Hmm, I think the version of MS Paint which comes with Windows 7 has a cropping tool in it these days? Other options are to get something like Gimp, or Paint.net, which are free and legal image manipulation software you can download that have features comparable to something like photoshop. Well worth a look and there are plenty of tutorials around dA for using them.

Well as I said, *SteinWill is the one to talk to about story and character ideas, you can tell him I told you to come talk to him.

Sure, what's Remi's story? You've gone and asked now, so you're gonna get a textwall from me to read through!

I don't think I've written Murk's all down yet anywhere, but I have the gist of it in my head. He was the son of a poor peasant farmer couple who worked on the estate of one of the fascist regime officials. Growing up on a farm, he learned to hunt with a rifle at a very young age and had very little formal education. After he moved away from his parents he found that finding work as a primal (the reptilian characters in the setting who are an underclass) with no schooling difficult and drifted between jobs, barely earning enough to feed himself. When demonstrations broke out protesting against government discrimination, being the energetic and passionate sort, he was at the front of the picket lines when violence broke out between rioters and police.

As the police fired at the protesters, Murk ran for his life. However a block or two away from the site of the demonstrations, he came across two riot police beating a young female protester on the ground with batons. Not thinking of the consequences, Murk charged them, armed with a length of lead pipe and his razor sharp foot claws, killing both the officers right in front of a security camera. His mask ripped off his face in the fight, he had been identified as a cop-killer and forced to go into hiding. Through the leaders of the protests, he was contacted by a representative of an extremist resistance movement formed entirely of primals, dedicated to destroying the government and establishing dominance. With nowhere else to go and consumed with hatred for the government, he enlisted, using his expert marksmanship to rack up many kills in hit and run attacks using an old bolt action hunting rifle.

However, as time went on, he became disillusioned with the group. He wanted fairness and equality and the chance for someone like him to be given a decent shot at life, where the resistance leaders thirsted only for blood, of the government and the non-primal population in general, whether they supported the regime or not. Knowing he would be killed if he revealed his discontent, he simply packed his things and disappeared in the middle of the night. He walked for days through the jungle, living off the land until by chance he happened upon the border, where a group of PMC's were being paid to guard a private plantation. While the PMC's stood for nothing, they offered a handsome pay-check for Murk's skillset. Murk immediately joined their ranks, spending several years fighting in various private engagements along the border and in hotspots in the neighbouring countries.

Saving his pay, Murk purchased his pride and joy, a Barrett M82 50BMG anti-materiel rifle. However, as the conflict in his home country worsened and more news of further government brutality trickled through to him, he felt he needed to try and do some good in the world and rejoin his countrymen. He ended his contract with the mercenary corporation on good terms and returned to join a small guerilla force which had recently formed in the jungle wilderness of the back-country. These rebels fought for an end to the tyranny, not to seize power and he was told on no uncertain terms that innocents were not to be harmed. This is the group he fights with in the present, supporting their operations with precision long range sniper fire.


That's what I have on his backstory at the moment. I'm working on a reference sheet although that'll probably take me quite a long time to complete.

You're from New Zealand? Where abouts? I'm currently in Christchurch studying at Canterbury uni.