Character Contest 60 – Revamp 2.0
Sebastian’s original Son of Thor was a fantasy warrior. I have had the idea for a Norse demi-god character in my meta-verse for some time. It was Sebastian’s version with the scar over the eye that finalized my character’s direction.
Gabriel Dunderson has yet to make it into my “official” meta-verse. Dieties and mythological creatures add a dimension of power that goes beyond the levels of my meta-verse. If I continue his development, Gabriel will most likely be in a separate “mytho-verse.” Not happy with his blind eye. At the time, there was no separate iris in the Eyes items. Work with what you have, ya know.
Sebastian’s Son of Thor:
The Atomic Punk’s Gabriel Dunderson: The Son of Thor
Close-up:
Backstory:
Gabriel Dunderson’s earliest memories are those of his stepfather. An evil man who beat his mother to death. He would have killed the 8-year old Gabriel, too, if the police had not busted down the door and emptied their pistols into the raging alcoholic. A beer bottle had shattered Gabriel’s right eye socket. His biological father nowhere to be found, the scarred child was placed in foster care.
As he grew older, Gabriel suffered from waking nightmares and hallucinations. They caused him to have panic attacks and violent outbursts. So bad that his foster parents consented to heavy sedatives and psychotropic drugs. Still, Gabriel would whisper of “trolls” and “demons” that he would see in the corner of his blind eye.
Gabriel decided to run away. At age 13, he jumped on a Greyhound from Madison, Wisconsin, to Saint Paul, Minnesota. He was staying at a homeless shelter when a day labor recruiter came for workers. It was obvious that Gabriel was not the 18 year-old pictured on his foster brother’s Driver’s License. The recruiter only smiled and put the nervous kid to work.
Soon, Gabriel found himself in demand. He worked tirelessly. What would take two, even three men, a full day, the young Swede could do in less than four hours. The day labor recruiter, Sylvia “Siffy” Eklund, gave him a cell phone so she could call as soon as a job became available. She would even let him have afternoons off with pay.
It would have been an agreeable situation except Gabriel was no longer taking the nightmare-surpressing drugs. For the most part, he was able to control his anti-social tendencies. He would go to the library or walk aimlessly for hours after his short work days.
Then the blackouts began. Some mornings, Gabriel would wake in a park under a tree. Others, in a motel room surrounded by dozens of empty beer cans. Which he could not explain as Gabriel swears that he never drinks. Nor does he ever reek of alcohol.
Gabriel once again started to see “trolls” and “demons”. One night, he encountered what appeared to be a “frost giant.” Angry at the hallucination, Gabriel charged the monster in the middle of the street. Only to wake up in the hospital three days later.
Before the Saint Paul Police could get to Dunderson to show him pictures of an ice cream van that had been torn asunder, Sylvia took him to the Greyhound station. She handed him a boarding pass to a “special job” in Las Vegas, Nevada. What she did not tell Gabriel was that the driver he assaulted was dealing drugs from his ice cream van. Nor did she mention the other times that Gabriel had blacked out. In waking sleep, he had put other pushers, rapists, and child abusers in the hospital.
Now 20 years-old, Gabriel still works for the day labor outfit. He even sees Siffy now and then. She calls with “special jobs” across the country. When the job is done, it is on the Greyhound to the next one.
He still sees the demons. He still loses days. Gabriel occasionally wakes up in a hospital. Sometimes hundreds of miles from the job site. When he does, Siffy is there to take him to the bus depot before the police arrive.
Dunderson is not a naïve child. However, he trusts Siffy. As if the work she gives him is leading him to his destiny. The monsters that he sees are growing larger and stronger… but so is Gabriel.
