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Ethan Barton (72)
Project: Nighttime soap (War of Joy)
Known as: No nicknames
Real name: Ethan James Barton
Group affiliation: Cooper family/Spring Toys
Physical description: Ethan does not stand out in a crowd. Average height and weight, his brown hair is cut short and neat. His suits are fine but tend towards unassuming blues and grays. About Clive’s age, Ethan wears wire-rim glasses and has an unremarkable face.
Personality: Just like his appearance, Ethan has a personality that causes him to fade into the background (especially around an attention-stealer like his constant companion, Clive). Quiet and precise, he seems like the note-taker in most meetings. This is something he has deliberately cultivated. In reality, he is the sharpest business mind of our whole cast. Clive has charisma, but not much else going for him when running a company. The best maneuvers Spring Toys does are all from Ethan, though he’ll never take credit. He’s the snake in the grass that you discover too late has fangs.
History: Gabriel sensed that his son Clive, while the golden child, was destined to be more figurehead than leader. He very deliberately hired and groomed what he thought would be Clive’s ideal number two: Ethan Barton. Academically gifted, Barton came with a tremendous reassume but a quiet, unassuming nature. Gabriel thought he had found an ideal person to run the company without trying to take it from Clive.
And he was right. What he didn’t anticipate is that Ethan would take the company from him. Whispering in Clive’s ear, it was Ethan who masterminded the ouster of Gabriel. Not that anyone realized this – even Clive. Such is Clive’s ego that he conveniently forgets the source of “his” brilliant ideas. Which suits Ethan fine. He prefers to work things from the background and have a shield/fall guy if necessary. Ethan is the most dangerous of people: ability without ego.
And thus, everyone underestimates them. In truth, it would be hard to OVERestimate him, given he is only merely two steps ahead of everyone else on a bad day.
Some secrets and points of drama we may or may not encounter:
- Ethan might apply to Joy for a job.
- Maybe Ethan is secretly an investigator for the FBI and has been using his business connections for years to bring people down.
- Maybe Ethan will embezzle and ruin the company (this point and the one above are not mutually exclusive).
- If we need to go extreme and wackado, Ethan is our best candidate to secretly be a demon.
Role in the narrative: Ethan is critical as I have characterized Clive as incompetent yet arrogant. He almost needs his opposite number working for him to make the success of Spring Toys plausible (without Ethan, Joy would have taken down Clive long ago).
Abilities: Super-smart and has no life outside of business.
Inspirations: An evil Lucius Fox and a bit of Owen from Gargoyles.
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