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Duncan Moran
Gender Male
Age 20 (almost 21)
Date of Birth: Sept 25, 2000

Ethnicity: Caucasian
Hair: Black
Eyes: Blue
Height: 6’7”
Build: Rugged (extremely strong for his size)
Other Features:
Duncan has a limited sense of fashion. In older pictures, his hair was normally either cut off like he was in Basic Training, or a bowl haircut that made him look like Moe from the Three Stooges. (He opted for the former if he had a choice.) His clothing usually consisted of jeans, a T shirt (preferably some dark color, usually black), and tennis shoes. Much of what he had - which wasn’t much - were hand me downs, flea market or yard sale specials or worse (if you can imagine worse. Trust me; there is if you have ever heard of dumpster diving. Most of his clothes were of that origin).

He wears a glove on his left hand (carries the right glove). This earned him a few Michael Jackson jokes. He takes the glove off to play guitar, wash dishes, cut steak, etc. But the hand was nearly sliced in half a year ago.

A first impression of Duncan - if you discount the signs of a fight - is that he is NOT a troublemaker, but rather a decent, honest guy. No tattoos, piercings or jewelry.

He has scars from old wounds from multiple gunshot wounds (left shoulder, right and left upper leg - left side got far worse), knife wounds (left stomach, left hand), broken ribs (worst is on lower left rib cage), and more (back covered with whip marks).

Personality
Duncan is extremely intelligent, reading at a 2nd to 3rd grade level by age 5 and a middle school level by age 8. By middle school he started going to the college to find books to ready. He could read well over 1000 wpm doing SRA’s (Strategic Reading Assignments) by age 11. (The military dependents schools required students to do speed reading.

Duncan loves all hard sciences (ie not the squishy ones - Biology? Bleh!) He refuses to take it EVER. He is a natural mathlete. He is an expert at chess and all its sci fi variations, but is utterly bored by it.

He completed his GED at age 13 and began studying at a college level, advancing his education through CLEP testing. By age 15 he had two Bachelor’s degrees - Physics and Chemistry and a teaching certificate. He was literally certified to teach high school. He jumped into his graduate studies, finding it impossible to take mainstream school and work on a PhD at the same time. And it was partly his idea to continue in mainstream school until he was an adult - for no other reason than to round out his education and develop socially.

Sports: He loves Soccer and ALWAYS has a soccer ball either with him or in his locker. He also loves swimming and rock climbing. He’s a natural at football and will play, but has no real passion for the sport. The team is the only reason he plays. He HATES baseball - even though he is great at it. While he has played some of the other sports, soccer is the only one he can be easily tempted to play - but the events a year ago reduced his lung capacity making running harder.

Outdoors: Duncan loves climbing in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains. He used to live within a short bicycle ride.

Quirks:
Workaholic
He doesn’t DO social media. No Facebook. No Twitter. No … what are some others?
Hates texting. My god. You have a phone in your hand. Use it maybe?
Despite multiple awards for computer science, he sucks at all things computer. Oh he can use office software, CAD, math programs. But build a website? BBCodes? Download an App?
He and electronics to not mix. He will hire someone else to add memory to a laptop. If he tries it, good luck.
Hates being told he can’t do something (that noone could - permission is another thing altogether). It just makes him want to try. You may as well have dared him.
Bluntly honest. His friends know better than to ask him anything if they don’t want honesty. (He does try to be constructive usually. He can manage tact.)
Enjoys debating and taking the unpopular side if noone else will. (He once defended slavery in a class where caucasian was the minority as part of an exercise. He even used his southern accent that was usually absent. He won the debate.)
Movies? He’s seen a few. But he’s missed out on a lot when he was younger.

Strengths:
Likes helping people
Natural leader - whether he wants to be or not.
Athletic (despite all the injuries)
Generous

Weakness:
Hates people. He hates having friends. They are such a royal pain, always needing maintenance and attention. Go away!
OCD (not extremely so. He’s not Sheldon from TBBT. But his books are arranged on his shelves by subject, alphabetized. When he buys groceries he organizes everything in neat rows and in set number - like 4 of everything. If bored he’ll start organizing everyone else’s stuff.)
Can’t sit still for long.
Remembering things he’s told. Photographic memory has nothing to do with ears.
Generous to a fault ...

Likes:
Science and Technology
Science Fiction
Soccer
Looking for new things to like
Food (international, new, etc)
Cooking (His mother taught him a little so he wouldn’t starve to death.)
Teaching, tutoring, etc. Few things give him more pleasure than seeing the light come on in someone’s eyes when they finally understand a new concept.

Dislikes:
Bullies
Gangs, drugs, alcohol

Fears:
Demophobia (fear of crowds. He can speak to an audience. He can teach. He can play for a band. But through him into the middle of a dance floor and he will be on the verge of a panic attack. He will hover on the edge of the room.)
Arachnophobia (yes, if a tarantula dropped on his arm he will scream like a little girl)
He is otherwise fearless.

Background
Duncan biological father was US Navy. So he was born into the military from the start. As an infant he was sickly, and at age 3 and a half he was dying in the hospital when his biological father, an alcoholic, abandoned them.

At Age 5 his mother met his Stepfather, at the time a USAF Staff Sergeant (E-5) in military transportation and they were shortly married. Overnight he went from being an only child to having an older brother and sister to pick on him. His whole step family resented him. If his older brother did something wrong, guess who got blamed. They were Deep South Southern Baptists preaching hellfire and damnation and he was the spawn of Satan - as his mother was Catholic.

He soon learned that his stepfather had other flaws. He was prejudiced and abusive. Hardly a day went by that Duncan didn’t get beaten. So he blessed the days when his father was away on TDY’s. Of course, there was always a list of chores. Things finally reached a boiling point. His brother was killed. His sister left to go to a foster family. His mother is was shot. His father went to prison. Duncan was recovering from injuries sustained from severe abuse, gang violence, and even more abuse. He was removed from his family to be placed in foster care.

Other Stuff
Photographic memory (not eidetic)
Speed Reading
Foreign Languages - Turkish, German, Russian, Cherokee, Japanese, and a fair bit of Italian.
Desert and Mountain survival, basic
Stone Age skills (fire starting, making adobe)
Boy Scouting skills (Yes, he was a boy scout.)
Sling
MMA (mixed martial arts, mixed because of moving around. He’s hardly some Bruce Lee, but he’s never lost a fight … yet. Never started one either.)
Published author (sci fi). Just finished his 5th book. This is how much of his college and gear are paid for.

He also has a violin. His running joke is that he tried to learn how to play it, but every time he practiced PETA showed up at his house with every stray cat and gave them signs that read, “STOP THE TORTURE!”

Personal Gear
High end gaming laptop, souped up
Smartphone (his first) and he still hasn’t figured out how to answer it
Guitars
Keyboards

pixabay.com/p-1123645/?no_redirect

Name: Aliyah Jackson
DOB: 6/11/98
Age:23

Ethnicity: Caucasian
Hair: Red
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5'5"
Build: Thin, her arms have some muscle definition, but the rest of her is simply skinny
Other Features:
Aliyah doesn't put much effort into her appearance. She usually just tosses her hair in a ponytail and throws on her work jeans and required t-shirt. When she isn't at work she usually lives in leggings and oversized shirts. She lives a very simple life. She works and goes home, there isn't much outwardly different about her.

She has a slight limp on days when she is over tired. She has a degenerative disk disorder, so there is often pressure on her spinal cord. She can cover the limp most of the time, but when she is tired she forgets.

She often wears a simple pair of silver studs in her ears, and has one visible tattoo on her upper right bicep. It is small, but it wraps almost all the way around. It reads "Just Keep Breathing" It was a reminder to herself in her younger days that sometimes life seemed so difficult, but breathing was all she really had to manage.

Personality
Aliyah is bright, certainly no genius, but she loves to read and absorbs a good portion of the material she reads. She appears to be fairly outgoing, but it is all an act. It is what she has to do to get good tips. She prefers to keep to herself. When she gets off work she goes home and opens a book or works on a cross stitch project.

She doesn't own a TV. Not because she doesn't like them, but because she can't really afford one. She managed to save up enough to buy herself a tablet during a good sale once, so she has a very limited internet package. She uses the internet mostly for downloading free books and looking up projects she can do to keep herself busy.

Quirks:
Doesn't own a TV or a microwave.
She has a social media account, but rarely does anything on it. Well Pintrest counts as social media right? No? Craftsy then? Ok..
She has a very basic prepaid cell phone that spends more time off than on. She carries it though so she can call 911 if necessary because she walks everywhere.
Doesn't own a car and never learned to drive.

Strengths:
Can fit in anywhere
Has a great ability to help others
Patient

Weakness:
extremely disorganized. Don't for the love of all that is holy open her closet door.
Smoker
Temper, it takes a lot to make her lose it, but when she does she is absolutely vicious.

Likes:
Reading
Crafting
Sewing
an occasional glass of wine in a very hot bath

Dislikes:
stupidity and ignorance
mushrooms and mayo

Fears:
Claustrophobia- this is from being locked in a small closet as a child while her mother worked.

Background
Aliyah was born to a single mother. If she ever knew who her father was, she never shared that information. It was always just the two of them. Sure her mother had boyfriends, but they came and went. It seemed that her mother would use a man for a place to stay, until she could upgrade. Not that any of them were actually upgrades. More like someone who could provide more alcohol or drugs. Aliyah tried to stay out of the way as much as possible. She likely got her love of reading from the endless hours she spent at the library. It was her one safe place.

Aliyah works at a small local mom and pop diner. It was well known among locals as the best greasy spoon around. Aliyah could have gone on to work at one of the more touristy places, but she knew her regulars and was comfortable where she was. The diner was stuck in the 50's There was Chrome everywhere, and the booths were upholstered in cracking red vinyl.