~Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangster~
Name: Nicholas Allen Bartels
Nickname: Nicky, Little Nicky
Age: 29
Birthday: May 20
Occupation: Wiseguy
Home town: New Orleans
Ethnicity: Sicilian with small traces of German
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 140
Eye color: Brown
Hair: Black, slicked back.
Theme Songs: Dirty Deeds, TNT, Mack the Knife, Damn it Feels Good to be a GangsterLikes: Drinking, gambling, dancing (swing/salsa/and yes...even some disco), classical music, looking out for #1, baseball bats, that movie "Goodfellas," making pickups, giving people 'messages,' fancy clothes, respect.
Dislikes: Vegetables, baseball, being talked down to, those that would screw him over, cops, drugs, other people like him.
Fears: Nicky fears, above all else, a loss of control of a situation. No matter what, if put in such a situation, he will do whatever it takes to side with those with the most control in order to reestablish his own sense of control.
Weaknesses: Nicky has a problem with the four great vices of most men: Booze, Beer, Bourbon, Broads. If a situation has gone out of his control, he will almost always reach for the nearest intoxicating liquid. He also has a weakness for women, in a twisted sense of honor, he hates when women are mistreated (even though, in his line of work, the wives of the men he deals with are almost always caught in the perverbial crossfire). He has a major problem dealing with those that would hurt a woman. Due to this protective nature, the more underhanded women in his line of work often were able to take advantage of Nicky.
Bad Habits: Although Nicky is a very calm and calculating person, he too has a rage threshold. It takes quite a bit to make him downright furious, but once he does, it is often very difficult for him to see past that one issue. An example of this is when his friend Joey died (see below under pet peeves). This event caused Nicky to devote his own...and even some of the Family's resources into his investigation on the strange new drug that killed his friend.
Favorite Saying: "I do what I can with what I got."
Special Skills: Pistol management, Lock manipulation technician, Professional truth alteration technician, Human lie detector and truth extractor
Education: High School: Jesuit High School, Valedictorian
College: LSU pre-law, drop out
Personality: Nicky likes to think of himself as a wiseguy. Being raised in the type of environment he was, this isn't all that surprising. However, behind the mafia persona, Nicky really isn't all that mean at heart. This isn't to say he's a nice guy though. Nicky is a survivor, through and through. Most think of this as a coward, but Nicky sees it as being smart. He's the guy in the back of the room who you don't always notice or remember, but know he gets the job done. And this wiseguy does love the jobs he does. Being surrounded by it all his life has made him accustomed to it. He loves being a part of the 'family' and all the benifits that entails. And he loves the respect he is given.
In dealing with potentially dangerous situations, Nicky will almost always talk first. He knows what happens to those that live life by the sword (or bat, in his case), and will make sure violence is his last option. Of course, this all depends on what he considers a "dangerous situation." If not, in Nicky's eyes anyway, he'll be more than happy to verbally abuse and/or irritate someone, knowing they more than likely won't start anything. As much as he claims that he loves the life of a wiseguy, he personally does not like hurting other people. If given the chance to coerce or threaten instead of attack, he will always choose the former.
Physical description: Nicky is not a large man in stature by any means of the imagination. In order to make up for his size though, he makes up for in physical power and social style. Confidence practically radiates from Nicky. He loves dressing flashy. With a high widow's peak, and slicked back hair, he can look positively dashing if he wanted to. His angular face almost constantly has a strange grin, as if he's hiding some sort of diabolical scheme from the world. On most occasions, he likes to dress in a slick black suit with a black shirt and tie. Though he's almost always miserable from the heat, he puts up with it for the show. Underneath this flashy exterior lies a sinewy and athletic body built for speed and power.
A Brief History of Little Nicky: Nicky was born into the main 'family' of New Orleans and it shows. His entire life he was taught to trust the family, bribe the cops, and everything else was his for the taking. At least, that's what his extended family told him. His mother and father, on the other hand, wanted something better for their only son. But as hard as they pushed Nicky toward going to college and making something of himself, Nicky pushed right back by spending more and more time with the 'family.' And his new 'friends' urged him on all the more to get away from his parents' influence and work for them full time.
This ultimately led to his family disowning him when he decided to drop out of a full-ride through college and instead work full-time as a wiseguy. The Family eagerly took him in. And damn did Nicky have the talent for his job. Having been born into the Family and also proving himself to be above average intelligence, he began working in the money laundering racket. Success soon followed.
His success allowed him to move on up through the ranks, going from small time goon to collection agent, and finally almost to an underboss after only a few years. However, fate intervened.
His friend Joey died soon after (see: Pet Peeves) from unusual circumstances. At least, unusual for their line of work. It wasn't from a normal drug...but a new drug...one that had just appeared in the past year or so. Nicky, working in money laundering, heard rumors about this new drug...something called Boost. He wasn't sure on the particulars...but it was supposed the best upper on the market. Lasted longer than any other performance inhancer, and it was almost untraceable. At first he wasn't sure why his friend took the drug, since it seemed to be more popular with failing athletes than anything...but upon further inquiry, he found out it's also highly addictive and popular among those with lower self-esteem. It turned out Little Nicky didn't know his friend as well as he thought he did.
Outraged by his friend's death, Nicky began a crusade in the New Orleans underworld to find out more about this drug. As in most cases...the truth is better left hidden. It took time, manpower, and money...none of it Nicky's to throw about...to uncover just what Boost was. Nicky delved deeper...and so did his grave. As it turned out, the Feral Labs illicit dealings representative caught wind of Nicky's search and saw trouble brewing with their test of Serum 45. Although Nicky had yet to see the connection between Boost and Feral Labs, he was getting damn close. Feral Labs began applying pressure to the Family...something had to be done with Nicky. The Family, as much as they liked their Little Nicky, liked their Cash Cow, Feral Labs, even more. The bosses convened...and said goodbye to their favorite son. No one asked about his sudden dissapearance.
Pet Peeves: Drugs: A pet peeve doesn't accurately describe Nicky's dislike for drugs...an intense loathing would probably be better. Nicky once had friends. Not the type of friends that you normally find in the 'family' either that one more often than not has to watch closer than his enemies. No...he had an honest-to-God friend. His name was Joey and they had known eachother since before they could remember. Hell, their mothers were best friends all the way back when they were in school. Both being only children and practically growing up together, Nicky and Joey had naturally formed a bond that is usually reserved only for twins. They did everything together. But because Joey wasn't born into the Family as Nicky was, their friendship was strained after Nicky dropped out of college and joined fulltime with the Family. Joey himself envied Nicky for this and gave none-too-subtle hints about how he wanted to join as well. Nicky was hesitant to help his friend out though. Now, since they had grown up together, they both seemed to have adopted eachother's loose sense of morals, so trusting Joey to get the job done wasn't an issue. No, Nicky was worried about his friend's safety. Unlike Nicky, who had grown up around such people, Joey had yet to develop the thick skin necessary to make it relatively safely through that kind of world. But, despite his better judgements, Nicky finally conceeded and gave Joey a leg-up into his world.
And that, as the saying goes, was the beginning of the end. Joey was easily swept away by the fast paced, often fantastical seeming society that was the underworld. As hard as Nicky tried to rein his friend in, he was helpless but to watch his friend slip further and further away from his good intentions. It started with drugs and ended with them, too. Uppers, downers, coke, shrooms, and heroine each drove their own uniquely crooked nail into Joey's coffin. However, the largest nail was driven in by the new drug on the market...Boost.
Nicky found Joey dead in an abondoned building in the Warehouse district of New Orleans. His best friend had drowned in his own blood and vomit.
