Name: Broderick Gardiner
Nickname: Brody
Age: 24
Theme Song:  Burnin' Up, Destiny
Class: Ignoble
Position in Game: Contestant
Character Visual: Alden Ehrenreich

Appearance/Distinguishing Features: While this might come across as a bit harsh, Brody is the kind of person who, if he spent the time to actually maintain his appearance, could be quite handsome. Standing just over 5' 9" tall, his slimmer framing and often ill-fitting clothes hide a sleek, muscular build he's earned from working for years on constructing things he'd likely never earn the right to enjoy himself. His sharp jawline, bright green eyes, and wide smile could make him come across as a bit charming if it wasn't for how messy and unkempt he lets his dark brown hair get, often looking like he doesn't take the time to wash it or trim his facial hair as often as he should. His fashion, or lack thereof depending on who you're talking to, tends to carry over this lack of interest when it comes to presentation. He will always favor function over form, preferring bulkier garments that are at least semi-comfortable when he's not working and plain, muted-looking outfits that won't get in his way when he does have to get back to the grind. Maybe one day he'll care about that kind of stuff, but he's in no hurry.

Personality: Brody's been told a couple of times that he tends to have two modes his mind will slip into depending on what's happening at the moment. When focused on a task, he can become very terse and short-spoken. When there is something that needs to be done he will laser focus on what's in front of him, focusing on not losing momentum so he can finish his job and then move on to the next. It makes him a good worker, but he can also get a little intense at times. Most people that work with him a lot know when he gets like this to just give him space, let him do his thing, and not get in his way. He at least has the presence of mind to politely ask a person to get out of his way, but he won't hesitate to make someone move if he doesn't think they're going fast enough.

Other times though, Brody can come across as a lot more easygoing. He read the term "optimistic realist" in a book once and he kind of latched to that idea because he felt it described him fairly well. He will often make a conscious effort to give people the benefit of the doubt, willing to jump in and offer a helping hand when it's needed, but he knows better than to allow himself to become a doormat for the world to walk all over. Not that he has much of a choice in the matter being a dirty, peasant Ignoble after all. He wants to believe there's some good in the world, almost in active spite against everything someone of his social standing has going against him. He's heard whispers and read the propaganda talking about the Resistance but while he thinks it's nice that there are people out there that want to stick it to people in charge, he's well aware that people fighting against the government want to dictate things in his life just as much as the Illustrians do, just wearing different hats. But that's just those above him. The ones down in the mud with him? Those are the ones that are worth protecting.

Occupation: Construction Worker

Special Talents: As an Ignoble, Brody doesn't have as many of the inherent boons that those in the upper crust of Valport get to enjoy. He never really slacked off in school but they only ever taught him what his betters thought he needed to know, so while he generally did well in school it didn't really mean all that much when it came to his prospects. So while he is by no means stupid, he is not as well educated as he very well could be. Thankfully though, where Brody is lacking in the sciences and certain social graces, he easily makes up for that in other ways. During the assessments he took as a child, there were a few things he excelled at. His physical and mental resiliency and his aptness for picking up new skills.

When focused on completing a job, Brody is extremely efficient and tends to hyperfocus on what he is doing. This allows him to very easily slip into a rhythm, often resulting in him completing his work faster and not tiring as quickly as others might. In the construction business, this often meant that Brody was often given a task and left to his own devices unless absolutely necessary. Moving heavy materials, setting up support rails, welding metal beams, and countless other repetitive tasks could often be completed in half the time it took most others in his crew. This focus also tends to make it easier for him to learn how to use new tools or types of heavy machinery. Don't bother asking him the finer details on how a forklift works though. He might be certified to use the thing but if it broke his best attempt at trying to fix it would likely be percussive maintenance. Sometimes there are some drawbacks to this. He can lose track of time pretty easily and can push himself a bit too hard without realizing it until the soreness hits him the next day, but he still thinks this is one of his greatest strengths.

He also has a deep love for mystery novels but he doesn't tend to share that with many people. He thinks it might spoil his reputation a bit.

History: When most people describe the slums of Valport, they don't generally use the nicest terms. The words "run down" get thrown around a lot and for the most part, it is a place that certain members of society would never dream of being caught visiting. While it is often grossly exaggerated to scare the Prominents into remembering just how good they have it and to make the Illustrians feel even better about their lot in life than they already do, there are little nuggets of truth to be found amongst the news stories that paint the Slums as a place best avoided. Crime and gang activity is more commonplace there, but in all honesty, a lot of that comes from everyday people just fighting for survival. Some of these gangs actually do a lot to help keep the peace, settling small squabbles before the Vanguard has a chance to get involved, setting up nice little neutral zones where people can come and go without much real worry that anything bad could happen. While there is still hardship there, these sections of the slums are better than others and really become the metaphorical heart of such a neighborhood.

Brody grew up in the Slum's metaphorical smelly armpit.

Spending a good portion of his formative years in a one-bedroom apartment nestled harshly in the middle of one of the more overpopulated sections of town, Brody remembered being left to his own devices a lot as a kid. He couldn't really blame his mother for that. With it just being the two of them, she had to spend a lot of time away from home just to keep food on the table. He has vague memories of a man he thinks might have been his father but his Mom never particularly liked talking about him and eventually, when he was old enough to realize that those conversations usually led to a lot of late-night crying and drinking when she thought he was still asleep, he stopped asking. Lori Gardiner was quite protective of her little boy so often times he was told to stay home where he would stay out of trouble, but with her either gone or asleep a lot of the time, there wasn't really much that was keeping him there aside from a want to not upset or disappoint her. That worked for a while until he started to grow restless as kids tend to do as they're approaching their teenage years. He learned his lesson a few weeks later when he picked a fight with the wrong punk kid in his neighborhood and got his arm broken for trying to act tough.

But not to worry, his story isn't an entirely depressing tragedy. When he finally got fully into his early teens, he started taking on jobs to try and take some of the weight off his Mom's shoulder. His grades at school took a hit for his effort but much to his mother's protestations he honestly thought it was more than worth it. He wasn't good enough in class anyway to excel at any job that could get them out of the Slums through academic means, so best to start proving to people now how hard of a worker he could be now, give himself a leg up in the only way he knew how. And things did start getting better. They were still stuck in their little armpit, but with him bringing some additional income into the home it was making life easier for his Mom. That was worth it to him.

Eventually, that work ethic would pay off when his final school assessments came back. A part of him was at least a little proud of his middling written exam scores, glad to have written proof that while he might not be top of his class at least he wasn't as dumb as a bag of rocks. Granted, maybe he shouldn't have bragged about that to his old bully the way he did, but at least he had learned how to throw a decent punch to keep him from trying to break his arm again. Those test scores and the results for his physical exams meant he was a shoo-in for a lot of the more complex and labor-intensive jobs. While a bit riskier, they tended to pay a little better, meaning Brody had more he could bring home. It wasn't Prominent or Illustrian money, but he had the chance to earn enough that he would be well off at least by Ignoble standards.

After a few years with his nose to the grindstone, they finally earned enough to get out of the crappy old place and move to a marginally less crappy place that was at least in a much safer part of town. Comparatively speaking. Still, his goal was to earn enough that eventually his Mom wouldn't have to keep working so many odd jobs. He'd done well introducing himself to the right people and making connections to land himself better-paying gigs, cementing his reputation in the construction business to the point where he started to actually take on jobs that gave him a rare trip into the mythical utopias where the upper echelon tend to reside. It wasn't pretty work by any means. And sure, the future owners of the luxury homes he was helping to build could be real jerks at times, but it was best to just grin and bear it for the paycheck he'd get. But it wasn't enough. He wouldn't be happy until his Mom didn't have to work at all.

That was his motivation at least when he signed the contract that took him not up into the fancier part of Valport, but instead just underneath it. A new tram tunnel was being built and they needed a crew to help dig the hole. It was going to be a long project, at least a year to get all the way built by the most conservative estimates. But he knew he was up for the task. Every day he would come home absolutely caked with dirt and mud but eventually, it would be worth it. If he just kept at it. He would fight through the tiredness and the soreness, push that discomfort to the back of his mind so he could get the job done. There had been talk of a sizable bonus for those who had been around at the start of the project and he didn't want to miss out on that. He had plans for that money. That's what he'd told himself that morning the day of the cave-in.

He never really got definitive detail as to what had triggered it, but he remembered a loud crash, followed by terrifying silence followed by the rumbling of earth and rock coming collapsing down from overhead. He remembers running as hard as he could as the sound of crumbling walls and snapping support beams grew closer behind him. He remembers a jarring pain in his side as another worker accidentally barreled into him during their frantic fleeing, sending them both into a tumble on the ground. He remembered looking up just in time to see a bit of heavy machinery falling towards the man that had knocked him down and splattering his head like a watermelon. He remembered a blinding pain in his right leg and then everything going dark.

They say a person can survive 3 days without water. He considered himself very lucky that the man he had watched die had some water on him and that the falling machinery had landed in a way that kept him from being completely buried. It was probably the only reason he survived the 5 days it had taken for them to dig him out.

That was almost a year and a half ago at this point. All of the financial reserves Brody had worked so hard for were gone, mostly chipped away by medical bills to help him recover from the incident that nearly claimed his life. For months he felt useless, helpless, sitting around unable to walk on his leg as it healed and his Mom was forced to work multiple jobs. Just like she'd had to when he was a kid. When he was finally well enough to start walking around again, Lori made him swear to her he would never take such a dangerous job again. And he didn't. He still worked in construction but the fancy skyscrapers and underground digging projects were off the table. He'd sworn to his mother that he wouldn't get himself involved in anything dangerous like that again and he didn't plan on breaking that promise any time soon.

Family:
Lori Gardiner - Mother

Worst Fears:
Claustrophobia - Ever since the cave-in, Brody's become deathly afraid of tight and enclosed spaces. It makes him remember the death. The cold. The hunger. The feeling of slowly running out of air. It's a trauma that will likely haunt him for the rest of his days.
Losing his Mother - Lori Gardiner is the only family Brody has ever known. They've always been there for each other. Always been there to support each other through life in the Slums. He honestly doesn't know what he would do if he lost her.
Aversion to Fire - While he's always been aware of this, Brody's never truly known the reason for this general discomfort with open flame. With his job, he often has to psych himself up before using a tool like a welding torch and casually burning flames like in a fireplace or a campfire tend to make him uneasy for some unknown reason.