cshighwaymen

[cshighwaymen]

A character who raised himself to be a weapon:

As a young child, you watch people inflict damage on you and come away unscathed. You learn that you bleed, but the knife does not. However, bloody the altercation the weapon survives. Violence persists. And you have to persist too, the only way you know how. By becoming a knife.

It does not matter the carnage you cause, to the people around you, friend or foe.

Weapons do not lose, so long as they are covered in blood.

A character who raised himself to be a shield:

You have taken so many hits and for some reason you’re still standing.

It hurts so much. You don’t want to be standing anymore.

But no one else deserves to hurt like this. But you could not be in any more pain than you are in now. You have nothing to lose. But the 12 year-old girl crying in the pews does. So you take a hit for her.

No one should feel like this. You don’t deserve a wretched half life feeling like this. But you’ve survived to much to take the easy way out.

So you take another hit, and hope that fate lets it finally kill you.

A character who is still soft flesh:

Drowning, but not yet introduced to the world of swords and shields. Soft all over. Not covered in your own blood or anyone else’s. In pain but still pleading for someone other than yourself to save you. Still capable of being saved.

You could learn to be a farmer. You could learn to be a person.

You could learn to be a gun.

[cshighwaymen]

When the big question of the story is

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Coming of age but for a kid that is already grown.

A kid who grew up fighting, all teeth and fists. A kid who came out swinging, who knows the taste of blood and whiskey better than milk.

A kid who never got a be a kid becomes an adult.

[cshighwaymen]

I have made memes of the highway men.

This is canonically an ugly story with a bad end and none of this is cannon.

But they also are occasionally just silly guys with funny dynamics.

[cshighwaymen]

Bernard ‘Bandit’ Carson

Age: 12-13

Born: 1975

First kill:

Home town: El Nido, California

[cshighwaymen]

it's always "you gnawed off your own leg to escape like an animal caught in a trap" and never "why didn't anyone try to help you out of the trap" or "why weren't you provided with any other resources to escape the trap with except for your own teeth"

[cshighwaymen]

Willson Mackey

Age: 26

Born: 1961

First kill: age 8

Birthplace: Cecil, Oregon

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Father Clyde

Age: 38

Born: 1949

First kill: age 17

Birthplace: Vidette, Arkansas

[cshighwaymen]

These are my personal notes and rules, if anyone wants to draw my boys please interpret them however you like and don’t feel bound by this

I thought this might be interesting to someone and does give a little bit of lore

Rules for drawing the highway men

Don’t draw them full or in detail.

Only silhouettes, one identifying feature, and maybe one piece of clothing

They should be faceless and up to interpretation with only enough detail to delineate them from each other in black and white.

Bandit

Identifying feature: big eyes

Three pieces of clothing (can only wear one at a time): binder, Wilson’s jacket, dress

Color: blue like clean water

Wilson

Identifying feature: black hair

Three pieces of clothing (can only wear one at a time): leather jacket, gloves, sun glasses

Color: purple like midnight, dark mountains, and old purple cars

Clyde

Identifying feature: cigarette

Three pieces of clothing (can only wear one at a time): priest’s robes, buckskin jacket, choir boy robes

Color: red/orange like cigarettes and blood

Other things that can be revealed as identifying features are scars, weapons, jewelry, contents of pockets, hands

[cshighwaymen]

This isn’t a story about Bernard’s transness.

It’s a story about how far three men are willing to go to be free.

It’s about where the line is drawn in the sand.

It’s about why that line is scuffed over.

It’s about why there is blood on the sand.

It’s about home and family.

It’s about what was left behind and what was gained.

It’s about if that blood was worth it.

[cshighwaymen]

I had the idea for Bernard’s character floating around in my head for a while.

But it finally clicked into focus when I watched ‘cowboys.’

There is this one scene closer to the end of the move where the main character

(a trans kid running away with his dad)

is stuck between shooting an officer or being taken back home to his transphobic mother

The idea of

PAY FOR YOUR MANHOOD IN BLOOD

suck with me

That idea the center of my highway men story

Bernard is the catalyst.

[cshighwaymen]

So you know what to look for in the songs on his character playlist

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A good character playlist needs a key so you know what is most important.

[cshighwaymen]

Character playlist are fun, but you need to know why each song is actually on there.

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The Canon Appearances of the Highway men

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A disjointed collection of scenes, conversations, and flash backs between three men that eventually tell the story of:

A man who was assaulted by his preacher, killed him, and became a preacher in his place.

A run away who killed his father to avenge his sister and hasn’t stopped running since.

And a trans boy running to the mountains where the birds won’t ridicule him.

A story of manhood, boyhood, and survival.