Curtis Blackburn

Curtis Blackburn
kana	カーティス・ブラックバーン
romaji	Kaatisu Burakkuban
Also known as	Whitehair
Age	59 years old (deceased)
Nationality	English-American
Occupation	Assassin, former member of Seattle Self-Defense Department, organ trafficker
Weapon	Dual pistols
Battle Theme	"Hageshi" "Boss Curtis" (Remastered Soundtrack)
First appearance	killer7 (2005)
Voiced by	Alastair Duncan

Curtis Blackburn (カーティス・ブラックバーン, Kaatisu Burakuban) is a character in the video game killer7. Infamous in the circles of organ trafficking, he serves as the central antagonist in the "Encounter" chapter of the game.

Story

Born in Seattle, Curtis Blackburn is of English ancestry. At the time Blackburn is tailed by the Smith Syndicate in 2011, he is allegedly 59 years old according to Hand in killer7. This is however contradicted by the same document, which claims elsewhere that he was in his mid-teen years by 1959, 52 years before 2011. During his late teens, Blackburn became notorious among Seattle's criminal underworld for his government-contracted jobs, and in 1973, following Harman Smith's defeat against Kun Lan in a game of chess, he and Dan Smith established and reinforced control in Seattle as part of Harman's forfeit. Kun Lan's prize for winning was to seize control of the United States' western seaboard, implying that Blackburn may have acted as his representative in the Seattle area. At the same time, Christopher Mills became an informant for Blackburn.

Blackburn goes on to work alongside Dan as a member of the Seattle Self-Defense Department, where he instructs Dan in the field of assassination. Dan is later made into a fall guy by Pedro Montana, who gives Blackburn the impression Dan has betrayed him, and in 1975 Blackburn murders Dan during an encounter on a basketball court. For 15 years, Blackburn works a series of sanctioned government jobs, and in 1987 he and Montana enter the organ trafficking trade, with Blackburn and Montana handling girls and boys, respectively. Montana ultimately betrays Blackburn, seizing a portion of Blackburn's money and leaving the trade behind for a life with his family. While Blackburn does not immediately locate Montana, he eventually takes revenge by murdering Montana's wife, son and daughter, handing Montana his daughter's decapitated head on a squash court before shooting him several times in the back of the head.

Blackburn has spared at least one girl initially seized for organ trafficking operations, AYAME Blackburn, taken from the Immigration and Naturalization Service. As with Dan, Blackburn trains AYAME to kill, and although she initially overcomes the Smith Syndicate during a confrontation at ISZK Land, she is killed in her second confrontation at the Blackburn Residence.

Dan Smith, having been resurrected and assimilated into Harman Smith by this time, faces off against Blackburn in a laboratory beneath the Blackburn Residence, where Blackburn claims to practice taxidermy on the bodies of organ-harvested victims for hobby. Dan challenges Blackburn to a gun draw, and in the end Blackburn is slain and his body is emptied and stuffed by a machine formerly used on his victims. Organ trafficking, and by proxy the production of man-made Heaven Smiles, presumably takes a blow with the deaths of Blackburn and Montana.

Blackburn reappears to the Smith Syndicate as a Remnant Psyche in the Dominican Republic, where he implies he had actually longed for death. He cautions the Smiths on their upcoming battle against The Handsome Men, before ominously decreeing he will see the Smiths again in Hell.

Appearance and personality

Dan Smith and Curtis Blackburn face off against each other in the depths of the Blackburn Residence.

Blackburn is dressed at all times in a white-and-black bodysuit, split to the waist, with cuffs and leggings that end in a striped pattern. He also wears bluish-black gloves and sports a moustache and goatee. Indicative of his advanced age, Blackburn's hair has turned completely white, earning him the nickname 'Whitehair.'

Blackburn is both dangerous and extremely vengeful, having killed at least two people believed to have betrayed him (although one of these targets, Dan Smith, had been framed). When scouting for youth he is interested in trafficking, Blackburn is also known to kill any bystanders in the area of his target. Travis Bell implies that Blackburn is not only interested in young girls for business purposes, but is also sexually attracted to them, as Bell claims Blackburn lives alone and keeps female orphans for company. Blackburn commits numerous acts of violence towards women, such as the rape of Pamela Montana and the decapitation of her daughter Mary, the shooting of a prostitute and the taxidermy Blackburn performs on the bodies of his orphans. Iwazaru describes Blackburn as neurotic, as evidenced by the wide-scale security system fitted throughout his home. Heaven Smiles run rampant around the property as well, and may serve as an added security measure.

When he reappears as a Remnant Psyche, Blackburn implies he had grown nervous of having his crimes discovered, and had spent years secretly hoping to die, possibly out of guilt for his actions. His feeble assertion that he only wanted to "shed light on my life," and his last words, "Life... Wonderful indeed," give the impression that Blackburn was unsuccessful at finding meaning in his life, desperately trying to fill the void with acts of destructive violence. Dan and Bell summarize Blackburn as a "sick old man" and a "pitiful pervert," while Harman Smith calls him nothing more than a "punk with a gun."

Powers and abilities

According to Travis, Blackburn is a consummate killer, and was the teacher who taught Dan Smith the "ABCs of murder". As such, any of his excursions saw that he rid of all potential witnesses, regardless of demographic and individual, and with a calculated, cold, and disturbingly efficient manner. He is an extremely skilled gunman and wields a pair of pistols at all times, both of which he's able to fire accurately even though neither has mounted sights. He is highly unique in that he appears to be the only person outside the Smith Syndicate capable of killing Heaven Smiles, although this may be due to his knowledge of them thanks to his involvement in their production. Blackburn also has the ability to bend physics, appearing to fly down the corridors of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and levitating upward from a lying down position when confronted by Dan in his basement.

Development

Blackburn is one of the characters seen in the PROTOTYPE OF killer7 comic included in Hand in killer7. The comic is intended to show the early concepts behind killer7, and has little bearing to the final product. Here, Blackburn is seen sitting before a stained-glass window in the "Temple of Horizon", where he is confronted by Dan. Curtis Blackburn convinces Dan to kill him as he stands on the table , unarmed. However, as Dan draws his gun, Curtis surprisingly draws his own guns in the blink of an eye (In the picture, portrayed as Curtis having 4 arms which is actually alluding to him being so quick not even Dan could see it coming) and guns Dan down to his death. After this, he escapes to the rooftop of the "Temple of Horizon" building where he tries to escape in an ISZK branded helicopter. Before this, however, Samantha Sitbon and Garcian Smith awaken Harman and Garcian finds Dan's corpse, bringing it with him, Samantha and Harman to the rooftop, after which Harman remarks that Curtis has "Fallen for his bait" and proceeds to equip his rifle and shoots the helicopter as it takes off, causing the helicopter to explode. Down falls Curtis with his lower half missing, his intestines trailing behind him and mortally wounded. Dan is then seen standing nearby, after having been revived by Garcian. He shoots off Curtis's head and stomps on it, ending the scene with "Come here, you bastard!". Interestingly, Blackburn's bodysuit is entirely black in this early build. His dialogue implies that he has a connection with Kun Lan, and it is even suggested that he is somehow linked with the enigmatic Sundance Shot, (This might allude that EuroMASPRO from Flower, Sun and rain is engineering Heaven Smiles, and Sundance Shot is using Curtis's organ trade for this) who also appears in the comic and an early trailer, but not the final game.

Quotes

• "Do I look like a guy who wants to play Doubles?"
• "What was that? Do I sense regret? Just because you apologise, you think you'll be forgiven, just like that?"
• "Paul... He's such a sissy. He didn't even try to save his mother. What are you teaching your kids?"
• "Ask yourself, Pedro. How many children have you killed?"
• "Danny Boy. Look at you! You've changed considerably. Into a badass, if I may."
• "Oh my pupil. So tenacious of life. Guess I'll have to kill you again."
• "I got rid of those Smiles. There's no one to disturb our game. It's just you... and me."
• "Doesn't hurt to have a hobby after retirement... What do you think?"
• "All I ever wanted was to shed light on my life."
• "See you in Hell."
• "We'll begin when the bird flies. Don't you remember that?"
• "Pinkass punk! You're going down!"