⚙️Don⚙️

PERSONALITY CORE

"I see a ship in the harbor. I can and shall obey. But if it wasn't for your misfortune, I'd be a heavenly person today."

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Don's always been the sort of cog to fall in line, usually taking a backseat to a louder voice with more convictions than him. Still, he has a quiet and unyielding loyalty and diligence like no other, fighting for lost causes and doing what he can to support and uplift underdogs wherever possible. He understands that his size and high status as a BigWig (the highest social class of Lawbots) grants him a bit of privilege and leeway that other cogs don't get, and feels that it's his duty as someone with status to treat others as fairly as possible.

He left his job as a lawyer only after a lot of preparation and support from Ron, who insisted that he didn't need to be a lawyer to help those that can't help themselves. Sometimes just being an inspiration is enough, and playing guitar on stage or on the street doesn't come with outlandish legal fees that only the elite could ever afford. After a lot of thought, Don took the plunge and joined his brother-in-serial-number as a musical duo, and after swapping his skirt legs and factory pronouns for ones he liked better, he committed himself to Ron, to music, and to other "outcast" cogs.

OVERLOADED PROCESSORS...

Outside of his stage presence and work, Don is incredibly quiet. While he enjoys a good romp or jam session, he struggles with spontaneous antics or fruitless conversation. He's the sort of individual that needs to gather a lot of data and energy befoer saying what's on his mind, and that reflects in his interactions with his brother--Ron does all the talking, Don does all the logistical work in the background.

He can become stressed and his processors can get overstimulated by too much chaos without preparation, and as such, he often finds himself less tolerant of malfunctioning cogs with less palatable "quirks." This doesn't mean he would think less of them, just that he doesn't have the energy to deal with them like Ron does. As such, Don's got a reputation for being more stoic and cold than his brother, but he's nonetheless just as compassionate.

PERSONAL FILE

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• Don's musical inspirations include: 311, Depeche Mode, Mike + The Mechanics, Meat Loaf, and the Streets of Fire soundtrack.
• His date of manufacture is 4/25, aka National Hairstylist Appreciation Day.
• He's inspired by greasers of course, but also the repopularization of greaser imagery thanks to retro hits like Grease and Back to The Future.

BACKLOG

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Background

Don was on COGS INC. CEO Fat Cat's personal team of highly paid lawyers, both defending Fat Cat from controversies and representing recalled, defective, or otherwise malfunctioning cogs in court. Initially doing so because it'a all he was designed to do, he eventually grew to genuinely care about representing cogs that were seen as lost causes. His job became exhausting, as he was exposed to the constant unfair treatment these second-class robots would receive in all aspects of their lives. It wasn't until he caught wind of the controversial antics of his brother-in-serial-number, Ron, that he began to contemplate doing something less draining with his life. He wanted out of the courtroom and onto the streets where he could make a real, tangible, immediate difference.

Leaving his post behind and completely changing his look, he joined Ron as a musical duo. Playing guitar to accompany Ron's piano, the two started playing music in dive bars and giving the profits to any downtrodden cogs they came across. Slowly amassing a following of robots rallied by their kindness and a want for something better, Ron and Don were eventually labeled as troublemakers and forced to go underground.

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PART ONE: THE FOWL PLOT

Doing their damndest to make a change, Don and his brother hit a wall when they are faced with opposition on all sides--Toons could care less about Cogs at all, and Cogs themselves just want them to shut up, sit down, and get back to work. It isn't until a strange little Goose with a lisp and a PhD in just about everything takes interest in their cause that things start to change for the better. They get results! They strike fear into the hearts of Toons everywhere! They start having strange lapses in memory and see themselves on the news doing very mean things to toons that they don't really remember doing! What's going on?! Revealing himself to be an Interdimensional Visitor from a world where Cogs are hellbent on turning the world into a corporate wasteland, Doctor Gus the Most Villainous of Geese begins a campaign of mind control and sabotage, using the "gifts" and "repairs" he provided for his former allies and turning them into dangerous weapons. Thankfully, one other dimensional visitor is able to stop Gus and send him back from where he came from, but not everyone escapes unscathed. Ron and Don are labled as public enemies # 1 and 2, and are arrested for their crimes!

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INTERMISSION: THE AGE OF SIMULATION

Ron takes the fall for all the antics caused by Gus, allowing Don to walk free unscathed. Horrified by this turn of events, he pleads for Pan Dulce to use her dimensional travel abiltiies to get Ron out of there! Agreeing but unsure of where he'll end up, the two work together to use Gus's leftover tech and send Ron away for the time being--hoping to find a way to prove his innocence in the meantime.

This endeavor is cut short, as Don is suddenly forced to take up a leadership role and care for Cogs that are defective in every sense of the word. One of which, a stylist named Hugh, becomes fixated with the newfangled tech of ~Virtual Reality~! So much so, that he begins recommending it as an escape from their present, miserable reality. Beginning a campaign of simulation vs sanity, Don realizes the dangers of this new tech once a dangerous virus begins infecting and digitizing anything it can get its hands on, even Toons!

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PART TWO: RETURN OF THE SCAMBOTS

The D1G1T1ZER virus defeated and Ron back home from his dimensional trip, Don's ready for his own mini vacation! Home again and all caught up on wacky events, Ron hopes that he and his friends can finally catch a break. Unfortunately, this isn't the case, as a new threat soon rears its ugly head. A former ally for their cause, known as The Loophole Lawyer, "rediscovered" the schematics for a long-lost cog type that was discontinued for being dangrous and prone to crime, the Scambots. Furthermore, The Loophole Lawyer revives another "ancient" concept--The Cog Bosses, which had been decommissioned for as long as anyone can remember.

Toons and Cogs alike have to once again work together to get rid of the criminals invading their town as well as the renegade Cog Bosses that retained their programming from the "Old Days", firing up the factories as they had done ages ago and mass-producing simple, mindless Cogs to take over everything in sight. Don has to put his lawyering skills to the test in order to best The Loophole Lawyer himself, the self-proclaimed man who can talk himself out of any situation!

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INTERMISSION: SISTER CITY SILLINESS

Though eventually vanquished, the antics of the Scambots create a permanent, open rift between their world (nicknamed "RetroToon City") and Toontown. As such, strange visitors become more frequent and RetroToon City begins to deal with more goofier, wackier individuals than they can handle. Thankfully, though, it seemed that none of the "evil" cogs from that world could make it through the rift, and aside from a few wayward pies, the two worlds could coexist well enough that RetroToon City was added to the Shtickerbook map. How official! As an added bonus, now that Toons have gotten a taste of working with Cogs to keep their world in tact, relations have greatly improved, and Ron is redeemed in the public eye.

Don accepts a position as the head of Cog-Toon relations, and begins working on a plan to better the overall structure of Cog Nation to decrease pollution, lower the cost of living, and provide support for Cogs that are unable to work due to malfunctions or age. Thanks to one overeager Ambulance Chaser by the name of Stanley, Don helps rebuild the monorail and peoplemover transit systems that had been long defunct due to a lack of upkeep and funding.

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PART THREE: A RECIPE FOR DISASTER

Nothing lasts forever, and unfortunately, one final threat to Toonkind appears due to the instability of the rift. A defective Cog known only as The Bookkeeper slips through the cracks between the two worlds, and brings with her an ancient and dangerous chemical weapon--a vile concoction of turpentine, acetone, and benzine, which could melt any toon in seconds and strip the paint off of any cog it touches.

Revealed to be the creation of a shapeshifting blob of a toon named Von Rotten with crazy eyes and a familiar lisp, the two are hellbent on using RetroToon City as a testing ground for their weapon. Not wanting his plans for Cog Nation to be completely ruined by a renegade pair of evildoers, Don has to work with his protege Stanley and Ron's interdimensional backup to escort everyone out of harms way.

COWORKERS

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