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Saturday, January 9, 2016

Dr. Payton Breckinridge

Concept: Golden Boy and all around Mensch

AKA: His middle name is Richard and is known by people he went to school with as Rick or Ricky.

Desc: Easy smile. Bright blue eyes. Blond hair (only slightly receding) The frame of a former linebacker. Left knee bothers him when it gets cold. Still runs to keep fit. Has given up smoking but has gone over to Vaping. Still is fond of the occasional brewskis, but has become something of a whiskey snob.

History: Peyton would be an easy guy to hate. He’s from an old money family and has had every single advantage a rich white person can enjoy growing up. He’s strong, well built. athletic eats like a starving wolf and doesn’t get fat from it. He’s a good-looking son of a bitch and he heads up a medical concern that makes money hand over fist.
Also, he’s a generally likable fellow and doesn’t seem to be a douchebag about religion or politics like so many rich folks seem to be.
      There are reasons. Forrest Breckinridge, his father, and patriarch of the Breckinridge family had different ideas about the path of Payton’s life. From an early age, Peyton was groomed for a career in politics and business. What his father failed to take into account, and what his mother noticed early on, was that Payton had a very very sweet and loving disposition. Most of the advice his father would give him about who was worthy and who could be trusted and wasn’t, just sort of rolled off of him. He just wasn’t wired the way his father wanted.
   Another element of his character surfaced early, and his father completely missed its significance. Payton was raised around horses and he was encouraged to have animals. Father thought that this right and meet and proper for a young man of his station and he was further proud of Payton’s willingness to make sure that his animals were properly cared for after the ride was over.  Forrest seemed to see that maybe his ideas of Nobless oblige were taking root in some small way.
    But that wasn’t it at all. Payton loved animals. And unlike any of the humans in his life, Animals never judged him.   He made a decision in his teens that someday, he would turn his hand to doing something with animals.  And he began to plan ahead. because he knew his father wouldn’t approve.
   Payton took every bit of pocket money he could save, birthday savings bonds, and some financial advice from sympathetic cousins and squirreled it away into high yield mutual funds. He began sabotaging entrance interviews to the prestigious business schools that he’d been sent to and finally landed an interview to a veterinary school that he DID want to go to.
    So essentially, when he presented to his father that he was going to the finest veterinary school in the country, on a scholarship no less, when his father melted down completely and cut him off, he turned around funded his first year of college out of his own pocket.  
 Oh, it wasn’t easy. There was a lot of ramen and peanut butter. There were a lot of part-time jobs held down in order to stay in school. He mucked out stalls. he worked retail. He tended bar. It was actually good for him, shook out those last kinks of his father attitudes.
   And you know, They might have mended their fences eventually. Mom worked on him some. And Forrest had to admit that his eldest son had some spine.  (The same could not be said for some of the other Breckinridge offspring. Payton, for his part, still loved his father but he had inherited at least a bit of his drive and ambition. Payton knew that he could never apologize to his father because to do so, would mean, in his father’s mind, that Payton had been wrong. And Payton was NOT ever going to denigrate the life he’d built for himself by allowing him that.
Them Breckinridge men can be a bit stiff-necked.  But as I say, they probably would have patched it up eventually.
If Mother hadn’t died.  Both men loved her and both men grieved over her, and anyone who went to the funeral could see that it had affected them both rather badly. There were words. Payton walked away and while he still maintains contact with his siblings, he and father do not speak. To be clear here. Forrest isn’t some fucking monster. He deeply regrets the things he said. So does Payton. But neither is willing to budge.  It may be that it’s too late for all that.
   In any case, Payton has a thriving business called “Regional Veterinary Associates” He took a good deal of the business acumen he possesses and leveraged it into a full on veterinary practice that functions much like a shared doctor practice does.  The practice also has a fleet of pick-up trucks and horse trailers. Some have been outfitted as a mobile lab/operating theater and others are just horse trailers. And for the most part, Payton doesn’t even have to play the market anymore in order to shore up the business.  They’ve even managed to land the contract for necropsies from the local horse race-course.

Oh sure. it’s not ALL beer and skittles.  His siblings still try to set him up with women that they think Payton will like(read= not be an embarrassment to the family). They are usually wide of the mark. Most of them are far too spoiled.  Payton isn’t really one to look for himself. (“Who has the time?”)  He HAS learned to introduce them all to his BFF/senior partner, Bailey King.
Bailey has pretty good people radar and over the course of a friendship stretching back to equestrian events in their teens, has worked out a pretty elaborate series of hand gestures.  She’s usually pretty good at sussing out the women who are completely wrong for him. (Although at least one of those girls ended up being right for her and they’ve been going strong for years. Payton was best man at their wedding.)  
If there’s one real fly in the ointment. It’s that certain people still have plans for Payton. Plans that he wasn’t asked about and that if he knew of them, wouldn’t want any part of.

Attitude: “Chelsea, I’m not going to lie to you. Phantom’s leg is never going to be as strong again as it was. He’ll probably never race again. But he’s responding well to the treatment and he’s got a good even temper, so he’s not likely to hurt himself. I think you can still get a lot of use out him for the rest of his days. He might be VERY good breeding stock and I know a few people you can call.  So...his role will change. certainly.   But each day you get to spend with him is still a gift.”

Skills: He’s good(3+) at nearly every aspect of being an adult human being except lying. Manipulation 1, still... after all these years. Doesn’t mean he can’t sniff them out, though. Can’t get far in business without that. He is extremely well educated. Has lots of dots of Medicine, Animal Ken and a passel of specialties to go with them. He is a very capable equestrian and used to play polo like a demon. He learned a number of skills from his father. Academics specialty in Business, and a few dots of Politics. No combat skills to speak of.Although his football days means that he's not entirely incapable of a fight.  A very smart guy, but also fairly sociable too.  His main social skill is that he tends to be fairly relaxed, and doesn’t tend to get offended by people who aren’t trying to offend him. A skill he wishes his brother and sisters would learn.

Gear: Payton has resisted getting a smartphone for ages, but there are simply too many useful apps for a medical practitioner. He normally carries a pocket-knife which also has a straight razor blade. and a small matching multi-tool. He carries a large tool bag that he got at Home Depot. Largest one he could find with the most pockets. He keeps a bewildering array of useful medical tools and medicines in there. Normally keeps it in the metal box on the back of his Pick-up. He also has a pocket of animal/people treats. and he’s normally got his iPad on him.

Home: While he certainly LIKES his iPad, His house is mostly furnished in bookcases. Payton keeps it simple for the most part. Has a nice house in an upscale neighborhood, nice pool and hot tub. He’s got a barn out back and there’s enough space to ride...But he’s home so seldom he can’t stand the idea of his OWN horse being neglected.  His cleaning lady Marta doesn’t really have a lot to do on Thursday when she comes around. But he enjoys making breakfast for the both of them and telling her stories about things going on at the office.  Bailey likes Marta. So does Payton if he were ever honest with himself about it.
He does, however, have an extensive aquarium and a cat, Abraham, who watches the fish-tank like its television.

Circle:Payton is a people person and he enjoys knowing people from all manner of social strata. He effortlessly rubs elbows with rich scions of various families in town  but thinks nothing of sidling up to the horse trainers at various places, buying them a pint of bitters and listening to their endless stories. He’s even helped out getting the occasional cat out of a tree. Yeah, I know.  He’s sickeningly sweet like that. People just like him and he seems to have a real gift for connecting with them through their pets.  He’s the kind of fellow you want to be a better person around. 

Story Uses:

“I only tango a little..” 
He might make a good S.O. for a female character.  He’s a decent guy but he’s seen some things you know?  and he certainly isn’t stupid. Girl, you could do worse.

“What the hell? What are these chemicals? and how did they GET here?”
Also: you should be aware that if there is something weird going on in the animal world of your town, especially anything large scale. Payton is likely going to have it cross his desk. County Animal Control might know about it first. But eventually Payton will find out, and he will want to know exactly what the hell.


Connections:
*Once, DJ Psychopirate sat in the RVA lobby with Payton's arm around her shoulders as she ugly-cried for a solid hour when he told her that her kitty Vandal Savage was going to have to be euthanized. DjPp never forgets a kindness like that.
*Anytime Ms. Blavatski from The Grimoire has a medical issue. This is where they come.  Ms. B. Doesn't seem to respond well to homeopathic remedies.
*Is on a first name basis with Pat and Darlene Borland of The Borland Farm. "Most aggressive damn hogs I have ever seen."
* When RVA opened their new facility for the first time, Patricia "Carnie" Pitt came down and interviewed Payton. Commented that he was a natural on camera. Also, she brings Bud and Lou down for a yearly check-up ever since Lou swallowed a bath sponge whole. That was a bit dicey.
* Knows Lillian Penobscot of course. She's nice enough but when she gets a drink or two in her she starts talking a bunch of superstitious nonsense.  Her friend Lorna Crane seems to eye him hungrily, though. She's fetching enough, but Bailey waved him off. "You are not to fuck that woman." she said. "you are not to fuck that woman with a STOLEN dick!"
*Has known Meredith Shaw since pre-school. Probably the only time most people have really seen Payton angry was an incident at an event, where he yanked the riding crop out of her hands and broke it over his knee. Meredith is actually a tiny bit scared of the utter fury she saw on his face that day. She usually avoids him at social events if she can.
* Naturally, the Breckinridge family is one of "Those" families. Forrest has been a member of The Vermillion House for ages and has been angling to try to become a member of the Inner Circle. (They seem strangely reticent for some reason.) But Payton's name comes up in their meetings from time to time. Oh...They know he doesn't have the temperament. But his brother Bartholomew and his two sisters are a seething cauldron of volcanically hot mess. They'd prefer that Payton inherit the bulk of the family's assets and continue using them at the House's behest. They'd like that very much.


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