Robert McKenna

Out of Character (tell us just a bit about you outside RP)

Name: Sub


In Character

Name: Robert McKenna
Age: 71
Gender: Male
Career: Singer (bass)
Notes: Known to his Air Force unit as “The Bullfrog” or “Bullfrog Bobby” for a variety of colorful reasons and/or rumors. The moniker “Bullfrog Bobby” eventually leaked into his musical life, to his semi-chagrin.


Parents: Brogan and Gina McKenna
Grandparents: Gilroy and Coralie MacCionaodha* ; Raul and Doreen Solomon
Siblings: Innes and Cameron
Aunts & Uncles: all deceased
Nieces & Nephews: Several (all: status unknown)
Cousins: Several (status unknown; likely deceased)
Children: Finlay (47), Ashley, Indiana, and Logan (Fin: Alive; Others: status unknown)
Grandkids: Kayden McKenna (Finlay; status: alive); quite possibly others, status unknown
*MacCionaodha was changed to McKenna upon immigrating to the United States


Skin color: Light Tan
Hair Color: Milk Chocolate, but graying (has been known to use hair color for men)
Hair length: Medium-long
Eye color: Blue
Size: 5’ 9”
Build: Average
Picture:
Celebrity Playby Richard Sterban


Crushes: Eileen McKenna (nee Burke)
Mates/Spouse: Eileen McKenna (nee Burke)
Status: Widower



Personality: Robert has always been a man with music in his soul. Whether he’s on a large stage, a small stage, with his family, or off by himself, there is always a melody on his mind as he hums a tune. Some, especially photographers, would say that he has a fidgeting problem; the man is frequently so moved by music that he has a hard time sitting still unless his life depended on it. He was the typical hellion during the younger days of his music career: rebellious, impulsive, and often coming across as far too arrogant for his own good. It was clear that girls of the era seemed to like the bad boy images of men like Johnny Cash, so that’s what Robert aspired to be. As he grew older the rebel side of his persona seemed to fade away and was replaced with a man of class; this was directly reflective of what was going on in his life at the time.

Family means a lot to Robert and he places a lot of pride in this area of his life. It was sometimes hard for him to leave his wife and children behind at home while he went gallivanting on tours across the world with his band. To counteract it he made certain to call them nightly or every so often when on the road to make sure they were doing alright. Even though his eldest son would always ask him when he was coming home, Robert never gave it a second thought that his consistent absence might have a negative effect on his children’s lives. To this day he believes he hasn’t done anything wrong – other celebrities in the music industry have done the same thing without a problem – and thus has a hard time understanding why his son, Finlay, is so disgruntled and angry with him.

Robert has no trouble taking the proverbial bull by the horns and leading the way if he has to. Some could say that in most cases he tends to be honorable to a fault – expecting others to hold to the same code of conduct as he, when that other person has every probability of being less than noble. What tends to throw some people off guard is just how cool-headed Robert appears when under pressure or in danger. He didn’t develop this ability until after he’d been in a few fights in high school, and mastered it while in the military. The truth of the matter is while Robert does not have a death wish per se, he is not afraid to fight – or even to die – in order to defend and protect loved ones and innocents. This has occasionally led him into some reckless decisions.

There is a reason why bands have sound technicians: you don’t let a singer fiddle with delicate knobs and switches. Actually, this is why Robert’s band has a sound technician. While he can basically learn to drive or fly anything within fifteen minutes of messing with the various controls, the man is not mechanically inclined. It would not be wise to put him on any repairing task beyond some base sewing, duct taping, gluing, soldering, etc. ... unless whatever being worked on can handle a lot of persistent trial-and-error. While Robert never claims to be MacGyver or a Mr. Fix It-type, he does enjoy projects categorized as DIY... but is quick to become frustrated if the project requires too much precision or tends to cooperate only some of the time.

Robert’s family is chock full of stubborn men and women, and he is no different. Where there’s a will there’s a way, and no doesn’t always mean no... except when a woman says no. Robert was raised to have the utmost respect for women, and to treat them with as much courtesy as he can muster. Simply put: Robert maintains the belief that (in most cases) the moment someone tells him there is a thing or skill he cannot do, he must rise to the challenge and prove them wrong.

The fuse of anger on Robert’s psyche is largely variable, and has gained some length with each passing decade. However, once his temper boils over he is not fit to be in anyone’s company until his composure is regained. Most of the time Robert’s anger can be expressed solely with words. It should be noted, though, that when in the throes of anger Robert has the potential to become violent.

Pushing into his seventies, Robert stubbornly refuses to accept the fact that he is getting old. He stays active so he is in better shape than most men around his age. Robert dreads becoming frail, and is frequently heard stating that he plans to die long before his body starts giving out on him. Robert’s parents grew up during the Depression, so he and his siblings learned to waste as little as possible. There is nothing that disgusts and frustrates Robert more than to witness wasteful behavior. While Robert is still somewhat impulsive even at his present age, he is far more patient about most things than he used to be. Despite the semi-disposable nature of modern technology Robert does his best to keep up with the latest gadgets and gizmos for the sake of being able to keep up with his grandchildren.




Your Story Please? Robert was born on a cold November day in 1942, in the United States, in the state of Maryland. Brogan wasn’t there for his early years because he was off fighting against the Axis powers of World War II. Brogan returned home in 1945 to an overjoyed eldest son, a middle-born daughter, and Robert – the baby of the family pushing the age of 3.

Robert was treated much like the stereotype of being the baby of a family. To the frustration of his older siblings Robert earned the most attention from the adults in their lives. Cameron and Innes would groan the moment the words, “look what I can do,” left little Robert’s lips. He was a show off and had the tendency to exaggerate, making him look quite the ham when he ran to his grandfather Raul with the latest scuff, scrape, or cut.

His mother, Gina, started teaching him how to sing around the age of five. She had done the same with Innes and Cameron. Robert learned the skill quickly, and he could hit high notes that his sister could not. Once they had picked up on singing in harmony and could remember several songs, Gina and Brogan insisted that the kids show off their skill at school talent shows, at church, at various parties, and for military troops heading off for active duty or those who came home to recover from the wounds of war. Little did they realize that they caught the attention of a talent scout who began shadowing them from a distance to see just how good they were.

Three years later the scout approached Gina and Brogan, introduced himself, and gave the family an offer to sign the kids on with an agent and a label to get their music out and into the world at large. It was a trend that was starting to take off at the time, and the scout thought for certain the McKenna children would be a hit. Brogan was somewhat hesitant about it, but Gina talked him into going along with it. Their band name, of sorts, was simply “The McKennas” – following the same trend that was going around with this style of music.

The McKennas, as they were known, didn’t reach a great amount of fame but they did earn some sensation in the day. Robert earned quite a bit of celebrity for his ability to sing in such a high register, and the guts it took for a boy of eight years to want to sing with his siblings in front of millions of people. His voice started changing when he was eleven. Robert had to practice more in order to keep his voice from cracking, and he was frequently made fun of at school for how his voice would go from high to low, scratch a bit, go lower, squeak a little and then return to where it had been to begin with.

It was frustrating for Robert to maintain his place in The McKennas. Innes took over his usual parts in songs, Cameron was assigned a tenor-baritone vocal range, and Robert backed up his brother in the same vocal range or provided a range from mid-tenor to high-bass. The change in lineup was a big deal for Robert, and interviews that questioned him as to how he was getting along with the changes in his voice didn’t help.

He started working on cofounding a different band at the age of fifteen with some friends from school in which he would feature the baritone vocals and guitar. Robert got to the point where he didn’t want to sing with his siblings as part of The McKennas anymore. The group dissolved and re-formed into a brother-sister duo of the same name, featuring just Innes and Cameron. It took Robert’s new band a while before they were any good, but soon they were performing locally thanks to Robert’s connections from his days as part of The McKennas. The new band didn’t focus on any one particular genre; sometimes they sang country, sometimes they sang rock, and other times they left their instruments behind altogether and went for acapella; they sang a lot of covers originally performed by other famous musicians of the time. By 1959, at the age of 17, Robert and his band were starting to tour the States.

The following year, puberty had run its full course through Robert. His vocal range rested comfortably in middle-baritone to low bass. With some work Robert could push his voice as far up as tenor, and to such an extremely low bass that one would have to listen well to pick him out from the rest of the band. Robert hoped that by having his own band, critics and interviewers wouldn’t continue to compare him to the little boy from The McKennas; he was wrong. Critics mocked his career decision to leave an established band to form another, and compared him to the shrill little boy he used to be. The seemingly constant comparisons sent Robert into a rage.

In response to the criticism Robert wrote a song whose fury-blazing verses about the critics earned him a lot of negative attention. The teenager didn’t care. Robert got into everything that was barely legal for him to do during the era. He drank, he smoked, and had no problems being a promiscuous young man. Brogan didn’t like the rebel that the music industry was making of his youngest son, and he tried to put Robert back on the straight and narrow way. It worked for a little while, when Robert was at home, but once he got back on the road he went right back to old habits.

Robert had traveled most of the United States, but he particularly favored the northern part of Tennessee. It was there that he met a girl named Eileen Burke. Robert spent much of his available free time with her whenever he toured Tennessee, and kept in touch with her through telephone and handwritten letters when he was off on tour. It was later that year that Brogan pressured him into joining the military.

The Air Force seemed the most appealing choice to Robert, so he enlisted with them. He was frequently caught singing or humming under his breath as he worked, and on occasion he would sing with a few of the other men in his unit in order to entertain the rest of the military base. After a while military personnel around the base started referring to him as “The Bullfrog” or “Bullfrog Bobby”, both because of the depth of his voice and a few rumors that went around about him. The Vietnam War was in full swing at the time, so Robert was stationed over there for a time in his four-year stint. He was an excellent pilot, saw some combat, and got a taste of emergency battlefield medicine, but he never actually saw the front lines – just a few skirmishes.

In 1964 Robert received an honorable discharge from the military, with the rank of Staff Sergeant. Even though he knew the military could draft him at a moment’s notice to go off and fight in the war that was still raging on, he began touring with his band as soon as he could get them all together and make the arrangements. Over the summer Eileen offered to travel with him and the band, thinking she could be of some help to them while also getting to spend her time with the young man she was starting to fall in love with.

When Eileen saw what all he got up to when on tour, she didn’t like what she saw. Eileen could handle the smoking of cigars and cigarettes, but she hated it when Robert got drunk. The minute Eileen caught him getting too friendly with one of his many groupies, and started to sneak off with them, that was the last straw. Eileen argued with Robert some distance from the group, but they watched every bit of it. During the spat Robert made an insensitive remark and Eileen slapped him hard for it. He noticed everyone watching them, and insisted that they take the conversation somewhere behind closed doors and away from prying ears. Eileen gave Robert an ultimatum: go steady with her, and only her, or she would leave. Robert was irate to find out the next day that his argument with Eileen made headlines in the newspapers, with an unbecoming photo of his shock at getting slapped.

By the next concert, it was clear that Robert’s days of making out and sleeping around with just about any girl in the entourage that followed him were put to a screeching halt. For a time he was irritable about it and resented the limit on his freedom, but as the fire from his argument with Eileen cooled down the young man matured and understood what she wanted of him. There wasn’t much in the world that made Robert quake in nervousness or fear, but making a move into a committed relationship was a completely different matter. Robert decided that some way, some how, he would pluck up the courage to ask Eileen to marry him.

His tour bus arrived back in Tennessee a year later to drop Eileen back off at home until the next tour. While he was there, Robert asked to talk to Eileen’s father. Avery Burke was a large man; a scrap yard laborer who had relatives in the police force. Robert asked for Avery’s permission to marry Eileen, as was the custom, but Avery denied him. “No daughter of mine is gonna tramp around with the likes of you,” were Avery’s exact words.

Robert lingered with the band in Tennessee for a while as they worked on a new album and the next set of tour dates. The other band members noticed that Robert was going stir-crazy without Eileen around. It took the man only a week to go against Avery Burke’s wishes, put a down payment on a ring, and asked Eileen – in secret – if she would marry him. Eileen initially had her heart set on a large and elaborate ceremony, but Robert wanted something quicker and a bit more discrete. They came to a compromise, and Robert asked her to come along with him as the band was getting ready to start traveling again. Eileen told him that she would have to ask her father, but Robert convinced her to forego custom and just do it, instead. They were both consenting young adults, so why not?

When Eileen vanished, leaving behind only a note to say she was going with Robert again, Avery called in every favor from friends and family in the police forces to try and be as much of a hindrance to Robert as possible. He got into trouble with a few of them and was thrown in jail a couple of times. The band always managed to post his bail, and at least one time they all went to court to contest that Robert had been framed. Through it all, Robert and Eileen eloped in the summer of 1965 with the band members and the band’s producer as witnesses.

Robert insisted that his 1965 tour finale be televised, and that Eileen would be added to the band lineup for that night instead of the girl who got the choicest VIP seat in the house. On national television for all to see he introduced Eileen as his wife, and they shared a kiss on stage before the band went into their final song – a song Robert wrote that he had dedicated to Eileen, which he had been composing and practicing in secret since deciding that he wanted her as his wife.

Robert knew that when he got back to Tennessee he would have a pair of irate in-laws going up one side of him and down the other... something about having stolen their daughter away from them. Robert didn’t care, and he wasn’t about to apologize for it either. In fact, he never did.

Robert and Eileen had their first child just shortly after their first year anniversary. He was beside Eileen when the fussy baby was born, and for a short time afterwards, but then it was right back to touring. Robert insisted that Eileen stay home with the baby – the life of being on the road was no place for a baby. Three more children followed in the years after. Robert made sure to call home frequently when on the road to make sure Eileen and the kids were alright, regardless of how much the telephone booth would end up charging him for the call.

As the amount of housewifery increased, so too did Eileen’s frustration with Robert’s musical career. It got to the point where Eileen had to point out to him that the work was getting to be too much, and that the children needed to see and be with their father a lot more than the time in which he was currently making himself available. Robert took what she had to say seriously, and suggested to let their parents help her take care of the kids during the times when he would be away. He and the band cut back a bit on the touring, staying local to work on albums instead, but the other guys teased Robert when he told them why he wanted to change gears.

When Robert was home from touring or an evening with the band, he was dedicated fully to his family. He read stories to his children, sang to them, taught them their letters, numbers, and colors. He tended every little cut and scrape they came to him with, eyes bubbling over with crocodile tears, and commanded the nightly wars against monsters under the bed. Robert did his best when it came to repairing toys the children broke, but most of the time he transferred this task to his own father when he couldn’t figure out what to do with it. Avery and Sheridan Burke eventually warmed up to Robert, though it was no secret they did so purely for the sake of their grandchildren. On one particular occasion when Eileen’s parents were visiting and it was Robert’s turn to watch the kids while she stepped out for a salon appointment, Avery was honest with him: he hadn’t anticipated Robert to be the family man he had turned out to be; he expected Robert to love Eileen and leave her the moment talk of babies entered the picture. Avery told him to keep doing what he was doing, but also to keep an eye on Finlay – the eldest-born child tended to get mouthier by the day.

In 1976 Robert decided his children were all old enough to go on tour with him, so that was their entire summer vacation that year. After each show he still finished the night off with a drink and a smoke, but instead of groupies he had duties as father and husband to attend to. His entire public persona shifted from that of a boisterous smoking, drinking, and promiscuous rebel into a gentleman of class... though if the audience played their cards right he would put on a performance of his old persona every once in a while.

The fact that Robert was starting to get old hit him hard when his oldest son graduated from high school in 1982. He watched his son graduate with a mixture of pride and concern; proud because the kid was one of the top three highest achievers in his class... and concern because his eldest son had no problems getting into trouble that could get him sent to jail. A family meeting concerning Finlay was had, but Finlay was left out of it. That apparently was the last straw for his son: Finlay got into a particularly venomous argument with Robert, Avery, and Brogan before storming out of the house. Robert filed a missing person report, followed up with every friend of Finlay’s that he knew, and drove the streets looking for his son but couldn’t find him. A week later the police return Finlay to the family home, and give Brogan and Robert both the same caution: they could either have the young man join the military, and get himself sorted out, or Finlay would face jail time. Robert called a second family meeting – including Finlay this time – and though he didn’t feel his son was quite ready to join the military both he and Finlay managed to agree that it was a better alternative than going to jail.

Robert did not receive so much as a letter or phone call from Finlay during his time in the military. He figured he deserved it, in Finlay’s mind at least, and didn’t bother the young man. It relieved him that his son had decided to not break his mother’s heart by never coming around again after his five years with the army. Robert was further surprised when Finlay decided to take up college – something Robert never had an interest in for himself.

Several years later, Eileen was sent an invitation inviting her (and Robert) to Finlay’s wedding. There was a separate letter in the invitation for his father; Fin still resented the man, but at the same time he wanted Robert’s help in arranging the musical entertainment for the reception. Robert wasn’t allowed to attend Finlay’s bachelor party, though he did supply his son with enough booze to paint every square inch of their hometown red. Robert had his own party of sorts with his friends to celebrate his eldest son’s final day as a bachelor.

Three years after his son’s wedding, Robert sat with family and friends at the hospital while awaiting the birth of Finlay’s first child. Finlay himself was not among them but had gathered the courage to be in the delivery room with Miranda. After several long hours of waiting, a proud and frazzled Finlay returned to announce the arrival of a healthy baby boy.

At the age of sixty Robert decided it was about time to hang up his microphone and call it a career well played. While Robert remained spry, to some degree, his fellow band members found their health to be on the decline. His parents were long gone, and his brother Cameron died unexpectedly at a young age, and Innes passed after a battle with cancer not more than five years ago. To keep his mind off of those losses, and to keep in touch with the old band despite their declining health, Robert invited them over for weekly poker games. The nest was long since empty – each of the children he raised had long since moved out and were rearing families of their own. Eileen sometimes joined the men in their weekly games. It was just like old times: the same old band, same old brand of cigarettes, and the same old kind of booze. Good times.

No form of weather could keep the group of old men from meeting. They would take turns meeting at their different houses depending on who felt like hosting. It was the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013, in the midst of the dreaded cold and flu season, when Robert and his friends played what would be their last game of poker. All of his friends were sick with either cold or flu, but they all stubbornly persisted in their games, smoking, and drinking. Robert drank a little too much and fell asleep in his chair that night. What Robert woke up to the next morning could only be described as horror: his friends were scattered around, and he had thought they were only sleeping. Robert nudged his best friend, and thought it odd the man didn’t stir. After closer investigation, Robert discovered his best friend was dead. He checked the other bodies, and found they were also dead. Possibility after possibility ran through Robert’s mind, and he checked the house to make sure no one had broken in. He tried to call home, but no one answered. He tried calling the cell phone of each of his children and grandchildren – but no one picked up.

Robert drove home with the radio on the news channel, which provided all of the information he needed – a virus similar to the flu was sweeping the world, causing the death and destruction of whole populations in its wake. He arrived home to find his wife in a similar condition as his friends. Robert knew that as people kept dying and panic set in that any remaining survivors could be violent, which would make the city a death trap. He gathered as much supplies as he could cram into his truck, and took the time to bury his wife before leaving the area. Robert had tried calling his children again, but the only one who picked up was Finlay. He could tell by the background noise and his son’s voice that Finlay was both driving and panicked out of his mind. Robert tried to advise Finlay to calm down, find Kayden, meet him at Fin’s apartment. The last thing he heard before the phone clicked was that Finlay had gotten lost, and that he was going to stop at a gas station to get some directions.

He traveled a while, gathering supplies along the way. His combat training from decades ago came to mind and helped him feel out a location’s safety. If an area seemed too closed in without a way to escape, he wasn’t about to go near it – armed or unarmed – in case it was an ambush. It was through what Robert considered a miracle that he stopped for supplies at the same area his grandson had come to, for the boy had gotten seriously injured and wasn’t in a good way when Robert found him. He did what he could for the boy, though in the process Kayden lost consciousness. Robert loaded the teenager into the passenger side of his truck and drove straight to Finlay’s apartment.



Weakness:
Not mechanically inclined
May act or speak on impulse
Too stubborn for his own good
Violent temper
Claustrophobia
His age


Strengths:
Brave
Honorable
Resourceful
Improvisation
Basic military first aid
Can operate most vehicles

Favorite Color: Dark slate gray

Theme song: When We Stand Together by Nickelback