Ping-Pong

Context

This character is an original creation. We often call these “homemades” or “homebrewed” – think home cooking or craft beer.

Many of these characters were created to take part in tabletop role-playing game sessions. Others were invented as a creative writing exercise, often as part of a community event.

This specific character is a member of the Golden Age Columbus Crusaders. I’ve dumped half my players into 1947 to meet up with the locals, and out of pure egotism and hubris thought you might like to see some of them.

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Overview

“Tommy” was ten years old in 1943 when an attack on a nearby unit of American soldiers by Japanese forces killed his family. Enraged, Tommy threw himself at the Japanese soldiers, leaping over a hundred feet to throw himself at them.

His valiant efforts at revenge were noticed by Corporal Stanton Jeffries. Before the war jeffries had been the Columbus, Ohio hero known as The Good Sport. After the war was over, Jeffries returned to the village and took the orphaned boy back to America with him and adopted him as his own son.

Over the next few years Tommy (the name Stanton gave the boy – he never bothered to find the boy’s real name) trained with his adopted father. He prepared for his role as the kid sidekick, Ping-Pong.

A very 1940s name, that

At first, Ping-Pong suffered from some public mistrust due to his Asian appearance. But over time they grew to accept him for the hero he was. In typical Golden Age  fashion, even though Tommy was just about the only Asian child in Columbus public schools and had been adopted by the athletic Stanton Jeffries, the connection between him and Ping-Pong was never made.

Ping-Pong served alongside the Good Sport in the Columbus Crusaders for many years.

After the Good Sport’s retirement in 1965, Tommy changed his name to “Pinball”. He sought to become a legitimate hero in his own right. From 1965 on he was the only active hero in Columbus. Pinball moved in and out of the news, only occasionally making appearances to stop minor crimes.

Tommy Stanton was found dead of a heroin overdose in 1973, and thus ended the career of Ping-Pong, kid sidekick.

Description

Tommy Stanton is a slender Filipino youth, 15 years old in 1947. He has short dark hair (which he grew much longer in the 1960s) and a charming smile.

Ping-Pong dressed in the seemingly obligatory kid sidekick outfit : a colorful top (in this case silver and red) with a high collar, red leggings or, in summer, briefs, and a domino mask. His costume as Pinball was an entirely silver bodysuit with a mask that covered all but his lower face.

By kristoff.