Name: Gabe "Panama" Nichols
Appearance: Gabe is a Caucasian male, with scraggly brown hair, a gruff beard, and a large grin at almost any given time. He's almost never seen without his signature wide-brimmed panama hat and leather bomber's jacket. When in combat, driving dangerously, or in bad weather conditions, he puts on a pair of flight goggles, and a bandanna over his face.
Age: 24
Personality: Gabe has a very likeable, charismatic personality, with a voice that's very easy and pleasurable to listen to. He knows how to make smart jokes, he's good at telling stories, and he gets along well with damn-near everyone. While he can fight, and fights well, he prefers to try and talk down his potential opponents first, offering compromise and negotiation before firing a shot or swinging a punch. The one thing he cannot tolerate is anyone insulting or hurting his dog. He will absolutely fly off the handle if this occurs, not hesitating to lay someone out, or kill them.
Weapons: He keeps a .45 ACP lever-action carbine as his main weapon of choice, often firing it one-handed through the window and windshield holes in his van. As a sidearm, he keeps an M1911A1, preferring it over others because it uses the same rounds as his carbine. He also keeps a utility knife on his person. His dog Bear, a large mutt with no describable breed, will jump to his defense and the defense of their van at any given opportunity.
Vehicle:
A third-generation Chevrolet G-Series van, it serves as Gabe and Bear's home on the road, as well as the base of operations for their radio station, Sentry Radio. The only two seats are the driver and passenger bucket seats, with the windows on either front side, and the front windshield having been removed entirely, and all the others replaced with steel coverings.
A metal sliding door separates the driver-passenger compartment with the rear end of the vehicle. The rear end houses a small desk with various radio broadcast equipment, including two microphones, two headsets, and a cassette tape player. There are two wooden stools in front of this desk, drilled to the floor. A small milk crate holds a large assortment of audio cassettes, all of which feature songs from before the apocalypse.
Past that is a small mattress pressed against the rear wall, with a pillow and thick blanket. A double-dish dog bowl, filled with various meats as well as water, and a small ice chest for storing goods are also found. On the exterior of the van, the words "Sentry Radio" are painted in black over the brown paint job, and a broadcast dish is hooked up on top.
Bio: Born to a small settlement somewhere out midwest, Gabe was raised by his father, an electronics repairman that ran a small part-time radio station, to entertain the settlers and keep news flowing. Gabe learned all he could from his father, how to fix electronics, how to keep them running, and even how to build a small radio receiver.
Gabe took to this very well, and would go on to be the backup broadcaster for the station, if his father was unable to do so for some reason. This life would come crashing to a halt, however, when the settlement was attacked by raiders. Gabe managed to hide away inside the shell of an old van, and was able to survive the attack. After the raiders had left, Gabe searched around, but he was the only human survivor. A young dog, barely more than a few months old, had also survived the attack. Gabe was quick to adopt him, and together they took to the one thing Gabe new best: fixing electronics.
Gabe gathered what he could of his father's radio equipment, moving it to the van he had taken as his own. After almost two weeks of solid work, Gabe had turned the old van into the prototype for the Sentry Radio HQ. Teaching himself how to drive, Gabe and Bear would set out into the wasteland, eventually finding themselves at the Three, becoming members of the Sentries, and establishing Sentry Radio.
For color reference.
