User Blog:
NPCs You Didn't Know You Needed: Loading Master

We're creeping up on New Year’s, and with that in mind I thought I'd zoom off to the future in today's NPCs You Didn't Know and provide you a space-worthy NPC if ever there was one. (The New Year is just like time travel, after all, at midnight you're suddenly in the future! I love that.)

Carlton Bar would be considerably less interested in the festivities and celebrations of the New Year, time travel, or even science fiction, as you'll soon see. Get to know Carlton Bar, Loading Master.

Description: Rumor has it that Carlton has exactly one formal uniform which he hasn't worn in close to thirty years, when he finished training at the technical school he went to. Since graduation, he put on the simple practical workman's jumpsuit so common to dock workers on a station and can't be bothered to wear anything else since. He's stocky, and what was a barrel chest has started to slip downward as his stomach expands with less physical labor and more credits for the bar. He spent years working his way up the ladder all the station workers are on, and it shows in his age and rough personality. He's got keen eyes, with a particular ability to spot the sorts of smugglers that are welcome at a big station and separate them from the sort of smugglers that are going to bring nothing but trouble to a big station. He rarely speaks, favoring barking or grumbling over direct speech. One-word orders and no-word answers get him by most of the time.

Background: Some people have long distinguished backgrounds, mysteries wrapped in enigmas. Some people, like Carlton, are just plain average people. His great grandfather was a hotshot pilot in a war several light years away, but Carlton never had those sorts of aspirations. He learned just as much as you need to know about ships to run a dock when he was in trade school. He knows just enough about ships to keep them running while they're on the docks, having picked that up with experience. When he entered the work force after school, he realized he was just a touch smarter than the average dockhand, and it logically followed in his mind that if he was ever going to have any peace, he'd have to take over the dock where he worked. After years of steady, dull, dependable work, he's risen in the ranks and has been the Loading Master for the largest dock on the station for about ten years. He never married, never really dated, and couldn't be much bothered with any parts of life beyond his job, sports, and the station bar closest to his dock.