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Halloran "Hal" McGeever, news-photographer, skulking around the streets of Rouge City, looking for a photo-op
or a "quickie", whichever comes first.
NAME: Halloran McGeever, known as "Hal"
TEMPLATE: the antithesis of the heroic reporter; he's a physical expression of Frank's shadow side. The short, ugly,
rat-faced guy. Works as Frank's photographer sidekick.
SPECIES: Orga (GPS chip in left shoulder)
AGE: about 35
GENDER: Male (pansexual tendencies. We won't go any further on that one!)
HEIGHT: 5" even
WEIGHT: 90 lbs. when he's hungry
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Short, scrawny, thinning dark brown hair which he hides under a squashed-down Homburg which rarely
leaves his head. Face too thin, murky grey-green eyes. Bad teeth (rotted, filled, snapped off). A bit stoop-shouldered. Carries
around a small suitcase containing a digital photo lab.
BACKGROUND: Born to a syphilitic whore who abandoned him in a trash can, taken in by a concerned couple who later had
to give him up to the State (Minnesota); a nosy neighbor tipped them off for already having one too many kids, and little
Hal only added to the charges. After that he was bounced from one foster home to another; very few couples wanted to keep
him since he was a high-maintenance kid (health problems, psychological problems--he seems to have a nasty case of ODD, Oppositional
Defiance Disorder). Spent a wonderful year of his adolesence in a cryo-storage crypt as part of the human trials for a new
cure for congenital syphillis. Finally Anselm McGeever, the wealthy part-owner of a pharmaceutical corp., adopted him, but
later disowned Hal when he proved to be unmanageable. Met Frank in college and the two formed a shaky off and on partnership/friendship.
Convicted of being involved in a kind of publicity stunt in which he tricked a malfunctioning Mecha of the same line as Joe
into killing about ten male lover-Mechas, and sentenced to three years in prison, hence the GPS chip in his shoulder.
PERSONALITY: Literally and figuratively has a chip on his shoulder. Thinks he's charming when he's really very repulsive.
Crafty as a fox and as randy as a hyena on Viagra. Won't do anything you ask him to do unless he knows there's something in
it for him (like free eats).
OBJECTIVES: Besides trying to have sex with someone or something in every town in the U.S. and being a general nuisance/gadfly,
there's not much. He works only to support his addiction (sex with Mechas; he largely gave up on Orgas, but when he really
feels like living dangerously...).
A QUOTE (or two): "Why don't you just make like a tree and get out of here?!" Biff in "Back to the Future"
"I shoot the dead. Dead bodies, that is. I mean, *I* don't kill 'em." Harlen Maguire, "Road to Perdition"
SPECIAL QUIRKS, ETC: He may be shabby, disgusting, and over-sexed, but the guy is an ARTIST with a camera (Subject matter
notwithstanding). Can also manuever the criminal underworld without getting killed. Also has the odd habit of barely eating
much if he has to pay for it, but if someone else is paying, he makes up for it. This has led him to being banned from a few
all-you-can-eat buffets in Haddonfield and Rouge City. The big question is: where does it go since he's so scrawny? He also
is a bit of a computer hacker, and is quite adept at fixing Mechas: he's busted enough of 'em in his time.
A very time-worn photo of Hal, age 1, and Kenyon Axelrod, the trash-picking antiques
dealer who found him
The future Unheroic Photographer, age three, with Mary Axelrod, the woman
who took him in, shortly before Child Services confiscated him.
The Minnesota State Children's Home--The kid in the middle of thge back row with
the white arrow sticking into his head is Hal, age 9, hairline already receeding on the left side. The girl with the
yellow circle shading her face on the extreme right is his then sweetheart, Laetitia, age 11.
Part-owner of Poulenc-McGeever Pharmaceuticals, Anselm McGeever simply did
NOT know what he was getting himself into when he adopted Halloran Roe, a former human guinea pig rented out to his company.
Elana Quin-McGeever, publicity shot of Hal's adoptive, actress mother, in a
Victorian period film. According to Hal, she really was as stiff as she looks here.
OLD Self portrait Hal took this picture at the first of Frank's infamous "St.
Valentine's Day Massacre" parties, back in college
Hal at work, printing out a high volume of pictures, using the trunk of Frank's car as a digital darkroom.
With Marilyn Bowman-Indras, his mistress. (Yes, she really
is that short) If Hal had ever wanted to settle down with just one woman (and she almost popped the question to him), she
would have been the one, till he found out she was interested in him as a curiosity and a sperm donor.
Following his (Hal's) release from prison, Frank helped Hal find a job and even offered him a room
in his apartment...which Hal promptly turned into a hacker's snarl of technology!
Hal in the middle of a dispute with Mervin Penzing, one of the editors at the Haddonfield
"Dispatch". He didn't care for one of Hal's photos, which often border on the lurid.
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Hal has had his moments of glory: in 2131, he won the Pulitizer Prize for photojournalism for his photographs
of the 2130 uprising in Beijing, when pro- and anti-Mecha demonstrations erupted into street-fighting between civilians. Above
are two of the more haunting images.
Murder in Rouge City: this more typical of Hal's brand of photography
Hal's persoanl appearance has been described as "refined in a grungy kind of way", but this is the way Frank
and Cecie are most accustomed to seeing him: shirtless, shoeless, and with plenty of attitude.
Another would-be spouse: John Cameraeon Douglass, known
as "The Painter" or "Boise", depending on Hal's mood. Cam dared to pop the question to Hal, who turned him down cold. "One
of the reasons being, he used to eat my M&M's!"
Hal is a romantic in his own odd way. He strongly considered buying "Fancy", the auburn haired lover Mecha
barely seen in this photo...only to lose her to ARM violence.
Dorian, another ill-fated Mecha, every bit as angsty as
he looks here. This picture was taken just before he was captured by a Flesh Fair.
Quite a few lover-Mechas in Rouge City count Hal as a regular, but the one most often seen slipping into
Hal's room late at night is Julien, seen here.
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