HARMON BENJAMIN

LOSER

Arlon Benjamin's other child, and the black sheep of the Benjamin family. If Bonita Benjamin has had it easy her entire life, then Harmon had to work for what little his father has chosen to give him. Sometimes, he tells himself the old man's just trying to show him what real life's about - remind him how he rough had it on his way to the top - and trying to instil some the same values in his son that he picked up along that same hard road. 

Other times, he thinks the old man's a mean-spirited cocksucker who just hates his guts and enjoys seeing him fail.

Sure, he's made mistakes - getting kicked out of college, partying a little too hard for a little too long, rehab check-ins - but that stuff's all in the past. And can anyone blame him for some of it? Look at the way the old man treats him in comparison to Little Sis. 

While Little Sis was travelling round Europe, he was getting his hands dirty in the family business, hauling garbage and working in the recycling plants. While Princess Bonita was hanging out at those $10000-a-plate charity fundraisers their father organised, he was down in the Projects, working in a needle exchange clinic that those fundraisers helped pay for.

Little Sis gets the highlife part of the Benjamin family business. All he got was the garbage it's built on. But he still to prove to the old man that he's another one of his pet charity projects. The old man gave him a shot, but - as usual - it came with strings attached. 

So he's been exiled to the Waterfront, away from his familiar turf in Havalynd, and the temptations of his old party-hard crowd there. But that's okay. Midtown's cool. Lots of opportunities there for a guy who knows where to go looking for them.

Little Sis is above him in the chain of command, of course, and reports directly to the old man, while he has to go through Grayson Fell. But that's okay. Harmon's used to being treated like this by the old man. Fell's a hired suit, but he's as predictable as everyone else that lines up to kiss the ass of Big Money. 

A recruitment drive out into the Waterfront, that was Harmon's brief. G-Kings are a Havalynd operation, so that means having to fight to establish a foothold elsewhere. Little Sis, all she has to do is flash her ass and the new recruits from Gresty come running. She's got it easy, as usual. 

Harmon's got money, and money always helps, but he's got something else that - for once - Little Sis doesn't. Something he picked up hauling garbage, and working in the recycle plants and the needle clinics, or sitting waiting in the drunk tank for the old man to finally send someone down to bail him out. He's got street smarts, and he's going to need 'em, operating lone wolf down at the Waterfront. 

Everyone expects him to fail, but he's going to prove them all wrong, and then the old man's going to have to finally give him the respect he's been looking for all his life.