opinions either, despite how hurtful or inflammatory they can be at times. Some of his prejudices include:
-Violence can solve most any problem
-There are races and cultures in the world which are inherently lesser/stupid/untrustworthy
-Women are unnecessarily complicated creatures who rarely know what's best for themselves or anyone else
-He himself knows exactly how and when to be funny, and his jokes are always amazing and in good taste. Anyone who doesn't laugh with him is just a stick-in-the-mud.
-He is smart and always right and his words are always worth listening to.
-His clan and his part of the country know how to do things right and are inherently more "patriotic/American" than other post-war subcultures.
-His dad/uncles are just a tiny bit smarter than his mom/aunts
-History/science/math/humanities are all irrelevant subjects (unless they pertain to war somehow)
-Music is the only art form worth preserving
-The list goes on and only gets more arbitrary/petty from here

Lonely Island - So Humble
The Devil Went Down to Georgia - Unknown artist

Narcissism probably (I have to do more research on that), anger management issues (again, more research needed)
Possibly minor PTSD manifested as a twitchy trigger finger and a tendency to respond to raised voices/loud noises with unnecessary aggression, e.g. a fight-or-flight response that's jammed on 'fight'.

-talks loudly most of the time
-talks a lot in general
-"ask me the time and I'll tell you how to make a watch" is basically him in a nutshell
-doesn't sit still much
-quick to flash a grin
-tends to join conversations he wasn't invited to
-has a strong southern accent
-swears a lot, even in polite company sometimes (which is frowned upon in his family)
-Often uses intimidating body language without quite realizing, even among friends
-When he's reading/extremely focused, his eyebrows tend to twitch

Simple ambition, primarily. He enjoys feeling powerful, and the way he prefers to feel powerful is through brute force, intimidation, and violence.

I feel like I've already covered a lot of his flaws lol. (Can you tell I don't really like this guy)
Arrogant, temperamental and violent, impulsive and reckless, thrill-seeker, hates to be wrong, somewhat manipulative, acts as fickle and selfish as a toddler, irresponsible, very narrow-minded and judgmental, lacks empathy and self-awareness of his own behavior.

He can be funny sometimes, and he can seem nice/smart if you don't know him very well. When he's in the right headspace (aka when everything's going his way) he's a functionally strong and decisive leader, and he can get his troops through a skirmish pretty reliably. Most of his real talents are physical. He's an excellent fighter and tactician, can survive in the wilderness with ease, carry a grown man on his shoulders, ride a horse like a boss, play the fiddle like a house on fire, and eat a disrespectful amount of food without getting sick.

Making music/dancing with his family, practicing his shooting, hanging out with his horse/dogs, drinking and/or sparring with his buddies.

You've heard of the Wine Aunt? Get ready for the Beer Uncle! You've never met him before because he's been blacklisted from family gatherings but guess what! He just moved to your town to be with his questionable drinking buddies and he's ready to pick a fight with your parents over something that happened thirty years ago and was definitely his fault! :D

The little badge marking him as commander, which his father hand-crafted and gave to him when he retired.

A powerful shotgun called Sounder he inherited from his father. He takes care of it so diligently, some joke that he loves it more than he loves his own wife. (It's not a joke and it's not very funny.)

Pork roast

When he was a kid he always demanded that his mother sew/buy him green or brown clothes, so he could somewhat resemble his army-clad father and uncles.

Field commander of the Gator Boys, a family of traveling mercenaries.

He has strong opinions about politics, but not much actual understanding of the topic. In pre-dystopian times, he would have probably been a very conservative republican, both due to his upbringing and the region of the country he grew up in.

The Gator Boys have an alliance with the River-Runners clan and a more loose alliance with the Pikes clan. They also regularly do jobs for certain wealthy Landowners in the Eastern Region. Recently they've been considering a trade deal of sorts with the Deorn Hunters.

Johnny, despite being a pretty godless man in practice, is quick to proclaim his faith in their clan's God and use this 'faith' as leverage in arguments and discussions. His family practices a hybridized religion: Christianity mixed with a nature-based, post-war religion known as Tanveism. Johhny rarely pays attention during spiritual gatherings and doesn't really understand it.

English, plus a version of military code that's undergone some linguistic drifting over the years and can only be understood by other members of the Gator Boys.

Hunting dogs

His dad and uncles taught him all sorts of practical outdoor skills like hunting, fighting, etc. He also attended a tiny country schoolhouse that was run by his aunt up until he was twelve. He was taught as much as his clan knew about history, literature, science, etc, but was a relatively poor student and would still be considered kind of ignorant by today's standards. He knows just exactly what he needs for his job and quality of life, although he thinks he knows a lot more than he actually does.

(If some of this sounds familiar, it's because I bootlegged it from Rick's background XD)
He's a Southern Clansman from the clan known as the Gator Boys. They're a family of mercenaries with a home territory down near the mouth of the Mississippi. His father, Will, was an army man who left the battlefield after the war started to go downhill and built a survival bunker/farm deep in the southern swamps, along with his brothers and their families. Will had five sons and three daughters. Johnny was the oldest, and grew up in the middle of a very loud, lively redneck family. Will trained all his kids in combat, but his wife Magnolia refused to let him get the girls too involved in fighting, so he focused on his sons when he started thinking of starting a mercenary business with his brothers. He taught his boys everything he knew about fighting, military tactics, stealth, gunmanship, mechanics, tracking, etc. Johnny hugely enjoyed all this, and took great pride in being part of his father's work. When he was eighteen, his dad started taking him on his first real missions, and soon enough his younger brothers came along as well. It was dangerous work, but Johnny seemed to be built for it, and loved the respect and praise he got from his family back home.
But as the years passed, he changed. He started to hunger for battle more than the others, and began to push his brothers around because he knew all too well that he was in line for leadership once his aging father retired. Will didn't take this problem seriously enough, thinking that he was simply attention-seeking and deciding to teach him a lesson by ignoring him even more. He hoped that if Johnny didn't get the spotlight with his bad behavior, he'd eventually give up and settle down again--but his plan totally backfired. Johnny noticed his father's silent treatment and got even more frustrated, pushing everyone father and farther just to get a reaction. When outright rebellion didn't work, he developed more cunning, manipulative methods: making everyone tiptoe around him for fear of an outburst, exhausting them in arguments until they let him have his way just to shut him up, minimizing his family and their problems and telling them not to be complainers, while also throwing a fit if anyone said the same to him. Out on the battlefield, he strove to make the Gator Boys a name everyone feared, even the people they worked for. He became desensitized to death and suffering to the point where he laughed while killing his targets and joked over their corpses, instead of treating them with respect as his father's rules instructed. In order to make the group stronger, he hired on other fighters from outside the clan to travel with them during the on-season, even if the fighters were criminals themselves. They shared his love of violence and served as his yes-men during arguments with the family. Thus, any of his relatives who questioned him were brushed off or shouted down. eventually most of them gave up.
Except for Rick, his younger brother. Rick had a strong will and a big heart, and never quit trying to bring Johnny around. Johnny began to see him as a threat, knowing that if he ever won an argument, others would follow him instead, and finally got him kicked out over (false) accusations accusations of mutiny. With Rick gone, he could happily continue on his path to infamy and glory.
Of course, Rick doesn't give up that easy, but that's a story for another day.

July 10th

His two horses, Mister Mean and Colby. He also has technical ownership of four of the clan's hunting dogs: Belladonna, Picket, Rumble, and Crooner.

Military-esque clothes with a hint of country boy slipped in.

(Copied over from Rick Longpaw's sheet)
The Gator Boys Code of Honor and Conduct:
-Always treat allies and clients with respect, regardless of who they are.
-When encountering aggressors, first, ignore.
-If that does not work, intimidate.
-Finally, if that does not work, incapacitate.
-Do not kill unless necessary.
-Respect your weapons. Do not misuse them or let them get rusty.
-Do not take on work that involves targeting women or children. (Amendment: If the women are also warriors, fighting against them is allowed.)
-Treat even your opponents with basic respect. We don't need any more enemies.
-When taking prisoners or hostages, never abuse or neglect them.
-NEVER accept work that targets a Deorn unless it is clearly deranged and has no young to care for. Deorns are sacred to us, and at any rate, they are not worth antagonizing.
-No matter the job, no matter the pay, family comes first. Always.
-Take pride and joy in your work. Don't slack or complain, and don't spread a bad attitude. Do what you can to maintain our good reputation. Be accountable, admit mistakes, respect your commander, and always stay humble. Don't forget to count your lucky stars and thank the Green One for what you have.

One more thing. Gator Boys have two last names: their family name and their title. Titles are given to an adult once they either join the mercenary band, marry, or do something heroic. Johnny's family name is Harper. He got his title (Stonehand) from his notorious right hook, which can knocked out a full-grown man in one hit. He once bunched a bandit's nose so hard that it broke and the bone spurs were driven into his brain, killing him instantly.