Josh Goodman
From Sotf Wiki
Name: Joshua Goodman
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12th
School: Southridge Highschool
Hobbies and Interests: He has a great interest in chemistry and biochemistry along with an even greater interest to keep his knowledge on all things scientific growing.
Appearance: The amount of pent up energy within this man seems to be limitless. He is lean and wiry, almost catlike in his movements, and has an inner rage that is waiting to violently release at any moment. Ever impatient, ever resentful, ever angry, he is in constant movement.
His hair is a dull black, yet still kept in excellent condition. Worn long, the hair is tied back to form a loose ponytail. Because his hair is so fine, however, at the slightest gust of wind, the loose hair flies in the direction of the wind. Only two bangs escaped the confines of the tail, and hang loosely in front of his eyes. Sharp, defined eyebrows frame a pair of eyes that are strange in both shape and coloring. Gray seems to be what his pupils reflect; yet at the same time, they almost seem yellow. A typical aristocratic nose, sharp and long, graces his long face. This makes a sharp contrast to his wide, grinning mouth. His skin has a strange coloring as well, the bastard mixture of many different races so that the best description would be grayish-white and is complimented with a none too conspicuous black goatee.
His arms and legs are both lean. There are defined lines of muscle, but they are not the muscles of one who lifts large weights or takes pleasure in strength. These muscles are those that naturally come with one who exercises daily with lots of running. And yet, behind these muscles, there is a surprising strength that betrays appearances.
Biography: Eighteen years ago a boy was born to Mary and Joseph Goodman, the fourth child to be born from the couple and the only son Joseph Goodman was ecstatic to have a son and promised to do everything he could to make the boy great. Though his ambition was admirable, they where improbable as Joseph was only one of the many Chemical engineers working at the plant in the small town that Joshua would grow up in. Joseph could only raise the boy the best that he could in hopes that he'd be great in his own right...helping an already great child was much easier than making a defunct child great.
Over time, the boy grew, as all children do. There was something that set Joshua apart from most other children, however; from all signs, he was a genius. The boy began reading at three years old and, by the time he reached five, Joseph was stealing rather complex science books for his son; not that his son was quite that far along yet, but the man, seeking to uphold the promise he made to himself on the day of his son’s birth, was nothing if not encouraging. And Joshua, a child with an insatiable curiosity, would delve into these books the moment they were handed to him. He spent every waking moment working his way through the complex texts that were intended for people over three times his age. At first, his understanding was minimal. But, in an alarmingly short period of time, things started making sense. By the time he was eight years old, science was Joshua’s bread and butter. It was his sacred manna. It was the breath of life from God himself.
And, shortly after turning eight, Joshua was introduced the—at the time—extremely crude and informal junior engineer academy at his father's work. Receiving instruction from the head engineer himself, as was normal at that point for the sons and daughters of the engineers, Joshua fell into the engineering arts quite naturally. What surprised most was his ability for integrating his knowledge of chemicals, anatomy, and psychology into his practice of the trade at such a young age. The boy was set aside to be trained made an intern and begin taking courses immediately, which he was quite satisfied with. His instruction turned from basic chemistry knowledge to the more advanced and technical field of using those skills to make products and most importantly -what the chemical factory was known for- products with military applications. Of course Joshua only received text book instruction on the making of these products and due to his age, he wouldn't be making any products for the company- as that would be breaking several under aged labor laws-, but the head of the company simply put this off as a "waiting game" until Josh turned eighteen. Joseph was so proud of his son.
Despite this proud ness, Joseph had been going through some of the worst years of his life. While his son had recently become a rising star in the field, his last few projects where failures, his intellectual status had hit a plateau, and he felt he was only days away from being laid off from the company. Over the following weeks his social life began to dwindle as well, while his daughters focused upon their highschool lives and Joshua focused upon his studies (the boy was still in elementary school) and Mary focused upon the housewives Joseph found himself in the alleyways focusing on a life filled with drugs, sex, and alcohol. Though not even these could sate his feelings of inferiority.
He could suffer no more.
On Joshua’s tenth birthday, Joseph rose before anybody else in the family. He gave Mary, still as beautiful as the day he met her, a last kiss as a parting, she remaining quite asleep through it after a night of passion unparalleled for a number of years. He snuck to each of his children’s rooms, giving them each a special present. Joshua’s was several new science texts and his father‘s wedding band. Joseph left a note on the inside of the “door” to their home and left without looking back once. This was it. The man had his pride and he would not suffer the disgrace of living as a meaningless drone at his company. All or nothing. His movements were purposeful, heading constantly towards his target: The factory. His aim: Destroy it and everyone else in it.
Heading towards his office, placing the makeshift bomb in his desk, he smiled for a moment before detonating it. His plan had failed though -as he was the only causality along with their being no injuries- and for everyone else looked like a suicide. Nobody was sure why Joseph would do such a thing, but they simply shook their head as their eyes turned to his son. The man’s funeral was a quiet affair, his best friend one Peter Wright giving the eulogy and comforting the now crying widower...Joshua’s scowl growing bigger as he became intent on fulfilling his father’s dream.
The Diary of Joshua Goodman, 3 months before his 13th Birthday
So, I guess I get to continue getting dealt sunshine and candy. I should have suspected something sooner. I really should have. My mother is getting remarried. The date? The day before my birthday. The groom?
My father’s blood brother Peter Wright.
Let me explain everything. After my father died, my mother was having problems providing food and whatnot for all of us kids. Peter’s intentions—at first—seemed harmless enough, at first just dropping off food and the occasional bit of clothing or random gift for the family. In time, I would often return from my work at school only to find Peter and my mother chatting in family room. Before long, his visits became more and more frequent. Longer. More involved with other members of my family.
And, at dinner, the two announced this grand betrayal of theirs. Actually, from what I can gather, they were only announcing it to me. It seems my sisters already tossed their lot in with this Judas a few weeks ago. I immediately got up from the table and exited the house to vomit. It felt like everything I had eaten since the day my Father had died came out. My mother came out to check on me and, before I could summon the composure to speak, he was there, right behind her. He called me son. I felt like ripping every bone from his body slowly, dipping him into a pit of acid, and forcing my mother to watch. But no. I didn’t do that. I stood and went straight to my room, pushing past the two and ignoring the inquiries from my sisters. I don’t know if I can handle this. How can they do this? How can they betray my Father like this?
I just don’t understand.
The Journal of Joshua Goodman, his 13th birthday
Happy birthday to me. It is just barely my birthday, a few minutes past midnight. There is nobody in the house other than the newlyweds and myself. I can’t fucking stand this. As I am writing this, my mother and my Father’s best friend are fucking in my Father’s bed. In my Father’s house. That asshole is invading what will always belong to and only to my Father. He is taking the last thing he ever gave to my mother from her: the memory of his love.
GODDAMMIT! All this, and she moans like a whore! Of course, they don’t know I am here. According to plans, all of us kids were supposed to be away for the next few days. I had a bad day. A fucking horrible day. I saw Peter take everything from his sworn brother by blood-rite. His lust at the entire ceremony was disgusting, the side comments and leers at my mother making me physically ill. I am so goddamn tired of this. I want to scream at them that I can hear them, that these walls are paper-thin and I can hear every…
I can’t believe it. I can’t fucking believe it. The filth coming out of their mouths, being shouted and screamed amid the obscene grunts, it’s just unbelievable. I will not write it down. How dare my mother degrade herself like this? WHORE. WHORE.
I believe it is time I leave this place. I can’t imagine this every day. I can’t imagine having to smell the adultery on my mother, my Father’s true love, betraying him. I must pack. I will be gone tomorrow.
After I confront them.
The years went by quickly, far too quickly for Joshua’s liking as he continued to be a growing star in the company, the company that not only insured his own intellectual development, but sustained his family -as Peter also worked there-, the confrontation? His mother siding with Peter was the straw that broke the camel’s back, but said broken back also provided for the whole construction of the plan. On his father’s funeral he had sworn to fulfill his father’s dream, not even Joshua in all of his genius could foresee him fulfilling it in such a monumental way. The destruction of the entire company, crippling his mother financially and emotionally -penance for the betrayal given to his father- and most importantly, killing Peter. Though the plan didn’t happen overnight, no it required three years of in-depth planning and covert and often dangerous methods...the first step was gaining access to the company.
That in and of itself was rather simple, he had been involved in it for years and long had been established as someone who would be a head engineer at the company one day, it took little convincing for him to be given an all access pass and soon he took in the habit of taking notes in every department, gaining the companies blueprints under the grounds that he was going to use it for an architectural class and also noted several features that would lead him to his chosen method of poisoning. The company building was built roughly forty years ago and had no windows in it along with several heavy doors, while this was routinely joked about for the employees it became clear to Joshua that the company building was built as a bomb shelter in the 1960’s and was designed to not allow any gases in or out.
The next step was organizing something to let the employees out for a good amount of time. His influence rising in the company, he organized a mandatory trip that would last for two days -a reward for a growing amount of sales- and after everyone left for the trip he simply went in with only a pair of gloves and loosened one of the bigger gas containers...a case of Carbon Monoxide allowing it too leak into the air and locked up the company door. He was chosen specifically for his trust worthiness to lock up and he went a step further by turning off the security camera’s so his action wasn’t even monitored, after that he went onto the trip and after two days of having fun with the members of the company everyone returned to work, because they went straight from the trip to work everyone arrived at the same time.
Arrival was set on a Monday, so Joshua understandably had school and after shaking hands with the owner he simply went off, smiling at the ingeniousness of his plan.
Over the course of the weekend Carbon Monoxide had been leaking into the air for two days straight, with the assistance of the air vents it was well distributed along with their being an erroneous amount of it spread (1.28% of the air was Carbon Monoxide) the poisoning reacted quickly and everyone in the company was rendered unconscious after two or three breaths...death occurred in roughly three minutes. The news that night reported the tragedy, over one thousand dead, no survivors. The loosening of the Carbon Monoxide container (which was filled with only the finger prints of the dead) was deemed an accident and due to his low standing -he was only a intern after all- but high regard in the company, foul play (much less Joshua‘s involvement in it) was never even suspected.
The Diary of Joshua Goodman, his 18th birthday
I should get an Oscar for my performance, but as my family sleeps I can finally put the fake tears to an end. With Peter’s funeral done I am the leader of the family and I have arranged for us to go too Highland Beach to live with my father’s family, Mary stopped her tears for a moment to commend Peter and how he raised me.
I nearly slapped her in the face. But, now that this ordeal is done I can only smile. Most people after being responsible for the deaths of one thousand people would go on this whole thought process of how their hands are now stained with blood. That is for the most part unnecessary. None of my victims bled.
Advantages: Extremely well versed in biology, psychology, and most importantly chemistry. He is virtually a MacGyver when it comes to the construction of chemicals and poisons out of nothing, along with the fact that human life holds very little value in his eyes.
Disadvantages: He’s not as physically powerful as some of his competition and also is known to only consider the good in his plan and not the flaws. He also is known for saying and doing things solely to see the consequences of his actions...not a very smart move when dealing with some people.
Designated Number:Male Student no. 18
The above biography is as written by Bukowski. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.
==
Designated Weapon: Taurus Millenium
Conclusions: This kid's got potential, I mean, how can you say someone who got away with wiping out an entire factory DOESN'T have potential in SOTF? Kill a thousand or so adults, wiping out a class of high school kids should be cake by comparison, right? Despite the fact that he's not as strong as, say, B01, that Taurus of his will be a great equalizer. I've got faith in this one, the way I see it, the only way he won't carry this competition is if he mouths off to the wrong person... one a lot bigger or a lot quicker on the trigger.
Contents |
Game Evaluations
Kills: None
Killed by: Blood Boy
Collected Weapons: Taurus Millenium (issued weapon, to Blood Boy)
Allies: None
Enemies: Blood Boy
Mid-Game Evaluation: Josh's journey began near the barracks, where he decided to flip a coin to decide his fate. The coin flip was confirmation that Josh Goodman would play Danya's game. His first victim? Blood Boy. At least, that's how it was supposed to be. As soon as he spotted Blood Boy, Josh gave chase. However, Josh hadn't counted on the other contestant having already laid traps along the barracks. Josh was nearly killed in his pursuit of Blood Boy when he triggered an explosive trap, barely managing to survive the onslaught of the jury-rigged device. The trap gave Blood Boy enough of a distraction to form another trap inside the barrack he had fled into. Josh Goodman never saw it coming as he burst into the barrack and stepped directly into the pool of blood that Blood Boy had diverted the electrical cords into. Josh was electrocuted.
Post-Game Evaluation: What could have been a big game motivator, offed because he wasn't being observant. How tragic.
Memorable Quotes: “I would say resistance is futile, but that might be a bit too mad scientist for my taste.”
Other/Trivia
While chasing Blood Boy, Josh stepped on and detonated a land mine. This was the first time one of the many booby traps in the jungle was featured.
Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Josh, in chronological order.
Pre-Game:
V3
Your Thoughts
Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Joshua Goodman. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!
