Carlos King Backstory

Grand Inquisitor

Growing up on the mean streets and alleys of Lanurk was hard for anyone. You had to adapt to the rough way of life at an early age to fit in and thrive in this harsh and brutal environment. For a young Carlos King, it was even worse. Being left at an orphanage at a very young age, Carlos never knew his own parents. It was probably due to lack of moral guidance that the early years of his life led him astray in so many ways.

School was not the right place, he never saw the point of formal education and paid little heed to the constant nagging of his school masters. The young ape was not stupid though, quite the contrary actually. He was skilled in acquiring knowledge that he could use for his personal gains. Skills that would make him money fast. Sometimes the end goals justified using means that were not entirely legal, but Carlos did not see that as a big problem. He was there to look after himself, and if anyone else was in the way, well, that was unfortunate.

Hanging out with older grifters in the alleys, Carlos was getting acquainted with apes running all kinds of scams. Pickpocketing, Three Card Monty, and exchange scams were just some of the talents that Carlos picked up from the older apes. It was easy money. The fact that Carlos managed to learn the tricks fast and mastered them much quicker than other apes his age helped him garner much respect in the organized criminal gangs of the district. The King ape was in fact clever enough to devise completely new scams by himself. Sleight of hand became his specialty, and in a couple of years he knew all the tricks in the books as well as some of the tricks that were not in any books whatsoever.

A young Carlos with his street smarts and money stacked in his wallet, got more and more involved with the criminal gangs as the years went by. The successes of his tricks went to his head, and he felt invincible. Unfortunately, cockiness tends to bite back at some point, and Carlos soon learned this the hard way. The notorious Amato gang in West Lanurk had solicited the services of Carlos King for more than three years. Whether they needed a crooked dealer for their poker game or someone to nick an important item from an ape, Carlos was the go-to guy. This time Carlos was summoned to procure a diamond hands trophy from a De`Medici Chateau in Lanurk. The Amato gang needed the items for ransom purposes but could not get the item themselves as the Chateau was heavily guarded. The reward was a whopping 10.000$Society. The money was good, and Carlos was sure of himself. He gladly accepted the challenge and proceeded to go straight to the Chateau without doing proper due diligence on the security measures at the place. This quickly proved to be the closing chapter of the high life of the young ape. After he easily managed to break open a window, pick the lock of a steel door and traverse a maze-like corridor in the Chateau, he had forgotten to check whether anyone was actually on guard outside the property. The De`Medici family had anticipated the move from the Amato gang and had placed undercover apes disguised as civilians outside the gates. As they had seen Carlos enter the property, it was easy for them to call the Military officers as soon as he entered. Carlos was then caught red handed and sent off to jail.

The Medici family were powerful and had important contacts at all levels of society. This fact made it possible for them to make a statement to the gangs in Lanurk. You get caught; you pay the price. Carlos was sentenced to three years in prison and got transferred to the notorious prison at Lantana Avenue, Gocon City.

Carlos was miserable. Easting gruel and digging trenches in the sewers of Gocon City was hardly what he had imagined when running scams. Most of the inmates were brutes with only half a brain and proved horrible company. The monotonous days in jail made Carlos even angrier, he wanted out and he wanted payback.

Faith, it seemed, wanted it differently. After half a year in prison, Carlos got in a fight with his cellmate as he was constantly throwing banana peels on the floor and refused to clean it up. Being strong, Carlos got the upper hand and hurt the other ape. He was immediately transferred to another cell block after the incident. In this place he was acquainted with his new cellmate, and old De La Cruz ape that was obsessed with his harmonica. He was sitting alone in the evening blasting out the most magnificent blues tunes. Carlos found the music coming from the old ape soothing and was happy to sit in silence listening to the melodies. The musical bond seemed to mellow Carlos somewhat, and the two apes quickly came on friendly terms.

The old ape and Carlos would spend the evenings in their cell playing cards, dice, and listening to music. The funny thing was that the old ape seemed to beat Carlos almost every time. The result baffled the King ape, as he was constantly using his sleight of hand skills to obtain an advantage in the game. After many losses Carlos confronted the old ape about the fact that he was losing. Hearing this, the old ape just laughed and told Carlos that he had been observing his tricks all the time. In fact, the very reason the old ape was in prison was that he was indeed a master of all kinds of cons. He had been too greedy though and received a twenty-year sentence. He confessed to Carlos that he regretted all his crimes and vowed only to use his skills for good when he was let out one day. Not having any kind of role model in his early life, Carlos became more and more fond of this old ape, and after some time came to think of him as a father figure. He liked their interactions and learned to master all kinds of skills that he had not even heard of before he was sentenced to prison. Carlos King had now truly become a master of all cons and games.

Two years later the two apes were very close friends. Carlos only had six months left of his sentence and would soon be a free ape. The harmonica playing old De La Cruz ape had one year left of his time in prison. During their evenings talking and playing, they had concluded that they would enter a partnership when they got out. No more life of crime, but a legitimate business helping others make sure they were not taken advantage of by other apes. They would be consultants, and Carlos’s job when he got out was to gauge the market interest and find out where it was most profitable to set up shop.

It was a fine summer day when Carlos was finally released. For the first time in his life, he felt he had a purpose and a clear set of goals. After breathing in the fresh air of freedom for a few days he set off to find the perfect place to set up business with his partner. Gocon City, Tasama City and Canmard City seemed like the obvious choice as this was the center of commerce, trade, and crime within the city districts. It did not take long before he found the perfect spot. Gipsy Lane, Tasama City was ideal. You had the racetracks, the gaming houses, the bustling entertainment district, and plenty of alcohol consumption. Scams, cheats, and fraud were part of everyday life here and Carlos was sure their skills within that particular area would be very welcome among the law-abiding businesses.

After a few rounds of negotiations Carlos managed to secure an office that doubled as a small apartment in the street. Everything was now ready for the next chapter in his life, and he was patiently waiting for his friend to be released. Unfortunately, yet again a curveball was thrown in the general direction of Carlos. Only two weeks before the release he received devastating news from the prison. His friend had perished from a heart attack. The news hit the King ape hard and he slumped down on the floor of his new apartment. All his dreams had again been shattered, and due to fate, there was nothing he could do to remedy the situation.

A devastated Carlos King travelled back to the prison to see his old friend one last time. As it turned out, his old friend did not have any family or relatives, so Carlos inherited the few belongings that he had. Carlos did not care much for this but kept the harmonica that he had been playing all those years. It would be a token that Carlos would keep making sure he stayed on the right path and honored his promises to his old friend.

With a heavy heart, Carlos wandered around the districts for a while. He was sure that he wanted to use his skills for good, but the old shop in Gocon City reminded him too much of his old friend, so he set out to find new ventures where his skills would be appreciated.

After a couple of weeks Carlos stumbled across the construction site of a rather large-looking project. An eager ape flailing his hands furiously while discussing with a couple of other apes caught Carlos’s interest. Listening in, Carlos found out that the furious ape was indeed the famous Beltran White, Grand Architect of the Amphitheatre. He was arguing with contractors regarding a bill for scaffolding works done on the erection of the main gates. It seemed they wanted an extortionate amount of money for the job. Listening in it was obvious for Carlos that these apes worked for the Amato mafia. He had been part of these kinds of scams many times himself in the past. He knew right away that they would be arguing that they needed more hours than estimated, but that was due to them using materials that they knew would break down after only walking on them for a few days. That way they could bill the same job three or four times. They also used fake timesheets with apes that did not exist. Carlos laughed inside while listening to the ridiculous claims of the foremen apes. He could see that Mr. White was becoming redder and redder in the face, but he did not make the right arguments to get away from the extortionate invoices. Without saying a word, Carlos went over to the scaffolds and started kicking hard on random beams holding up the structure. This behavior quickly caught the attention of the Amato apes, and in panic they ran over to stop him. It was too late though, only seconds later Carlos had found a weakened beam, and the entire scaffold came crashing down. In horror, the Amato apes watched as their scam came crashing down. Carlos touched his nose knowingly and pointed at the construction apes. After that he made a fist and charged towards the now speechless Amato apes. Before he could do anything else, the now horrified apes started running. Carlos stopped and laughed as he saw the scammers exit the grounds.

Puzzled by this turn of events, the Grand Architect went over to talk to Carlos. When asked what had just happened, Carlos introduced himself and said that he was an expert in all kinds of scams and trickery and that it was his moral duty to help out a fellow ape. Beltran White, who quickly saw talent in his fellows, offered a job to Carlos on the spot. Seeing that this was an interesting project that Carlos King had heard a lot about, he accepted the job on the spot. Only weeks later, Carlos had proven his skills sufficiently to earn the promotion of Grand Inquisitor of the Amphitheatre. He would look for scams, loopholes, exploits and trickery and make sure that no one could exploit this marvelous project in the Ape Society.