Film Freak

Burt Weston (Scenesys ID: 1658)
Quote
"Recognize me from somewhere?"
Profile
Full Name:	Burt Weston
Gender:	Male
Species:	Human
Theme:	DC (VFC)
Occupation:	Actor Assassin
Citizenship:	American
Residence:	Gotham City, United States
Education:	Gotham Academy
Status:	Dropped
Groups:	Batman Family, Hench, Gotham-OOC, Street Level-OOC,
Other Information
Apparent Age:	30	Actual Age:	30
Date of Birth	4 March 1999	Actor:	Sam Rockwell
Height:	160 cm (5'3")	Weight:	76 kg (167 lb)
Hair Color:	Black	Eye Color:	Blue
Theme Song:	"Hungry Like the Wolf" - Duran Duran

Profile

The only child of a Court of Owls functionary affiliated with arms manufacturing interests, Burt Weston's father suffered from modified Munchausen's by Proxy and communicated with his child by sharing movies, giving Burt an unusual childhood to say the least. His mother, however, suffered from atypical psychosis, having suffered from scarlet fever at a young age, and despite her exceptional prowess as a student (and herself a maestra of the common word), never understood how to teach Burt how to use his talents. After her death in his late teens, he briefly attended Gotham University, but became involved in low rung drug dealing, and eventually discovered that his latent acting ability made him a brilliant spy, cleaner, and criminal - as long as he was using a modified fictitious role. To the public, he's Burt Weston. To the rogues, he's Film Freak. And to the Gotham City Mafia, he's Edison, mercenary actor assassin.

Sheet

Description

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Description:

Burt "Film Freak" Weston, mercenary alias "Edison", stands five foot ten inches tall, with a lacrosse player's build and a broad, thick skull indicating Crow heritage. He has a head of thick black hair, his English blood allowing it to grow in wild control with a minimum of fuss, hiding the intimidating nature of his facial and bone shape unless he chooses to shave it. He's exceptionally handsome in a rough way, with a noble nose, fine eyebrows above a chiseled brow, deep blue eyes, capped teeth, and a roguish grin that compliments his native son's cheeks and jaw. He's an arrogant, cocky type, his gestures polite and fake when seen, a cowardly actor to most. However, when he's in contemplation, out comes a true artist and showman, forgetting himself in pure jovial pleasure. The tension between his cowardice and his aggression produces this, the latter becoming a psychotic fury of descent into myth and legend when he needs to act. These three masks he wears, that of a poor salesman, a pensive bon vivant, and a hydra of potential roles and characters emerging from madness.

Edison is an actor first and foremost, meaning that he must take care of his body. He wears a black leather jacket with a long V collar over his chiseled upper body, drawn tight from calisthenics and cardiovascular exercises, his jacket zipped up when in the street and allowed to hang open to reveal a black t-shirt with a white star when indoors. The gesture of opening his jacket is almost, almost compulsive, but more of a ritual indicating a faint bit of obsessive compulsive with his personal style. A mild concession to fashion. He wears a black belt around his waist that holds up a pair of expensive comfort fit jeans, with a pair of black rave boots on his feet, the cuffs of his jeans drooping over them.

History

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History:
Burt Weston's father, George Weston, was a factory engineer from a steel town that got involved in arms manufacturing, and his mother Ida was a child prodigy that struggled with atypical psychosis from a childhood bout of scarlet fever. Both of them had military in their family, and when George got involved in the Court of Owls, the marriage was a natural match. The had one son, Burt, an only child, George not believing in probability rules relating to the one outcome affecting another, in the case of Ida's psychosis (and Ida didn't understand that her illness were from a Gotham scarlet fever epidemic, not a gene). Burt was taught Owl philosophy regarding labor ethics, foreign policy, domestic responsibility, moral sacrifice, and self-defense leadership, from an extremely young age. He was never taught that it was Owl, merely informed that it was Christian. Despite flunking Sunday School brutally (which you never get held back for, unfortunately), he was a brilliant slacker student that was popular by virtue of the aura of fear he never knew he had. A nice, putzy guy, that you were afraid of, and that was fun to be around. At least, at first.

Burt's father suffered from Munchausen's by Proxy, his grandfather a veteran of the Korean War that loathed George Weston's asthma in response to the old soldier's smoking habit. The abuse was verbal, but traumatic combined with Grandpa Weston's high functioning alcoholism. Burt's mother, meanwhile, was hysterical whenever Burt would display any sign of mental defect, pushing him into a fantasy world when he was under a stressful situation. The father was instructed, by his mentor, to take Burt to the movies to live vicariously through the screen together, father and son. Attending the elite Gotham Academy, Burt excelled at cinema analysis and drama, displayed literary self-awareness (and a fair bit of falsely humble humor), and displayed an unusual gift for intuitive mathematics. Memorization was his problem, particularly when he hit his first joint, his mind a jungle gym of fictitious images that slowly modified themselves into a unique inner reality to understand the world. Delusions of frailty combined with a fictional method, with the dialectic tension lifting him out being his arrogant ethics of human life's low worth in the face of social Darwinism.

Burt's mother Ida killed herself when he began smoking marijuana with some local intellectual goons from the Academy, fellow rich kids that loved their parents but lacked direction because of their charmed but malaised lives. Now seventeen and without a mother, his father not forgiving him, Burt turned eighteen and went to school for a year at Gotham University. Burt forged himself into a deliberate manic personality, first the personality of Edison emerging after his mother's death, the bon vivant mastermind. And then, as he became a drug dealer for the campus indie circuit, he found himself in Film Freak, becoming Harmonica Man from Once Upon a Time in the West as he ran marijuana throughout the suburbs of Gotham. Eventually, he dropped out of college, and decided to go professional as a drug dealer. He was given a task - kill a narcotics informant that they let exist in a no man's land near Batman's territory, Crime Alley. Burt Weston studied the movie Van Wilder starring Ryan Reynolds, planned an operation to set him up with a plot twist, and then, as Film Freak, put a rare African poisonous laxative from a plant called the sausage tree in a French meat pie (plus ground up THC pills) he gave the informant's journalist girlfriend as Ryan Reynolds' character. Homicide detectives found both of them in a horrific state to say the least.

And that's how Burt Weston become a Gotham Mafia hitter, known as Edison to the wise guys and Film Freak to the other rogues.

Personality

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Personality:

Film Freak is the type of guy that thinks every song is about the person that wrote the song, unless it's a David Bowie song, then the song is about Freak's life. And he deeply understands these songs. He is self-involved, self-aware, and self-serving, but pays attention to others as if he's an entomologist playing with other people. His entire understanding of the world is through relating to people as if they were plot devices, literary relationships, or mathematical paradoxes. This is his default state as Burt Weston, a state of retreat into a bliss of marijuana that his contract killer job pays for. The life of an actor, without any of the ethics or pressure to appear wholesome. He's a constant rebel forever, always lazing about in this world, unless it comes time to plan a job as Edison. Then, he sobers up, and gets to work planning, pulling himself out of his slumber with an emotional force down from pre-written character material to play himself as he prefers to see himself: a slick assassin that is within human rules, but one that doesn't care.

James Dean with a gun, a more sensible automobile, and some stones.

His heaven turns into a machine logic clockwork engine, a limbo of fictional rules and theatric psychology. And then, once he's found his plan, he goes into action as Film Freak, a mental monstrosity appearing from him as his mind becomes a silent, ruthless Hell, transforming him into the demon and plunging him back into mythology as the actor role he's selected, the confidence game on as he forgets his start and finish. And as he plunges into the middle, unconsciously a character, he becomes a false face, before finally snapping back out when he's out of danger. Then, Burt Weston returns, and he collects his check, and has a sleep in his Tempurpedic bed, recalling The Most Dangerous Game.

Abilities

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Skills

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Academics:
Gotham Academy is a top prep school, and Burt received the full benefit of its education.

Actor:
Film Freak is a latent actor, who has made the mistake of studying acting. He's become obsessed with the trade to the point that he exists within a quiet fantasy world, not in entire control of his ability but instead shifting through roles fluidly. Much like an athlete who has trained his body to perform a skill, he is in control of this about as much as he knows his comfort levels, reflexes, and needs.

Automotive Driving:
Film Freak is an experienced drug runner, and can drive stealthily, or manage decent evasion.

Counter Culture:
Film Freak has been involved in rebel counterculture since the high school level, and is a born Beatnik, aware of how to manipulate people and spot, change, or manipulate drug subculture signals involved in drugs, music, movies, crime, or society.

Criminal Enterprise:
Film Freak knows various criminal businesses such as drug dealing, smuggling, arms purchase, contract murder, theft, arson, vandalism, or robbery through training, theory, and experience.

Criminal Networks:
Film Freak has been trained by the Gotham Mafia to operate in criminal networks as a mercenary, and how to find contacts, go underground, or find a safehouse.

Fashion:
Burt Weston is a fashion expert, from his time in the Gotham Academy drama program.

Fiction:
Film Freak is a master of fiction, and can modify, manipulate, or extract plans from fiction of all sorts. In the event of a failure, it's his modus operandi. In the event of a success, his victims think something they remember as being fictitious has occurred in real life.

Marksmanship:

Film Freak has been taught firearm skills by the Mafia, and is not a military, or even police level expert, but can operate pistols, shotguns, and assault rifles, as well as maintain them.

Resources

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Financial Status:
Burt has a decent amount of funding, worth around $400,000 dollars as a nest egg inside various hidden bank accounts, in case he needs to go on the run. He also has a nice studio apartment that a television actor would own, a supply of firearms and supplies, a two-door Japanese sport sedan with cop modifications such as engine, suspension, and tires, and an Indian brand motorcycle. In addition, he supplies himself with creature comforts such as marijuana, top shelf liquor, microbrewed beer, and fine cuisine.

Mafia Contacts:

As 'Edison', Film Freak is a known Gotham contract killer. He also has access to munitions, drugs, chop shops, pawn brokers, specialized equipment, identity forgery, alias bank accounts, and safehouses.

Weaknesses

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Delusional Inner World:
Film Freak's memory is more like a set of film clips and movies, than a real mind.

Delusions of Frailty:
Film Freak thinks he's weaker than he really is, and is more likely to back down from a threat, unless he's acting with 'psych up'.

Machiavellian Politics:
Edison believes in the Owl message, without knowing that it's Owl. Pagan hedonism, social Darwinism, and theocorporatism, with human lives as blood sacrifices for the wealth of the bold.

Modus Operandi:
Without a fictional pretense, Film Freak has no way to break social conventions without anxiety (the purpose of an modus operandi), and self-medicates with marijuana to take him down from the anxious state this places him in.

Rebel Without a Cause:
Film Freak is bitter towards authority, wastes his talents, and lives the life of a constant rebellious rockstar, despite being in a life of crime. Alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana are the end result, as is a sleep disorder.

Suppressed Emotions:

Burt Weston, despite having the soul of an artist, suppresses his emotions, resulting in a tension fraught sense of being.

Logs

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Title	Date	Scene Summary
Deacon Blues	April 1st, 2021	Detective Chimp tracks down Film Freak in an old Yardie shanty in Cobble Hill, and after a brief sojourn of film history, Film Freak assists on a case with a stolen artifact - but not before handing over a briefcase, to be given to The Batman. Has Detective Chimp been tricked? Not poison in the hand, but ink in the mind.
Hellbound: Cutting Through the Flesh	September 13th, 2019	Film Freak is sent by the CIA to assassinate an old spy, but Spawn's timely intervention foils the plans of Film Freak's betters and leaves Burt Weston back in Arkham Asylum. Will there be a sequel?
Mack the Knife: To Free a Witch's Wife	August 31st, 2019	Summary needed
Hammerhead's introduction to Gotham's Underworld	August 14th, 2019	Hammerhead visits Gotham and gets a taste of it's Underworld.
Digging Ditches: Finding a Rose in a Trench	July 27th, 2019	Film Freak tracks down Mercy Thompson in Central Park, to inquire after her incident with the gangs at her garage. After offering his services to repay a debt, he's kindly rebuffed, and leaves town to perform Lex Luthor's mission to track down the Peacekeeper scientists that have betrayed the Man of Tomorrow.
The McCoy Affair: A Few Good Grapes	July 15th, 2019	Summary needed
Peacekeepers: Doing some Housecleaning	July 6th, 2019	Film Freak is contracted once again for internal LexCorp affairs by Lex. This time for investigation into the Peacekeeper problem.
Greasing the Skids: A Motorcycle Ride Through Spanish Harlem	July 4th, 2019	Summary needed
Double Shot	June 21st, 2019	Summary needed
Dr. Edison, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blister Agent	March 21st, 2018	Summary needed
Rising Tide: Blackgate Breakout	February 19th, 2018	Blackgate experiences its lrgest prison break in history! Our Heroes arrive on the scene to put a stop to it and run into complications none of them could have expected.
How Many Souls to Kill Tonight	February 18th, 2018	Summary needed
'Internal' Affairs	February 17th, 2018	Summary needed
A Bombay Alley	January 29th, 2018	Summary needed
Hiring Staff	January 26th, 2018	In which Mr. Weston is recruited.
Eric Burtman becomes Film Freak	January 24th, 2018	Film Freak sends Romano "Professor Chaos" Quaid, a local drug user that owes the Mafia money, to blow up Gotham Mercy Hospital, while Film Freak is inside killing a gangster that messed around with the wrong lady. Lar Gand comes to the aid of the young boy before he can do evil, and sees through Film Freak's disguise as Dr. Eric Burtman, but allows Film Freak to escape custody in order to give Romano a shot at life.

Cutscenes

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Title	Date	Scene Summary
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Gallery

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