SKILLS:
Peter is a rabble-rouser. He's an orator, a man of great emotional intellect and understanding of the world around him. McClintock has the ability to read and write, and uses that to draft a manifesto against the Combine and in support of the Patriots' cause. McClintock is able to play the guitar, and has learned a myriad of old American folk-songs that he uses to play around campfires. Ultimately, his talents lie in his ability to win the hearts of others, to the Dreams of Liberty.
BACKSTORY:
New Orleans's swamps were made into a honest-to-God death-trap when the Black Mesa Incident unleashed the fury of another dimension onto the unsuspecting citizens of the United States of America. A small child, Peter, was born in one of the worst times to ever be born. Swamps were infested with vicious, mutant aliens while the cities were filled with parasitic pestilence. Peter hardly lived, his parents struggled to survive in the Surviving States. His young life, until he was 3, was much of a blur; a cocktail of screaming and panic, until the lights of the Combine emerged from the clouds.
Peter was placed into the ECHELON program, pressed through its channels and many classes, trained to believe in what was expected of him. The Union prevails. The Union endures. The Union is all. The Union forever. Thrown into the world as a member of the Bureau of Understanding in City 70, far from his old life, old world, and old family members. The BoU, City 70's local propaganda arm, tasked Peter with writing for newspapers, writing and singing the praises of the Combine, forgetting everything about himself with every sip of water that he tried, until something caught his eye.
On the wall was a symbol he'd never seen before. A banner of thirteen stripes, a blue canton with a circle of stars, lit aflame and burning - and even as it burned, the banner still flouted majestically. There was no text, there was only that image. It was beautiful, it was tragic, and it was near-intoxicating to look at. What was this banner? What did it mean? Why thirteen stripes? Why the circle of stars? Why oh why?
He yearned to learn more, he fought to learn more - this simple graffito caught his eye more than anything that the Combine had ever created, and he had to learn more about it. When he saw stars, he knew to follow them, poking around in the same city that was notorious for its smuggling ring, a smuggling ring fostered by the prolific Patriots. Unknown to the young one, the Patriots were already commonplace in the district, placing their propaganda to inspire the spirit of Old America once again - and when The Civil Protection caught on to Peter's snooping, they pounced. Innocent was he, Peter spoke plainly about what he had found, the imagery he'd found and how it resonated with him so incredibly he had to know who made it. The Civil Protection responded handily, by informing him of what it really was. Thoughtcrime. Something unbecoming of a Collaborator like him - something that required further investigation.
He was held in a facility for weeks before being sent to an outpost in the deep south, to work as a form of 're-education.' Beaten, abused, his mind drifted onto that flag - still thirsting for whatever it may have meant... until a riot broke out, and the riot turned into a full-blown assault on the camp's walls, not from within, but from without. Prisoners flooded from the inside of the camp, soldiers and outland cops were riddled with bullets, and all Peter could think to do was run - that is, until he was picked up by that same raiding party. Painted on one of their heads, was the same flag he saw before. By their direction, their information, and their generosity, Peter joined their warband, taking up arms against those who thought to abuse him.
To teach those who may be blinded like he once was, is the key to this new life of his - and with his guitar by his side, Peter would do just that, for the dream of America, shouting the battle-cry of freedom.
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