⚘ A Reason For Everything ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Sometimes a reworking isn't enough and a fresh start is desired, so is it here. Characters housed here are ones either currently in use or hope to be, using a newer sheet far updated from the standard one I have been using for four years previous this topic. I will only be transferring over characters to my newer sheet as I see fit and desire to do so. Characters utilizing my original standard CS will remain in my other topic.
When the dead decide to start living again, all you can do is try to stay alive and not get bit. Years after the outbreak can humanity still make it or is it just delaying the end? Only time will tell. (Based off The Walking Dead TV Series & Comics)
Deep in the jungles of Panama a war is just the beginning. The 59th Combat Engineers must work alongside the 18th Aviation Brigade for the first time since Vietnam. Can this new generation make it work on the battlefield? More than that, can they make it work off duty? (Character Study utilizing same characters in a different environment.)
1876: He's in Wyoming trying to prospect in the frontier, she's in Missouri trying to flee her old life, and a Picture Bride Advertisement brings them together. Can a May/December relationship really work, especially one that has developed via letters only? The written word is one thing, actually living together after being wed at first meeting is another.
Out in the English countryside resides two manors. Elmswood, opulent and cared for. Ravenswalk, crumbling into ruins. A seamstress spends her nights working by candlelight for the Lady of Elmswood but during the day she is drawn to Ravenswalk. Why? And why does she keep feeling she is losing time? Perhaps she is just more tired than she realized, or maybe it's something more.
On the west coast lies a little house on the coast overlooking the sea. It looks quiet enough, like the perfect place to retire. That is save for the extensive bomb range just a hop, skip, and a jump from the house, or the forge beneath it. Just what is going with this middle aged woman living by herself and what is with all the sounds coming from the property?
Things were so simple before the war, then everything changed. A husband killed, a family lost, a home destroyed. Demons or man, it doesn't matter. When one is left with nothing they will do anything to survive, even if that means selling themselves in exchange for their next meal. When honor is the only true value, can one look past what had to be done and understand?
Winter is here, it is always here. You plan for it, you know it will come. There is nothing more sure to the Northmen than winter. Yet this winter was unlike any in more than a generation; harsher, colder, longer. Yet in the middle of the worst, an opening came and it was ceased. Maybe it was the last chance or just a new beginning.
From a young age you are told you can make it. You practice, you train, day in and day out. University, special training, everything. A life time of dreams and 10 years of specialization only to be told on the day of graduation you have nothing before you but to be part of the crowd. What do you do then? Just accept what they day or find a new path?
Some volunteer, others aren't given a choice. Some come home again, some never do. Everyone has lost something but what is the measure of that loss? Can you weigh your own loss against the loss of someone else? Should you even try? How can you see to have compassion for those you hate the most, for those you rage out against, when you are left with no other choice?
Some people when they grow up become respected members of society. Others do not. In a world where life in the shadows can be safer than life in the limelight one does what they have to do to survive. Take the contract, get the job done, get paid, and murder the bastard if he refuses to cough up.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ۵ Characters Housed: 15 ۵ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ۵ Locations Housed: 1 ۵ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ↡ Cross Referencing ↡ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Character Master List
"If you aren't goin' to let yourself live, you might as well be outside them walls just survivin'." - Thana to Ash about him needing a break
⚘ Looking Inside ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Thana is a mentally strong woman who is often distant and dry but her loyalty and dedication to those she cares about or has a leadership role over are second-to-none. Despite her cooler personality she is not without feelings and harbors a deep compassion for those with whom she have shared similar experiences. A level headed woman, even under extreme pressure or duress, Thana manages to keep her emotions in check during most circumstances. Logic and facts far out weigh emotions in situations. A quick wit, Thana can be considered as charming but her sense of humor can be taken as just an odd character quirk by some, disturbingly strange by others.
There is a strange level of detachment that Thana has when it comes to people and situations, disturbingly so, which was made evident when she was informed her sister was dead and later when she watched her first love die. Both instances it was apparent it bothered her no more than if she had stepped on an ant. Emotional detachment, loyalty, integrity, and an unwavering dedication to those around her makes Thana a good leader. Single-minded drive and lack of consideration for her own life makes Thana her own worst enemy; something that has nearly gotten her killed more than once and which she will carry the physical scars for the rest of her life. Thana is a doer and not one to wait for someone to talk/make plans/plot. Thinking outside the box and on the spot, she adapts to the situation. She lives by her own set of Rules and believe the world owes no one anything; you are to earn every breath and pay debt for every heartbeat.
⚘ A Brief History ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Growing Up: Born and raised in Leesburg, Georgia, Thana is the daughter of a Military Family on her fathers side, and farm folk on her mothers. She is one of three children born to Macsen Martin and Chantilly Beard. The younger of 2 twin girls with 1 younger brother. Thana was raised mostly by her mother as her father was deployed or working as a Drill Instructor growing up. Thought of as a Spare Heir by her mother, Thana was left to her own devices growing up; spending much time in the woods either messing with plants and insects or singing to herself. When not outside she had her nose in a book.
At least until high school. Those years were spent lashing out, getting into trouble, doing drugs, drinking, breaking and entering, petty theft, and so forth. (There was reason but that wouldn't be revealed until later.) Over the course of three years Thana wracked up a juvi sheet a mile long. All mostly minor infractions. That was until she was arrested for Grand Theft and was going to be charged as an adult. Looking at serious prison time, the judge went old school on Thana and gave her a choice - Serve 60 days in jail: during this time acquire your GED and join the military on release for a minimal of 4 years - Or face 10-15 in prison.
Adulting: On release Thana had gotten her GED, taken her ASVAB, scored well, and signed on the dotted line with the U.S. Navy. Over the next 12 years Thana did well in the Navy. Going to college while serving, getting her PHD in Plant Pathology, working with relief efforts alongside the U.N. and eventually turning to recruitment. Serving everywhere from South East Asia to Texas. Being sent to various locations around the world to research invasive species of plants and insects as well as helping with U.N. efforts to teach locals how to best farm and utilize their lands and resources.
She ended up getting "stationed" (for lack of a better term) in the South East with a recruitment office. Thana had become the poster child for the Navy on how to turn ones life around through service. She would travel from high school to high school - mostly juvi detention centers - giving lectures on how her life started, what she had done in her past and just how far she had come. At the end of 2006 she was invited to UGA in Athens Ga to give a lecture to a post graduate class on the invasive flora of Georgia and how to fight against it.
Your First Walker Encounter: Spending time in Athens, giving lectures at the local university Thana was out and about around town, checking out the local bars and doing what the Navy thought she did best - recruiting. Looking for those "lost souls" that needed direction in their life. There was a massive heat wave and walking down the street between college bars an older gentleman had a heat stroke in the middle of the road.
Rushing over Thana did what she could but it was too late even if she had had the proper medical training. Standing there and keeping people back as they waited for the EMT the man came back and decided to teach those young whipper snappers a lesson it seemed by trying to gnaw on them like a dog with a bone. As the poor kid was pulled away and the man was kicked back, a single bullet to the head from Thana's service pistol dropped him like yesterdays left overs. From that moment on everything went South - literally.
Those First Years: Being in a crowded college town was not the best place in the world to have as a starting point for the end of the world. This "disease" spread fast and being in the military meant you worked with the local police, rescue, and national guard to try to keep things under control. It didn't go well and before long Athens was overrun with the Walkers. A last minute evacuation was all that kept Thana alive and she watched from the helicopter as the air force tried in vain to carry out an air strike on the city. The air strike hit but burning only went so far where these things were concerned.
The chopper took her and a few others back to the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay on the coast of Georgia near St. Mary's. By the time they landed the place was already over run, though thankfully it was not as populated as Athens had been. Thana and others were able to clear the majority of the Walkers from the base and hold up in one of the submarines for a couple of years. Using it as a base of operation and going out in search of supplies when needed.
Yet time takes it toll on all areas. There were not enough of them left by the time they decided to move on to actually use the submarine so the choice was made to lock up and leave in search of more. Maybe given enough time thy could get enough people and train them so they could actually set sail to ports elsewhere. It was a thought and one that never came to fruition. Within three months of leaving the so called safety of the base for recruitment Thana was the only one left.
During the next year she has wandered the state, moving a little more west each day and trying to find people. She has run across a few but nothing long lasting. Even though she was a hellion in her younger years, a career in the navy taught her quickly who she could and could not work with. Ever sensing shit was about to hit the fan, she would sneak off in the night from any groups she came across and move on. The last few weeks of that winter had been the hardest with the cold and snow setting in. God knows she needs to find some type of shelter and warmth soon.
Newnan: Thana had been on her own for sometime when she came to the gates of Newnan. She hunkered down low and watched the town from the tree line for a couple of days before approaching on a Redneck rigged vehicle that was half flatbottom boat and half four wheeler. Weapons pointed at her were expected, being whisked away under cover was not. Turned out there was reason for the madness. Thana's twin sister Zoie had one been a member and leader in the community, dating one of the locals before she died. Thana showing up was bound to cause some issues. It did but nothing that wasn't bound to happen eventually.
Due to the high tensions because of her arrival and the wedding that evening, Thana was tied to the C.O. of Newnan for the evening as his plus 1. It was an interesting even for her to say the least and rather pleasant once they got away from everyone else. The next morning turned into Hell. James killed Richard, Thana had to provide backup as he was kicked out Newnan, others deciding to go with him. Her first love Gavin showed back up. Thana was put in charge of Agriculture. Went on a run with Ash. Met up with some outside after following tank tracks in the snow. And then Newnan blew the fuck up. Everything divided up and the only way for her to go was South.
Eden: As her half of the group couldn't get back to Newnan, Eden was the destination. Unknown, it was thought Eden was responsible. Thana lead a small team into Eden, over throwing it, freeing a single prisoner, and taking out the man responsible for many deaths and a lot of havoc to Newnan over the years. During this time though they lost two members of the team: Lola Holler and Gavin Comfort. They gained a few weapons and a case a SpaghettiO's. (Which started a whole new war...)
Searching: Leaving Eden was only the start. Leading a group of four others, Thana kept heading south. It was a hard fought road. One member of the team lost their leg in a bear trap over the winter. Another lost her arm to a walker bite the following spring. While they had food/water/shelter, they also had 1 person still healing from having their leg amputated, and now another just having their arm cut off. They needed medical supplies. Thana left the group in search of supplies. She found them but found a lot more.
On the return trip she was blocked by a mammoth hoard of walkers headed towards the house where her group was. Thana used herself as bait to lead them in a new direction. It worked but almost at the cost of her own life as vehicular event caused her to crash off the side of a bridge and into the river below. Thana awoke weeks and weeks later in a hospital. Weeks more of recuperation and she was able to leave bed. Weeks more and she left the town to search for her people. She never found them, but they in a way found her after all.
Camp Mexico Beach: Returning to CMB, Thana had given up finding anyone she had been traveling with. Turns out they were there waiting. Thana was able to reunite with the four she was with after Eden and Ash from Newnan. Quarantine ended for them around the same time as her short quarantine ended for her return trip and shortly after she had the final steel pin removed from her thigh. After which Ash moved in with Thana to her officer apartment.
"Don't ya ever be away from me that long again, that's a damn order solider." - Thana to Ash after reuniting in CMB
Thana met Ash under unusual circumstances. She arrived at the gates of Newnan in the middle of winter and was told to keep her face hidden. It wasn't until after she was rushed to the Captains house that she was finally able to pull her scarf down and find out just why he didn't want her showing her face in Newnan to start. That, it turned out, was just the start of what was going to be a very interesting Courtship. Thana was by his side at the wedding of the Newnans. By his side during the petty theft. With him that evening at his house alone, only to discover the man wasn't this cold distant object but actually someone full of passion.
Their chance meeting turned into an overnight romance, which was almost derailed at the start by the sudden appearance of Thana's ex-beau Gavin during the eviction of James from Newnan and Ash's sudden bought of jealousy. Things were smoothed out after the two had a rather heated discussion and some feelings were both professed and expressed. Thana was put in charge of agriculture by Ash and things seemed to be calming down when the two decided to go on a run to clear heads.
As Newnan fell, Thana and Ash were separated, one on each side of the ravine. Each had to go their own way but Thana tossed Ash her dogtags and ordered him to return them to her. They agreed to meet up further south and, if all else failed, to find each other in Florida where her family used to vacation when she was a child. All else did fail and Thana spent more than a year working her way south to try to find Ash, only to always come up empty handed.
Thana had given up hope after one last ditch effort to find him and the rest of her people had turned up nothing. Getting back to CMB Thana got out of the truck and was in mid-'fuck it' when she heard someone yell her name. Turning around and seeing Ash, Thana lost all composure she had held in all this time and collapsed in his arms. After some very private and soapy reuniting time, the two finished out Quarantine together and Ash moved into Thana's officer housing. She is deeply in love with Ash and is trying to have an actual relationship with the man.
Zoie Crawford
"Yes ma'am, identical. Well genetically. We are two very different people. We weren't ever close." - Thana to Miss Sally about her relationship with Zoie
Zoie was Thana's identical twin sister, at least physically. The two were very different personality wise and Thana hated her sister with the fire of a thousand suns. When she found out that Zoie was dead she felt nothing. Thana knew the truth of Zoie's past and it was nothing like the sweet face she put on for the people of Newnan. The Zoie that Thana knew growing up was cruel, evil, and down right a worthy bride of Satan. She is the reason Thana cannot have children and refuses to be around them in most any sense. Somethings even God can't forgive.
Gavin Comfort
"Ranger, this isn't the time." - Thana to Gavin about backing off.
Thana and Gavin dated before the Outbreak happened and were very serious. Gavin was the first person that Thana had started to fall in love with. Sadly for her Gavin wasn't over his wife who had died a few years prior and he ended things with her. Thana eventually got over it and had long placed him in her rear view mirror, until he showed up in Newnan just as her and Ash were coming together. It was bound to be a problem but as Newnan fell and Thana left to deal with Eden, things with Gavin became an issue no more when he dived in and took the fire that saved several lives but ended his own. She didn't shed tears for him until she was private.
Thalia Carmichael
"Well that was out of left field wasn't it?" - Thana to Thalia right before attacking Eden
Thana met Thalia the day that Newnan fell. The woman was riding in a tank with another. That is bound to be memorable. There is a saying that people can come together more quickly over a common enemy than a common love. Thalia and Thana were proof of that. They both had their reasons for attacking Eden and they bonded. The two became friends during their travels and Thana felt, and still feels, personally responsible for the loss of Thalia's arm. It was why she left that day, to find supplies, and one of the reasons Thana has such a heavy debt with CMB - Paying for a prosthetic isn't cheap.
James Grady
"Don't ya be 'mama'ing me boy, yous got better manners than that." - Thana to James at Newnan's front gate
Thana knew James growing up but he was better acquainted with her sister Zoie. Thana hadn't seen the man since she left home to join the Navy and it was a surprise to see the man when she showed up in Newnan. It wasn't exactly a happy reunion but it also wasn't unhappy. Thana was rather indifferent about it and as long as James didn't mention Zoie around her she was willing to put up being around him. Didn't matter as he was exiled for murder shortly after her arrival, and then died when Newnan fell. It didn't bother her that he died but she knew it affected Ash.
Emanuel Newman
"Do whatever you are doing quickly Doc, we're moving now." - Thana to Manny while he's trying to patch her up in Eden.
Manny was a captive in Eden when Thana lead the attack against it. Turned out he was the only good one in the place. The man is a hell of a medic and more than earned his place in the group over the year+ they were together. Thana had to leave the group for supplies after Thalia lost her arm and it wasn't until Thana got back to CMB that she saw Manny again. Seems the man is like a Timex: takes a licking and keeps on ticking.
Alexander Polawski
"Yeah, I think you can place that call now." - Thana telling Alex to radio Lola
Another member of the team that attacked Eden, Mugsy more than proved himself. They were together until Thana had to leave. He was another that lost a limb during their time heading south towards CMB. Another one Thana blames on herself. Another reason she had a heavy debt with CMB.
Beatrice Decker
"You're in fucking charge." - Thana to Beatrice before she left to get supplies
Thana and Beatrice got along enough. Working through Eden together and through the back woods of Georgia trying to get to CMB. When Thana left to look for supplies she left Beatrice in charge. When she met back up with the woman in CMB, it was Beatrice's turn to leave. Like Beatrice when Thana left, she was disappointed but she understood sometimes you just have to go with your gut and hope it pays off.
Nikola Warren
"Col. Martin was right when he said you were like me." - Thana to Nikki about their similarities
Thana met Nikki after she awoke from her coma in CMB. The girl was constantly hanging around and following Thana, especially after she left the hospital. Thana finally called Nikki out while she was hiding in the shadows one day and the two started talking. Turned out that Nikki reminded Thana of herself when she was younger. The two started taking daily runs together and talking down at the beach in the evenings until Thana left to look for her people once again. Thana thought about Nikki a lot while she was out with Mizrahi and was glad to see her when she got back. The girl looks like she is taking some more responsibility and can handle it. Thana thinks the girl is more and more like her each day. While Thana could never handle being a mother figure towards anyone, perhaps a big sister isn't such a bad thing. The kid needs direction.
"I'm a blonde, I'm not stupid!" - Nikki to Auntie about doing her job
⚘ Looking Inside ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Nikola is just a kid trying to survive the end of the world. She is rather immature about a lot of things: chores, regular duties, and the like. She has a bit of an attitude and tends to write checks her ass can't cash. Her mouth tends to run before thinking and she isn't exactly one to hold back. In fact, she tends to let unfiltered anything come out of her mouth with thinking it might not be the best thing to say right then. This combined with her immaturity can make her a bit quick to pop the cork on her temper. Mouthing off or lashing out. While she still has a lot of growing up to do, she has come a long way from the girl who had just entered high school and was pick pocketing people for shits and giggles. She's sweet but a little bit psycho.
Nikki a pretty down to earth person. She likes to crack a joke and laugh. She'll be goofy and jump from one topic to another. Even though she was only just barely in high school when all this started, she is a bright girl and street smart. When she is in a good mood she can even be called bubbly. Known to dance or mutter songs to herself as she bobs around. The young woman is curious and when something new is around, or more than that these days, someone new, she wants to know about it. There isn't a lot to fill a young persons mind these days that partially grew up in an age with the internet, apps, and the like. It's not she can spend her day setting up her top eight places on MySpace anymore. Watching and listening, even as she gabs or chews gum.
⚘ A Brief History ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Growing Up: Nikola was born in Trenton New Jersey. Her mom and dad met in a bar near Fort Dix while he was stationed there. They were dating but it wasn't anything serious. When she got pregnant she wanted to abort Nikola but her dad talked her mom into keeping the baby. Promising if she just signed everything over she would never have to deal with the kid. Nikola was born on Feb 29th, 1992. The papers were signed and her mom vanished.
It wasn't bad though. She was daddy's little girl and the two had a blast while she was young. Raised on different Army bases, she traveled a lot with her dad and was raised basically by her military family. Skateboarding and swimming became her hobbies to pass the time when she wasn't in school. Each summer they would trek down to Mexico Beach and get a room at the El Governor Hotel. Building sand castles, collecting sand dollars, fishing off the pier. It was just a good time over all and she was enjoying things. That was she was about 12 years old, then things changed.
Her dad never wanted her to have the military life and by the time she was twelve she was tired of moving constantly, never being able to keep friends because of the move, tired of having a bunch of military guys constantly watching over her. And the Army Mom's that would watch her were even worse. So she started rebelling. Picking pockets and breaking into places she shouldn't have been. Her father promised her that Fort Benning would be their last post and after a few years he would retire and their last move would be to Mexico Beach.
Your First Walker Encounter: Nikola was dating Bran Stems at Spencer High School. He was on the wrestling team, she decided to sneak out to see a match. Sitting in the stands, cheering away, Bran was caught in a bad hold and his neck was snapped on accident by his opponent. This, understandably, broke the then 15 year old girl. His coach gave her a few minutes alone with the body after the gym was cleared to say goodbye. While hugging him, she almost got bit as he came back. It was traumatizing as she tried to get away. Grabbing one of the sideline chairs she fought him off like circus act and ended up driving one of the legs of the chair through his eye, dropping him.
Those First Years: Some promises can be kept, some cannot. When the outbreak occurred, Fort Benning was where her dad was. Quarantine and chaos. No one knew what was going on, what to do. Being so close to the Alabama/Georgia line, near cities of decent size didn't help. Nikki did what she could do to help and aid but she was only a kid. By the time it had been a year after the first word of the outbreak occurred the place was no longer a safe place to be. It really hadn't been for a long time before that but there were supplies, weapons, and MRE's. It was safer than out there on the road.
Yet, they couldn't stay forever. Nikola, her father, and several others that had still survived left the base and started to head north through Alabama. Took a year to get to Tennessee and by that time half of the people they had left Fort Benning with were dead. Either from getting bit or having to be put down because they went crazy and became a threat. They had taken on more but none ever lasted long. Too many lies about what they had done or been through came out and caused issues.
Then she lost her dad. It wasn't some major walker event. He just stopped walking one day, grabbed his chest, and fell over dead. Nikola figures it was a heart attack. He had promised her Mexico Beach. So she left the group and headed south. Being alone made it hard and she had to learn on the run. Survival and knives. It was all she knew as she made the long trek by herself, avoiding people at all costs.
By the end of year two she was in Mexico Beach, picked up by what she calls the Martin Musketeers. She didn't want a military life but the town was her goal and she was nearly starved to death when they found her on the road. The first two months were the hardest. The place was getting it's wall and still didn't have electricity. Quarantine lasted two months back then. Alone, in a single hotel room. There was no conference room. You stayed there with nothing to do while they waited to see if you were carrying any disease. If you were bit and were hiding it. Interview after interview. The process was long and hard but it was better than being on the road.
After she got out, she didn't want to do school again and started causing trouble. Breaking into the distillery and nearly getting booted. She still a kid at heart but is doing better than she was years ago. She's been raised during the outbreak and finds that makes her better at dealing with than most. She wants to work in Safety but right now she is stuck in Supply, which is beyond boring for her and she can tend to get herself into trouble. Maddoc took her under his wing and started training her. Focusing her on weapons and fighting. It was an outlet.
Camp Mexico Beach: Nikki started out working in Supply but worked the Security Team during the Quarantine Period of Newnan/Eden/Swamp Group for a bit when they came in. Then it was back to supply until further needed. Helping out, like getting supplies down for the Beach Party and taking Hunter over to get his dog back.
"You aren't my daddy!" - Nikki to Maddoc when he grounded her the first time
Nikki was nearly starved to death on the road when she was picked up by Maddoc, his bother Macsen, and his father Aeron on a supply run. Nikki tried to run. Three men in the world and a girl alone, these were things her dad had warned her about before he died. She was too weak to really fight. They threw her in Quarantine for two months. That was hard. A detox period they called it back then. Alone, away from people, get rid of disease or let it kill you, don't waste meds, see if the person can slowly adjust. Maddoc was her "liaison" back then. He brought her meals, washer main guard, watched over her, and so forth.
Nikki hated him for it at first but she wasn't about to complain. She was getting fed and putting on weight. It wasn't until after she got out of quarantine that she started causing issues, like breaking into the distillery. It nearly got her kicked out but Maddoc put his ass on the line for her. Acting like a father to her even if she didn't want him to. Training was hard the first years and Maddoc kept her under lock and key for a long time. Nikki earned his trust though and earned some security shifts. First she took was with the Newnan/Eden/Swamp/Dog group that came in. Went well enough and there were no major problems.
Thana Martin
"How'd the fuck you know that? What, you some kind of psychic?" - Nikki to Thana after being busted for spying
Thana was in the hospital when Nikki noticed her. After that Nikki started to trail Thana to see if she could find out more about the woman who spent her first weeks in CMB unable to say anything. Thana apparently noticed this and called Nikki out on it. After that the spying stopped and the talking began. Turned out that Thana was much like Nikki when she was younger, which surprised Nikki. The two talked a lot before Thana left and Nikki was relieved when she showed back up.
Hunter Monroe
"Only people that deserve to have a gun pointed at them get one in their direction." - Nikki to Hunter about getting a gun pointed at him
Nikki met Hunter while he was in Quarantine. It was her first time being on a security detail. He was one of the young folks in the new group, so of course she was curious. She isn't exactly sure what to think of the guy. She won a kiss from him and talks to him here and there but Major warned her to keep her distance.
"Yer fuller than a tick that's been suckin' on a hound all day." - Thana to the Gunners during the Game
⚘ Looking Inside ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Thana is a mentally strong woman who is often dry and sarcastic but her loyalty and dedication to those she cares about or has a leadership role over is second-to-none. Despite her cooler personality she is not without feelings and harbors a deep compassion for those with whom she have shared similar experiences. A level headed woman, even under extreme pressure or duress, Thana manages to keep her emotions in check during most circumstances. Logic and facts far out weigh emotions in situations. Emotional detachment, loyalty, integrity, and an unwavering dedication to those around her makes Thana a good leader. Single-minded drive and lack of consideration for her own life makes Thana her own worst enemy; something that has nearly gotten her killed more than once and which she will carry the physical scars for the rest of her life. Thana is a doer and not one to wait for someone to talk/make plans/plot. Thinking outside the box and on the spot, she adapts to the situation.
Underneath the work ethics and cool confidence is a woman full of passion and desire. She doesn't do anything halfway, dives in fully to everything she does: whether they be singing, flying, or anything else. She lives by her own set of Rules and believe the world owes no one anything; you are to earn every breath and pay debt for every heartbeat. Thana finds beauty the simplest of things and her southern upbringing makes her speech more than colorful. Thana is not one to hold back. Going after what she wants, when she wants it. She has a sick sense of humor and works it to her advantage to pay back those that have wronged her. A quick wit, Thana can be considered as charming but her sense of humor can be taken as just an odd character quirk by some, disturbingly strange by others. At the end of the day, Thana is a Major Hotlips - a woman, a soldier, a major, all at once.
⚘ A Brief History ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Growing Up: Thana was born in 1962 in Leesburg, Georgia to Macsen and Chantilly (Beard) Martin. Her father a U.S. Marine and 1st generation Welsh Immigrant, her mother a country singer that went by the stage name 'Tilly June. The oldest of eight children, Thana was raised on the family farm and spent her days being raised in the backwoods ways: hunting, fishing, riding, digging in the dirt. She sang in church, worked on the farm, and hung out with her best friend: Ray Adaway. Thana helped her mama with her younger siblings when she was old enough since he father was deployed much of the time and her mother for a time was still pursuing her music career at the time. Thana fell in love with flying when her father took her on her first helicopter ride when she was five years old.
High School: Thana spent her high school years still working on the farm during the year. She joined ROTC and started dating Ray Adaway. The two remained together for their entire high school career. During the summers, Thana left and toured with the USO. First just helping out but eventually joining one of the touring bands and singing with them: Honeysuckle and 'Shine. When she graduated, she went on another USO tour between high school and college, Ray left for Marine Boot Camp and the two broke up: Ray citing he needed to become a better man before getting more serious.
College: These four years were spent at United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. While thanks to her fathers M.O.H. Thana was able to attend for free, it was her grades and ROTC experience that got her in the door. Thana did well in college, focusing on math subjects and majoring in Engineering with a minor in Aeronautical Engineering. She wanted to do everything she could to ensure she could pursue a career in the army as an Aviator. Thana picked up a small past time, ballroom dancing, during the school year: it helped her unwind and developed her hand/eye/foot coordination. During the summers she continued to work with the USO show and spent most of the months over seas.
Fort Rucker: After graduating, Thana was directly commissioned in the Army and transferred to Fort Rucker for Aviator Training. There she learned the intricacies of rotary-winged aircraft, basic flight physics, flight systems, emergency procedures, and how to draw and read flight maps. After running simulations, it was found that Thana had a natural aptitude for the UH-60 Black Hawk, built for medical evacuations and search and rescue missions. She logged nearly 150 in-flight before graduation. (She returned to Fort Rucker later in her career to be school in night vision flight, one of the first classes to do so.)
Fort Bragg: Assigned to Fort Bragg, under General Lindsay and the XVIII Airborne. This became her home base but Thana spent most of of the remaining of '84 and through part of '87 over seas working in various transport operations that ranged from South East Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and South America. Thana volunteered for every deployment she could back to back, limiting time home or on leave to the bare minimal.
Operation Prime Chance: Shipped overseas with the Sky Dragons, Thana was transferred out of general transport to the Black Barons in '87, and given her first chance at combat. A night mission, where her C.O. became unable to perform his duty, Thana was assigned to fly first chair (being the only spare night vision trained aviator on the flight deck). The mission turned bad and Thana was forced to land and provide personal cover fire for Seal Team 4 to finish extracting an injured team mate. Thana earned the call sign Sparrow that evening and was promoted to C.O. of the Black Barons shortly there after. The Barons remained over seas for the remaining of the war and returned home with 100% recovery rate.
Operation Sand Flea: The Barons were deployed to Panama directly after their time in Operation Prime Chance. Basic transport for the first months. It wasn't until their final deployment in Panama that things took a more direct and personal turn. At the end of August '89, the 59th was deployed to Panama and the Barons were in charge of transport of the 59th, as well as working along side them in Panama to set up way stations. Thana worked closely with the 59th for the first few weeks before she was deployed elsewhere for additional training and some morale building. (Leaving the 18th in the hands of her second, Captain Isles.)
During a two month stent outside of Panama, Thana completed her Airborne Jump Training before working with the USO to organize their first tour since the European Bombing a year before. Thana returned to Panama on Thanksgiving: performing a USO show, alongside ex-boyfriend, and newly rekindled romance, Ray Adaway. The next three weeks was working closely with volunteers from the 59th to complete their Airborne Training: among them were Sergeant Ibanez and Lieutenant Holloway. Testing for their airborne jump certification took place at Fort Benning.
Shortly after returning from Fort Benning, Thana was invited to be a plus one for a United Nations dinner. It seemed simple enough and a way for Thana to get her foot in the door. What was to be a simple dinner turned into a hostage situation outside of PDF headquarters. First Lieutenant Paz was shot and killed. Captain Rainwater was shot as well but was able to get away. Lt. Commander Robertson and Thana were taken hostage. A join covert rescue mission was organized between the 18th, the 59th Airborne, and others. Thana and Commander Robertson was extracted from PDF headquarters some hours after being taken hostage.
Thana ended up filing a formal complaint against Captain Stubing, a long thorn in the side of most anyone in Panama but especially for the 59th and the 18th, for his negligence to getting his job done which inadvertently lead to Paz's death, Rainwater being shot, and Robertson and Martin being taken hostage. Thana also put in for Lieutenant Holloway to be promoted so that the 59th, and by association the 18th, would no longer have to be under Stubings supply command and could report directly to Joint Task Force South.
Operation Just Cause: D-Day (December 20th) the Barons lead the first strike attack on the Pacora River Bridge to cut off reinforcements. Due to a mess up at HQ and oversight by the 59th, the Barons were ambushed. Dragon 1, piloted by Major Martin, took heavy direct fire and Thana took a bullet to the chest and shrapnel to the left thigh. She managed to stay in the air long enough for her men to evacuate and jump into the river below before crashing into the river herself. Thana cut herself out of a damaged seat and swam out before the helicopter erupted. She was caught in the undertow and swept down stream. (She was assumed KIA).
Down river Thana managed to swim to the shore line but due to blood loss passed out. On waking, she gathered what she could and tried to trek the most direct route through the jungle back to base. Injury and blood loss made the trek slow and shortly after the 59th and Seal Team 2 were attacking the private airbase here Noriega's plane was being kept, Thana came across it. The two divisions were pinned down. Thana managed to help lighten the attack enough for the 59th and Seal Team 2 to take control back in the battle. After the battle was wrapping up, Thana succumbed to the blood loss once again.
Rushed back to the base and into surgery, Thana was patched up and 'filled up' - requiring nearly half of her blood to be replaced. After reporting what happened from her recovery bed, Thana spent sometime in the hospital before being released. It was then she was informed the Barons were getting shipped stateside once again and would be going on 30 days of leave. There was a day of festivities for Christmas the Barons organized before they shipped home.
Operation Grieving: The day before Thana was scheduled to leave Panama with the 18th and return to Fort Bragg, Captain Holloway received a Red Cross Telegram informing him that his grandmother had passed away. Thana helped arrange emergency leave for the Captain and transport with the 18th back to the states. (Fort Bragg being only a 4 hour drive from the Captains family home.) Once back in the states, the still recovering Major helped the Captain secure clothing, found him a place to rest for the evening, and transport so he could be with his family for his grandmothers wake and subsequent funeral the following day.
Thana was only six years old when she met Ray. He came into her first grade class during recess after his dad took a job on her mama's farm. No one wanted to talk to the mixed boy but Thana did. The two became fast friends: walking together, playing together on the farm. Rays dad worked long hours and had no mother, so Ray was practically raised by Thana's mama. The two were inseparable, even singing in church choir together after Thana convinced Ray to try out. Friendship grew to best friends and when they entered High School the two started a courtship. This was not taken well by the local folks. Pretty white girl dating a black boy? In the 70's? In south Georgia? There was plenty of hate to be had but the two saw it through. Each others first love, they went through nearly everything together. When they graduated Ray found he wanted to be a better man for Thana, something Thana is still trying to understand, and they broke up.
Ten years passed before Thana heard directly from Ray again. It was just a bouquet of dried flowers and a note with two words on it. 'What if?' Those words spoke volumes to Thana. It took time but she did write back. She said yes and their courtship began a new. It isn't without complications as Thana started being courted by Ash Holloway after Christmas as well. Ray knows about Ash and isn't happy about it but he loves Thana and trusts in Thana's love for him for them to work through this. He had ten years to sow his wild oats and find himself before showing back up, he knows it will take Thana time to grow used to him again. He is counting on their history to win out over this new beau.
"Kick the tires and light the fires Gents." - Thana to the Barons before loading up
Thana was transferred to the Barons due to internal conflict with the C.O. of the 82nd Airborne within the XVIII Sky Dragons. It was the best thing to happen. Thana found other misfits or underdogs like her within the 18th Aviation Brigade. Not everyone was receptive but over the years she stuck it out, was given command a year into her assignment and quickly started building her team. Now there are over 60 Barons, requests by others to transfer in because of the Majors leadership and she had grown very close to her men. She cares for all of them but those in Dragon 1 and a select few others are her closest who she wouldn't transfer for anything.
"Just had to embarrass my men didn't ya?" - Aims to Thana at Gitmo
The two met after Thana was assigned to the Sky Dragons during a Formal Military Affair. Thana went with her uncle as his guest and met Aims, her senior by a dozen years. While there was a large age difference, the two hit it off. Aims was the first man that Thana had taken seriously since her and Ray broke up five years before. Thana found Aims charming and mature, which was a nice difference from most men that tried hitting on her. More than that, he treated her like an equal. It went a long way with Thana and the two did love each other. Aims though loved Thana far more and wanted to have a family with her. Something he professed when he proposed to her. Thana turned him down, not ever wanting children or keeping another from having them. Aims was willing to give up on having kids and has kept proposing since. Thana has declined several times since then. Aims was part of Seal Team 4 and owes his life to Thana. Thana calls it doing her job. She still cares for him but she knows she could never have a life with him.
"On the ground they are yours. In the air, their asses and yours are mine." - Thana to Ash before leaving Fort Benning
Thana met Ash by change at a Honky Tonk outside of Fort Benning at the end of the summer of'89. The two shared a couple of drinks, a dance, a song, and some small talk. While there was physical attraction from the start, something about Ash put Thana on edge and she denied him a good night kiss, any personal details about herself, and even her name. So when he showed up on her air field the next morning as the commanding officer of the 59th, it was awkward. From that moment on, Thana and Ash seemed to run hot and cold. Things were either really on or really off. Thankfully it didn't interfere with them working together, which was something that had to do for nearly six months straight.
After getting from Fort Bragg to Fort Clayton, Thana helped Ash get settled into the job and guide him as best she could. (He was a newly promoted 1st Lieutenant at the time and on his first war assignment.) Things were tense thanks to that meeting. Thana not sure what was up with Ash and eventually figuring he was Gay: her reasoning to why he was always on edge round her and kept messing up even the most basic of things when it came to "courting". It wasn't until after Thana replied to an old flame about striking up their courtship again that Ash finally told Thana that he was smitten with her. One mail pick-up too late.
Things only seemed to get worse from there and Thana was shipped out from the way point for two months for 'need to know' reasons. When she returned, things got so much worse. She came back with hope, a song, and a cake. All of which seemed to matter not and within a few minutes of speaking to him, Thana stormed out of his tent barely able to contain her tears. Three more weeks passed and Ash tried to speak to her but Thana was so hurt she couldn't manage to let him have a moment. She was in the middle of training a new airborne at the time.
By the time she was ready to talk to him, it was December. Saving talking for later, Thana and Ash spent a very intimate evening together. It was perfect. The next day though it all went back to hell between them. Physically they fit together perfectly, anything else seemed beyond them. Ash constantly left Thana feeling worthless, inadequate, and lacking: as if anything she did for him wasn't enough. From Fort Benning back to Panama, to her capture by PDF, finding the 59th on the airfield, Christmas, returning to the States: whatever good that was between them constantly was thrown away: Especially when he wrote her off and told her goodbye in a note left under her door deciding for the both of them it was over. Ash broke her heart before she had a chance to fall in love with her.
"Smith! Put the Lieutenant down before you hug the stuffin' out him!" - Thana to Smith at the tents
Smith, better known as Big Mike is a behemoth of a man who has a simple mind and a good heart. Thana met Michael when she was in college and the two became friends. Thana helped Michael study to do better on his ASVAB and still tutors him when she can. The man isn't stupid, he is just different. Thana is very proud of the way he has progressed and Mike is very protective of "Miss Major" as he calls Thana these days. Careful, he's nearly hugged people to death.
"Sir, what the hell AA doin' here takin' up my field space?" - Thana to Lindsay after landing in Panama
Lindsay has been Thana's Commanding Officer since she was assigned to Fort Bragg. While there have been others between her and Lindsay for a time, that was quickly found not to work, at least not yet. Lindsay wasn't sure to think of Thana to start but he gave her a chance and she has proven herself time and time again. Lindsay is a mentor to Thana now and he is one of the few men of such a high rank that Thana truly respects and trusts. He is hard on Thana and assigns her far more than he would a man but he knows that she has to prove herself far more than the average man does in the army. He figures she will either break or soar. So far she has soared, especially with helping with morale. He is afraid that she is going to burn out if she keeps it up or something worse. He is glad to see her working back with the USO. It is good down time for her. Her time in Panama was rather uneventful until her 3rd tour and then it got kicked into high gear when he assigned her to watch over the 59th in case Stubing screwed up. She handled things well and found him a new officer to keep an eye out on.
"Petit a petit, l’oiseau fait son nid.” - Little by little, a bird makes its nest.
⚘ Looking Inside ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Océane walks through life like a caged bird freed but refusing to leave the bars which contained her. When she was younger she had a voice of her own and will that seemed unending but her will has left her. Not entirely but only the vaguest traces remain for survival, as if what will she had had been spent on a single last hurrah, or perhaps buried for now. There is a strange weight on her limbs and an unnatural timidness and an anxious nature to her. Always seeming to be looking over her shoulder as if she is the prey and she senses a predator on her heels she must protect herself from. Not that she could protect herself if she were to come under attack, flight instead of fight is more this little birds nature.
While ever seeming as if she is looking out for the worst, Océane is perhaps a tad naive as she looks for the silver lining or best in most all situations. Hopeful. Wanting to please and do well, she works hard and tirelessly, as if seeking approval or acceptance. Perhaps this is her fight. Quick to smile and grateful of kindness, Océane strives to be kind and understanding. Not well versed in enough common womanly duties, she is eager to learn and has an unending dedication and loyalty to those that have shown her kindness and understanding. Oddly enough, there is a deep devotion to even those that have mistreated her if she feels she owes them a debt.
⚘ A Brief History ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Before The War: Océane was born in 1855 in Atlanta Georgia to Saint and Chantilly (Marseille) La'Barbe. Her father and mother both French Immigrants and naturalized citizens, making Océane the first born of her family in the United States. Both her parents were Clothiers and did well, amassing a comfortable living tending to the Southern Elites with their French Inspired fashions. Her mother and father tutoring her in various subjects.
During The War: When the Civil War broke out, her father was 'recruited' and went off to fight. Océane and her mother were in Atlanta during Sherman's march and it was then that Océane was struck and her leg was damaged by a burning runaway carriage. Two months after Sherman's March, she and her mother received word that her father had been killed. Her mother passed of a broken heart some weeks later, leaving Océane an orphan in a war torn South.
After The War: Océane was sent to live with her Aunt Camille and new husband on a farm in Kentucky. Life was strict on the farm. Each day Océane rising early to tend to chores on the farm and in the house. Chores started out small as she was still healing: mending clothing, cleaning floors. The chores became more over the years but Océane's leg never fully healed and she carries a small limp because of it. While on the farm she learned about crops, her aunt continuing her tutoring.
Adulting: Continuing to live with her Aunt and 'Uncle', working on their farm and helping tend to the house, Océane left after she turned twenty and set out on her own with what little she had. Finding a home in St. Louis Missouri after seeing an ad in the newspaper for Hearst House For Women. There she cultivated her skills and started to learn more in trade for teaching other women in the house how to read and write so they could start to self educate. When presented with a chance to find a husband far out west, Océane agreed and had her picture taken to be placed in an ad.
Hearst House For Women: Océane continued her work around the house as she waited to see if she would get any replies from the ad. Mostly working in the greenhouse and tending to a new beehive she had managed to purchase. She did, many. Most of which turned her stomach. One stood out to her, a Mr. Cypress Holloway. Though she was taunted about his picture, she wrote back nonetheless and from there a courtship bloomed.
Between working in the house and corresponding with Mr. Holloway, Océane remained very busy though not without issue. More than a handful of requests for Océane came through, none of which she responded to other than Mr. Holloway. One from Kentucky she out right burned. Ms. Hearst took care of responding to the others. The attention from would be suitors did not go unnoticed and became a catalyst for problems in the house. Girls lashing out towards Océane. They always had, this escalated to physical violence once Océane accepted Mr. Holloway's proposal of marriage.
Océane had to assist the Pinkerton's with information on Mr. Holloway so that a background check could be run. After which Océane continued to deal with problems at the house as best she could while preparing to travel by train from St. Louis to Wyoming. Cleaning and cooking within the home, trading mending and sewing for horsemanship lessons, tending to her beehive, and in the dark hours of the night working on what she hoped would be her wedding dress.
Several days before Océane left for Wyoming, things came to a head in the Hearst House. Océane attacked another girl for ripping a dress she was sewing and clawed her face, leaving deep enough wounds to most likely scar. After this the girls in the house avoided Océane until she moved out: some because they didn't want to get in the middle of it, others because they sided with the girl who was clawed.
Transcontinental Railroad: Between the days of August 7th and August 14th 1876 Océane was onboard two different trains. The Number 8 between St. Louis and Omaha, and the Number 3 between Omaha and Laramie. A week long journey that was calm for the most part despite the rising tensions and war between the United States and Sioux Nations. During this time Océane mostly stayed in her private sleeping quarters and worked on finishing up sewing a dress.
When she was not in the Sleeping Car she was either in the Dining Car or in the Baggage Car. The Baggage Car was where her Beehive was being held and she needed to check periodically to see how they were holding up as transport of such things could be delicate. The Dining Car was for eating and stretching her legs, as well as getting to know the Chef some and learning a few new recipes. Océane watched out the window often during the seven days of travel, seeing how the landscape changed and thinking on how her life was going to change once she reach Laramie and finally met Cypress face to face.
Laramie, Wyoming Territory: Océane's time in Laramie was short as far as time spent there went but in terms of things done it was rather eventful. After arriving and disembarking from the train, Océane finally met her fiancé face to face for the first time. He proposed in a sense and gave her an engagement ring. After accepting it, Océane turned her attention to her bees to ensure they were taken care of and safe. They had to be stored in a netted beehive in the hotel suite until Océane left town.
Once this was taken care of, Océane needed to change out of her travel wear that she had been in for the last week, freshen up as best she could, and dress for the wedding that was to take place within the hour. Once changed, it was off to the chapel where Océane nearly fainted in the church but managed to stay upright, mostly. The wedding was quick but orderly enough. Océane acquired not only a new husband at the church but flowers.
After the wedding, Agent Hamilton left the two and they were off back to their hotel quarters. The rest of the day was spent in enjoyment and preparation for the trek back to what would become their home. Time in the shops and eating, Océane was able to try many things she hadn't remembered doing before: ice cream, new boots, champagne, a hip bath, and most importantly a hat that looked very much like her new husbands. The next day they set out from Laramie to home.
"Spit and polish, quite order" - Everyday at breakfast
Charles married Océane's Aunt Camille shortly before the end of the Civil War. When Océane's mother passed away she was sent to live with the two of them until she came of age and could be married. 'Uncle' Charles put Océane to work almost immediately on arrival to his families farm in Tennessee. Being a city child and still recovering from a carriage accident Océane had a hard time adjusting. Charles did not make things easy for the young girl, pushing her constantly in both her chores and her studies, among other things.
Cypress Holloway
"Would you be my puzzle piece, come out to Wyoming Territory, and cleave to me in matrimony?" - Letter to Océane, June 1876
Océane had never met Mr. Holloway to begin with. Seeing an advertisement for a Picture Bride, Mr. Holloway wrote the Hearst House about the girl known as Anne. He was not the only one but he was the only one that Océane returned a response. Over the next months more letters were written between the two until Cypress proposed marriage. Océane had not been expecting it so soon but she accepted nonetheless and began the complicated and long list of tasks to complete so that she could travel to Wyoming from St. Louis to be with Cypress and wed him.
On arrival in Laramie, Océane was introduced to Mr. Holloway where he presented her with a wedding ring set on bended-knee: officially and publicly cementing an engagement. After accepting, ensuring her few possessions were secure, and changing it was time to leave for the church. (Not an hour after arriving in Laramie.) The two headed to the church and were wed without much incident. Océane found that her new husband was gentle and sweet to her. He had a mustache that tickled and a kindness to let her get flowers.
After the wedding they spent time together and Cypress lavished on Océane gifts and moments she had never had before. All of which were overwhelming, none of which set her perfectly at ease. Yet, she did get up the courage to ask for a particular hat, one that became a favorite possession of hers rather quickly. The evening was spent enjoying each others company, at least that much she remembered after drinking that evening.
The next morning they took care of a few things, enjoyed more of each others time together and set off for home. Their home, something that Océane took some time to get used to the idea. During the first part of the journey back to their home, Océane opened up a little about the time she spent in Kentucky and some of the things she endured. Confused by her husbands reaction, she didn't speak about it anymore and ended up changing subjects. Talking about different things until they stopped for lunch. At lunch she got her husband some honey and enjoyed olives that her husband offered her.
On the journey back, she talked about flowers: one in particular she picked at where they had their picnic. Cypress suggested them starting a flower garden back at their home and asked her what she would need. Never having seen the land and not knowing what her husband had on hand she couldn't answer. She was very moved by the offer and looked forward to starting one.
Ms. Hearst
"I don't think you understand my dear. All of these are asking for you" - Said to Océane about the stack of mail
Océane discovered the Hearst House for Women thanks to an ad in a local paper. Ms. Hearst welcomed the little thing in a smile and gave her a warm bed in which to sleep in. The woman has been a guide to her in both the home and how to deal with the outside world as Océane does not have much experience. She has helped Océane grow but knows the girl has a long way to go. She was the one that ask Océane to allow her photo to be used in their national ad for Picture Brides, in hopes it would help many of the girls in the house find a good home to make their own. She has been a protector for Océane for many a scuffle girls in the house would start with Océane and helped the little one prepare for her trip from St. Louis to Wyoming as well as responding to others that have written to Océane in hopes the men would be happy to marry another one of the girls instead after Océane turned her attention to Mr. Holloway alone.
Angeline
"Aww, little mouse went and fell. Perhaps we should help her up girls." - After pinning Océane to the ground
Since the day that Océane stepped into Hearst House, Angeline has had a thorn in her hand about Océane for reasons unknown to anyone other than she seems to enjoy causing pain to weaker girls in the house. It started out as simple jabs and verbal sticks over the months but once Océane was chosen for a national add for Picture Brides by the Hearst House and started getting attention this quickly escalated. Once Océane accepted a proposal from Mr. Holloway it turned physical and came to a head when Océane finally struck back and clawed Angeline's face after Angeline ripped Océane's wedding dress.
Agent Hamilton
"Not what I was expecting." - On seeing Cypress Holloway's photograph
Agent Hamilton has long worked with the Hearst House. Meeting each girl as she becomes a resident so that she can vet the young woman. For the girls that become engaged her duties increase, having to run background checks on the men actively pursuing matrimony and even so far as to escort the ladies to their prospective husband when the time comes. She has worked closely with Océane in both vetting the girl herself and running background checks on Mr. Holloway for Ms. Hearst. Océane is a special interest for Agent Hamilton and she has been the one to set the date in which Océane would travel to Wyoming as she must be the one to escort her so that she can ensure the girls reputation during travels. She stayed by Océane's side during the 7 day journey from St. Louis to Laramie, keeping her reputation in tact and acting as a buffer from undesirables. After which she remained still at Océane's side until after she was wed.
"If I can't learn to control this rage I'm gonna end up killin' some guy." - To his dad before he left for Parris Island
⚘ Looking Inside ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Though the man can handle being in tense situations and on stage in front of countless fans Ray is a rather shy individual at heart; quiet and reserved. A societal conditioned introvert who prefers to stay at the back of the crowd, or even better to be alone, instead of being in front of a group of people. He is kind to those he is close to and ever a full southern gentleman. He is quick to smile over the simplest acts of kindness and enjoys simple beauty in the world. Ray is a romantic; poetry, meaningful gifts, colorful turns of phrase, and attention to the small details that matter. He speaks softly but from the heart. He strives to be better than he was yesterday and is constantly trying to grow into the man he thinks he should be.
There is a rage that lays under the surface. Ray can be possessive and competitive when it comes to the things he wants in life; such as his career and the people he loves. Quick to anger under many circumstances, it is a reason why he tries to keep his distance from others. Self imposed distance from people or situations that can trigger him; though in his line of work avoiding such things can't always be avoided. Ray feels as if he must prove himself and earn his place in people's lives; as if just being there for them and being kind isn't enough. Few places he feels comfortable in or that he fits truly he self secludes himself and finds himself brooding over the past far more than is healthy. He has been known to run away in the past from things, nowadays he over compensates by being too agreeable.
⚘ A Brief History ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Growing Up: Ray was born in 1961 in Chattanooga, Tennessee to Beau Adaway and Letty-Mae Riles. His father a farm hand and his mother a waitress, they were not married. His mother died giving birth to Ray and he was raised by his father. The first six years moving from town to town during different farming seasons until his father took a job as the Farm Manager for Beard Family Farms in Leesburg, Georgia. Ray spent much of his time on the farm while he was growing up, becoming friends with the children of the owners, and singing in church. Ray dealt with more than his share of bullying and torment growing up, being not black of white had him caught between two races: neither of which would claim him.
High School: Ray spent his high school years still working on the farm part-time during the school year and full-time during the summers. He joined ROTC and started dating Thana Martin. The two remained together for their entire high school career. During his down time he worked with the Church choir and focused on writing music to try to stay out of trouble - many fights breaking out between himself and other local teens. When Ray graduated high school he left for Marine Boot Camp and broke up with Thana: citing he needed to become a better man before getting more serious.
Life As A Marine: Ray, like anyone on the East Coast, attended Parris Island for boot camp training. After finishing boot-camp at Parris Island, Ray was a Marine. Stationed to Camp Lejeune as part of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines. He served six years in the Marines and was deployed numerous times into combat zones, including Libya, Lebanon, and Grenada. At the time of his discharge he held the rank of Sergeant and was honorably released from the Marines. Though no longer serving as a Marine, Ray still worked with Marines, kept close ties with his fellow Devil Dogs and understands now that once a Marine, always a Marine.
Rise To Fame: From the day Ray was discharged from the Marines he was hitting the Honky Tonk and Country Bar scene hard, every small town that would let him play, every Nashville scene he could get his foot in. He was met with both curiosity and full blown anger. His country was different. He was a mixed man, looking more like a thug out of Detroit than a farmer out of Georgia. His music ranged from classic country to rock country to everything in-between. Promoters didn't know how to promote him. The leg work and determination paid off with the small release of his first album. It hit both the Country and Rock airways with force and Ray topped both charts. Touring, promoting, and more kept his star climbing and he became the new hit sensation but not without problems. Constantly under attack both in the media and in person, Ray has to keep his guard up. Time in the Marines has taught him patience.
USO Rehearsals, Arlington, Virginia: After receiving a call about being one of the main acts for a USO show, Ray started planning. He had to cut one tour short and add on more shows to another to fit it in but it was worth it. He had always wanted to do a USO Show and now was his chance he felt to give back to the troops. Having served he knew how important morale was over seas, especially during the holiday season. He didn't know at first who he would be performing with but as he spotted a group he had seen plenty of times playing in South Georgia he got his hopes up. Seeing Thana arrive made everything perfect. For the next two months both his band and 'Shine practices, set up lighting and effects, worked with their MC, as well as other support staff to make sure the show could be pulled off. During this time he also got to spend some private time with Thana and have some dates.
Fort Clayton USO Show: Two days before Thanksgiving, USO set up crews arrived for the first stages of set up. The rest didn't arrive until Thanksgiving Day - including Ray. The first part of the show went off well. The second half was Rays turn. He performed several of his hits off his first two albums. Got in the crowds and entertained the troops. The last song of the evening was a duet with his high school sweet heart. After the show, he accompanied Thana back to her tent to talk some more and see where she wanted to go with things. After which he left to prepare to leave Fort Clayton as she would be staying and taking command of the Barons once again. He was able to talk to Thana once more before he flew out and she shocked him by what she proposed. He left Fort Clayton a little worried but mostly confidant that things would work out in his favor once she was out of Panama and back in the states.
"Let the world hear yer voice, then they'll see what I see." - Thana trying to get Ray to sing in choir
Ray was seven years old and a year behind in school because of constant moving when his dad enrolled him in school at Lee County Elementary. He was taken into class during recess and he sat down alone. Several kids started picking on him and this little girl with bright blue eyes and curls in her hair - punched them and then split her cookie with him. That was all she wrote. From that moment on Ray and Thana were inseparable. Ray followed Thana around like her shadow. Went to school together, played together, sang in choir together, sat next to each other at church and every meal. Ray spent most of his time with Thana when not at home. When they started high school, Ray started courting Thana. It was a hard road- they were different races, different social classes, in the deep south, during the '70's but they stuck it out. Singing and writing song together. That was until Ray graduated and he broke up with Thana; saying he needed to be a better man for her.
Years went by but there wasn't a day that Ray didn't think about Thana. In the middle of serving he wrote songs, many of which were inspired by his high school sweet heart. He did date others but there was never anything serious. His mind always went back to his "Juju". After ten years he felt he had finally not only become the man he thought he needed to be but had a career and income he thought added to his "value" - he reached out to Thana with a single card. Floored she said yes he was happy to start their relationship again. It seemed though she had just met someone new. He didn't want to open things up but he did for her, so she would not have any doubts.
"Boy, I will tan yer hid like yer one of mine!" - To Ray anytime he ran into the house with mud on his shoes
Miss 'Tilly is the only woman in Rays life that he looks at as a mother. She practically raised the man as his mother passed away when he was born. As her daughter and him were always around each other and his father worked on her families farm, Ray kind of came under Miss 'Tilly's protection and guard during working hours, church hours, and more. Not that she minded. Ray was a good boy, even if he did get in trouble, and as he grew older she knew that no matter what happened Ray would protect her eldest daughter. Not to mention having an extra hand around the house of eight children did help. Miss 'Tilly looks at Ray as one of her own kids and while she is hard on the boy and gives him a rough time, she loves him. (Even if she doesn't think he is right for her daughter.)
The Martin's
"They are my family, they made me who I am." - Ray's thoughts on the Martins
The Martin's are a large family and Ray knows them all. Each of the siblings are like siblings to him having grown up together on the farm, playing in the dirt, fighting, eating, birthdays, and more. Mr. Martin is like a second father to him, Uncle Maddy and Grandpapi Martin are just those to him as well. While Beau is his dad, the Martins are the rest of his family. Nothing will ever change that.
"I am in her employ, I'm not allowed to have feelings.” - Corisande's thoughts when asked about Lady Daventry
⚘ Looking Inside ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ There is a high level of skepticism and doubt that she must deal with in situations and more importantly with people. Corisande wants to trust but finds it hard to do so, tending to think the worst about a situation. With people it is worse, as her lack of trust even after an extended period of time can bring issues to the surface. Closed off, Corisande can become emotionally distant when confronted or even aggressive if the circumstance causes her to feel threatened. Once she is sure of something, no matter how wrong it may be, it is hard for her to let it go: especially informationly. This ill-informed nature leads her to act foolishly or even rashly, only added to future skepticism.
As negative as her mental capacity can be Corisande is very practical and responsible about things, understanding personal views aside she is lacking in many ways and must deal with the situation in front of her instead of focusing on her inner thoughts. She places a lot of thought into her future and how she will get by day to day so her opinions matter little when it comes to the larger picture: which is survival. Frugality is required as well as keeping a level head for these things. She is careful and wary, a woman who keeps her mouth shut. When it comes to situations or people she might draw the wrong conclusions but that doesn't mean she isn't noticing things. Corisande is very observant to things that are going on around her in the world.
⚘ A Brief History ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Childhood: Corisande was born to Richard and Jane Clemins during the winter of 1794 in a small village known as Monkswood in the northern English Countryside. Richard was a farmer and Jane was a seamstress. Corisande had a good childhood, learning how to sew from her mother, that was until she was sixteen years old. Corisande, as well as many in their village (including her parents), all came down with influenza that winter. It was a hard several months. Many recovered, including Corisande. Her parents did not and died within three days of each other.
Adulting: Being of marriageable age, the local minister arranged for Corisande to marry Brighton Somerset, the local barrister three decades her senior. They were married for eight years before the man passed away, a nice way of putting it. He was run over one morning by a wagon as he was passed out in a drunken stupor on the side of the road and the driver did not see him. Having no children, and no property, and their house rented from the local Minister, Corisande did what she could to stay afloat for a time.
Elmswood Manor: Word of Corisande's sewing skills reached Lady Daventry and Corisande accepted a job as her personal seamstress. The pay was not much but it provided her with a roof over her head, food in her stomach, an exit from the home she had been forced to live in, and some sort of stability. Since moving into to Elmswood, Corisande has to play it safe as the Lady Daventry is volatile against any who do not live up to her standards. She spends many late hours sewing, trying to keep up the maddening pace, but Corisande keeps loosing time. Hours and hours, and she cannot figure out why.
"I will burn for feeling relief." - Corisande on his death
Corisande was only sixteen years old and just healing from influenza when she was married to Brighton Somerset. It was not a marriage that she wanted but as she had just lost her parents and so many in their village had died as well there was not a lot of options for a young girl wishing to retain what little reputation she had at that tender age. Brighton was the local barrister and could provide a roof and food. It was the best that she could hope for. They were marriage for eight years and had no children during this time. Corisande was not upset when he died after being run over by a wagon but she felt bad that she didn't feel bad.
Lady Daventry
"Your skills aren't near what I am paying for, do it again!" - To Corisande after at least half the dresses
Lady Daventry hired Corisande not long after her husband died. She wanted a personal seamstress so that she did not leave her beloved Elmswood Manor. Corisande moved and began work. She has worked for the woman the last couple of years and is very on edge because of it. Lady Daventry pushes for unobtainable standards and time restraints on dresses. Corisande does everything she can, keeps her mouth shut, and her head down. So far she has managed to retain her job.
"I'm going to count down. Don't be here when I reach one." - Said to Malcolm when he interrupts her
⚘ Looking Inside ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Sunie is a private person that keeps to herself. Reserved and quiet, she does not speak about personal matters. Emotions are highly guarded and protected behind walls that are thick, high, and enveloping. A cool exterior and stern persona when confronted emotionally. A creative person with a quick mind, she can be over chatty when talking about technical things before her or when she is working on her latest creation. Sunie is one to leap before she thinks, a quick pop off of the mouth or actions before considering the situation makes her a liability to herself and to others.
Having a short fuse and over zealous tendencies have forced Sunie to be adaptable. As she doesn't think before she acts she must be able to compensate for her lack of foresight with outside of the box thinking and quick mental reflexes. While she has a smart mouth and an attitude that cuts deeply, her caring nature runs as hot as her temper. Passionate about her work she can be intense to deal with. She is loving, to those few she has been close to; the chosen ones. Loyalty runs deep but she will not place most others above herself. Taking damage or being put in harms way are things she will go through for others but if it comes down to someone else and her she will chose herself in the end; this is not something she hides and she is frank about it.
⚘ A Brief History ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Childhood: Sunie's was born in the early spring to unknown parents. She was found left on the door steps of an orphanage in the Northeast. A letter was left saying when she was born, and a small bit that the parents were dying and were unable to care of her. The orphanage took her in and raised her. Sunie spent much of her time growing up learning to defend herself and tinkering with various mechanics she found around the place. By the time she was old enough to leave she was rather well versed in the trade and sought out to find a way to support herself and survive.
Adulting: The orphanage, like many others, was under watch by the Company. Always on the look out for new recruits with talent and no ties. Sunie stood out and was recruited. It was something. A life of adventure, or so she was told. Training was hard, vicious. She lost her right hand in the first month. It didn't stop there. The team was trained over the course of years and worked together for many more after that. That was until the company retired them-citing they were obsolete. Far out living the prime age for members. Sunie was given a choice, move up the ladder and train new recruits or retire. She chose retirement and went into smithing and design with Doc Woods.
Phage was Sunies commanding officer within the company. He trained her from day one. They worked well together. When everyone went their own ways, Sunie and Phage stayed in touch. They dated for a time but Phage left for work elsewhere and went off the map. He returned years later to find Sunie still there and with a son, his son. He did not know how to take the news and ran for a short time. By the time he returned Sunie was in mourning for their son who had died of an aggressive cancer that came out of nowhere. Sunie told Phage to leave and not come back. She couldn't bare to look at him, Zion had had his fathers eyes.
Dr. Malcolm Woods
"You're losing what you are." - To Sunie about her cybernetics
Doc worked with the team for years and the team before them. Designing biowear, body replacements, and the like to keep the team going and dealing with loss of limbs and more. He was the one to start the replacements on Sunie and the one to teach her when she retired from the team. Now he refuses to lend more experience or knowledge to her, Sunie is losing much of who she was and he won't contribute anymore to the loss of her humanity.
"Loss is not something you can define. Only experience." - Thoughts on her village
⚘ Looking Inside ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Kikuya is a placid individual who remains quiet, still, and calm despite the situation and allows her to be a well-mannered person that is pleasant to be around and likable. Consoling and showing an emotional understanding she is an ear in which to listen and a shoulder on which to lean. She is loyal and committed, devoting herself fully and dedicating her time and effort to the task. A dependable and determined ways makes her a natural leader, aspiring for more and challenging herself in exacting and challenging ways. Bright and nimble, she is not so much talented as driven.
Underneath the surface resides a resentful and spiteful mind, dwelling on transgressions of the past. Dissatisfied with the cards that fate has dealt makes her disgruntled in her current situation as it breaks with her more traditional beliefs and view of societal honor class. Though not outwardly expressive, Kikuya is defensive and paranoid, untrusting to those around her: even those she is close. She lacks confidence in people and situations, vulnerable in her situation, and ever doubting of even the most apparently true natured. Shielding herself emotionally from criticism, the depth of feelings are great for Kikuya but her outwardly calmness and warm expression act as walls; a damn to hold back the crashing tides.
⚘ A Brief History ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Childhood: Born in the spring, Kikuya had a lovely and simple childhood. He father was a farmer and she mother simply tended the house and helped her father. They spent much of their time with Kikuya, showing her love and tenderness; preparing her for life when she got older, for when she too would become a wife to a farmer in the village. It wasn't much to aspire to but Kikuya was content. She had friends in the village, the people were kind, they were in the shadow of Edo so protected from much of the strife the rest of the country was going through.
Adulting: Kikuya thought things would continue as they had in her childhood. She married well enough, to a childhood friend. The marriage, while not passionate, was easy and kind. The village was prospering. Life was good. That was until her husband was conscripted into the military to help the northern villages. While he was gone, her village came under attack. Kikuya was trampled and her ankle burned and broken, her parents killed, her farm burned to ash.
Kikuya fled with others into Edo. The city turned their backs on the refugees and Kikuya did what she could to survive. Hoping that things could move one once her husband returned. Word of his death came weeks after their village was burned. Kikuya eventually found work in a Pleasure House and was trained by the mother of the house. She has done well enough the last two years, learning and prospering as well as she can in these times. At least within the walls of Edo are safe enough, for now.
"Your promise became your lie." - After receiving news of his death
Kikuya and Shun were married in a simple ceremony during the spring. It wasn't a marriage of love but they were content and happy with each other. Their life together was calm and familiar as they grew up together and had known each other their entire lives. More friends than anything, they knew each others deepest thoughts and spent much of their time together talking about different ideas, not wanting to focus on the problems outside of their village. They lived in the shadow of Edo and had a sense of security because of it. That was until things started to get worse and Shun was conscripted into the military to help defend the northern villages. He promised to return, he never did. Killed in battle and body burned on site, not even his ashes were brought back to the village.
Yui Aoi
"Yes Aoi-san, here is the payment." - After every client
Yui is Kikuya's boss as it were. She took Kikuya in when she came to Edo, finding the girl begging on the streets, trying to survive. She did for her what she did to most any pretty girl. Took her in, gave her a home, food, clothed her, taught her skills, and turned her back out to the streets but this time to work instead of to bed. Kikuya has done well for Yui, the young woman perhaps could have been a Geisha had she been schooled at an earlier age and never married are the thoughts of Yui. For now, she will do well in her current position, perhaps she will pass the house down to her. She could easily run these girls.
"Nothing in front of me is stronger than my ancestors behind me." - On being broken
⚘ Looking Inside ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ An irrepressible young woman, Astra is tough and adaptable. Able to withstand and recover quickly from difficult situations. Recoiling and springing back after intense and/or tough situations. Intent on her purpose, she is steadfast and single-minded in her drive to push forward through hardship. She is admirably determined and unwavering in her dedication to what she has her mind set on. Persistent in her nature, she is continuously and obstinately mindful to remain on course in spite of difficulty or opposition that may come in her way. Earnest to do what is needed and tenacious she can rather adamant about things. She is thoughtful. Being astute about the present and the past, giving deep thought in a quiet manner over situations as to learn from them and better adapt.
Bold and without shame, Astra is forward and immodest in even the most prudent of situations. A quick tongue makes her pushy and even flagrant in her disregard for manners and modesty. Defiant, she can be insolent and show a total lack of respect to those around her. Change does not come easy to Astra. She is unwilling and hesitant; unwilling and suspicious of even the most timid and unassertive around her. Adverse to trusting. The woman is crafty and astute. Clever, having shown skill in achieving her goals and resourceful in planning and execution. Designing and subtle in the long run as she needed to be she can be rather artful about the complexity of a plan.
⚘ A Brief History ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Childhood: Astra was born the daughter of Erik Borgeson, a Northman Jarl, and his wife Brenna Gunnarsdotter, a shield maiden. Life within the village was hard but happy. Astra had a sense of adventure, constantly seeking out new places to search and new things to try. Her mother tried to keep the young girl disciplined, focused on training and learning. Her father side tracked much of this by giving into the childs adventurous side and taking her out many days to explore. When her father wasn't derailing her training, her mother trained her in the art of combat from an early age.
When she was 12, while her father and mother were out with many other warriors in the village to raid a distant land, the village itself was raided. Much of it was burned, many were killed, some were taken to be sold as slaves; including Astra. No trace was left behind of who had invaded the village. When her parents returned, though they searched, they never found Astra or who invaded the village.
Servitude: For nearly 7 years that Astra has lived as a slave to a Dane Lord far far to the south of her village and well beyond the borders of other villages and Jarls. Astra worked as a slave. Ill-treated, beaten, used, and kept weak enough not to be able to fight back. It was only because of lack of resources due to the early harsh winter setting in and a plague ripping through that Astra was able to finally make a break for it. Out into the storm she escaped, little on her back, less in her stomach. One foot in front of another into the white, only knowing each footstep was one of freedom even if it might not have been in the direction home.
"Use your brains child when you sword cannot reach." - While training when Astra was young
Mother wished her to train, father let her play. Halfdan found ways for her to do both. Not related by blood directly but like an uncle to Astra, Halfdan found ways to keep the young Astra entertained but learning. Noting she was bright and driven, he would give her impossible scenarios for her strength and size and force her to think things through. He had more influence on Astra than many would have liked as he lived outside of the village as an outcast but his influence could not be denied.
Lother Scylding
"Blessings that you have been taken by the Greatest of Danes" - To Astra when he took her
The man how lead the raiding party that raided her village and took her. She was to be sold even further south but there was something in her eyes that made him keep her. Over the years he did everything he could to break the young girl but many nights he was left wondering if anything would cut the child more than skin deep.
"You had me waste ten years of my life to be second? Fuck you." - To her vocal coach on graduation.
⚘ Looking Inside ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ An insightful individual, Kilatha is quick-witted and sharp. She has and shows the ability to accurately assess situations and turn this into her advantage. Perceptive about her surroundings, she has a sensitive insight; a deeply accurate and understanding perspective of things that goes unnoticed. She is not one to be intimidated or discouraged by difficulty. Unalarmed and unflinching in the face of danger and resolute in the face of disappointment. A bit gutsy, she is audacious and can be daring even if she tends to be a feisty, even cocky about things. Intense and zealous about things, she is fierce and excitable. Excited about what lays before her and raging about her past. Hot-blooded and sensual, she knows what she wants and when she wants it.
An ego that is laced with a deep insecurity Kilatha has an excessively high opinion of her talents. She has an arrogant superiority about herself and disdain of those she views as unworthy. An elevated belief in her own merit and what is due to her. She is not one to change her attitude or position on something, even when arguments can be made against it. She is difficult to move on a belief or subject being over obstinate and mulish about things. Willful and headstrong she digs in and refuses to let go. Bull-headed and adamant, she is uncompromising and can be uncooperative. Being unyielding in these ways makes her difficult to work with. The woman has strong feelings and shows her annoyance or displeasure openly; even with hostility when she is exasperated or vexed beyond the point of rational thought.
⚘ A Brief History ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Childhood: Kilatha was born to Afra, a miner, and Elizara, a nurse, in Mexico on planet Earth during the fall while her parents were visiting family. She was raised in California by her parents. Kilatha spent her childhood in studies and singing in the school chorus. When she 12 she began training to become a solo artist with aspirations of interstellar stardom. When she was 18, her mentor confided that her upper vocals had a burr in them. This would normally mean the end of a career before it began but Kilatha kept training under the promise it could be worked out.
Adulting: Kilatha continued her training until her mentor told her there was nothing more that could be done at 22. She was considered completed for the institution and given the option to join several productions as chorus and backup. She took the first job offered to her and began singing chorus for a traveling show for the next eight years. She continued to audition for solo jobs but made no progress.
The Earth Economy is not what it once was and Kilatha found it hard to makes ends meet. After hearing some rumors about a no-travel planet and researching the Guild and Crystal Singers, Kilatha booked passage despite the various warnings against it. The strongest protests coming from her mother. Bags packed, Kilatha headed for the jump terminal to meet up with off world transport and intergalactic jump to Ballybran
"I was hardly mistaken, you just didn't train hard enough." - To Kilatha about the burr in her voice
Ten years: That was how long Brinx was Kilatha's mentor and vocal coach within the program. Seeking her out when she was younger. Promising her with her range and perfect pitch she would be able to make a large splash in the intergalactic music scene and live an extraordinary life among the stars. Even after a burr developed in Kilatha's voice Brinx assured her it was nothing she needed to worry about, that it they could work it out with proper training and even if they could not, it was unique and it could be made to work with her voice. In the end he was wrong (or lied, no one is sure).
Gilglim Forentha
"Are you fucking nuts?" - On Kilatha applying to the guild
Gilglim and Kilatha met her second and his forth year in vocal training. They became vocal partners to help work on their harmonizing and blending. The two became slow friends. Personalities clashing at first but over time earning each others respect and enjoying each others company platonicly during holiday. Gilglim graduated two each before Kilatha did and moved to Asia where he tours with a comedic troupe. The two remain in contact with video conference calls and oddly enough what is known as "Archaic Communications" (Aka they write letters with pen and paper). When Gilglim found out about Kilatha applying to the guild he was the most out spoken against it.
"Being drafted is one thing, volunteering is unforgivable." - Thoughts on serving.
⚘ Looking Inside ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ A person who is tried and true, Genève is exceptionally devoted; giving and showing firm and constant support and allegiance to those convictions or persons she is latched on. Steadfast in direction, she is resolute. Dutifully firm and unwavering to her committed tasks: dependable and reliable. Showing determination and fearlessness she is spirited and unflinching at what is put before her: situation or person. Bold in her actions and feisty, she is lively and spirited. She has strong feelings and strong beliefs to which she holds onto fervently in a zealous manner. She is ardent with an inner glow.
More than once showing a desire to resist authority, Genève is defiant. An internal conflict rising, she is not calm. Obstinate, she stubbornly refuses to change her opinion or desired course of action despite others attempts to persuade her otherwise. Headstrong and willful she is governed by her own ideals. There is an unwillingness to share things or persons in her life. She can be mercenary and grasping to keep them her own. She is given to expressing her opposing views and quarreling. Being debatable and controversial in her views, she expresses them in a heated, fierce, and even vehement manner. One that is impassioned and intense: filled with and showing great depths of emotion.
⚘ A Brief History ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Childhood: Genève was born on August 11th, at 8:03 P.M., approximately five minutes after her fraternal twin brother Gabriel. Born to Harold, a teacher, and Adrienne, a nurse, Perry. She was raised in the post World War II residential development of Stuyvesant Town, in the east side New York City borough of Manhattan. One of three children, Genève was the only daughter and the middle child. Growing up she was very close to Gabriel. Close to younger brother but not as close, due to a difference in age. She attended public school until she graduated high school. Making high marks in the sciences, particularly biology, she received a scholarship to attend the Roosevelt Hospital School of Nursing. As it covered her education costs and she could remain at home, she accepted the scholarship and her career path was decided.
Adulting: After graduating high school, Genève attended college and did well enough. Completing her nursing degree in the usual four years. During her time in college Genève got into politics, protesting the war, and speaking out against the talk of a draft that had been swirling for years. It was a few months after her graduation from Nursing School that she got word that her brother Gabriel had been killed in Vietnam. After that her protesting and involvement in the anti-war movement increased ten fold. Arrested several times, she was eventually sentenced to serve community service, 360 hours. All of which were too be served in the Bronx Veterans Hospital.
"Better your community service than me going to prison." - To Genève on her sentencing
Genève met Christian back in college. He was handing out flyers to protest the war on her college campus. At first she did not take a flyer and went about to her classes. Over time she eventually was talked into taking one. From there she started talking to Christian, attending meetings and rally's against the war, and so forth. When her brother died, Genève went to Christian for comfort. The two started dating and getting far more involved with protests. Things between them since her sentencing have been tense at best.
Judge Marcus Lanford
"Time for you to give back to all those you slander" - Judge to Genève at sentencing
While Genève only met the man once, she will never forget him. Being brought in front of the judge for a laundry list of charges all having to do with a recent protest turned violent there was no doubt to Genève's guilt at being there but there was much debate about how involved she was. The judge decided in lieu of jail time or letting the woman off with a slap on the wrist he gave her community service, with the added insult to her that she had to serve it at a veterans hospital, using her nursing skills to help those she was protesting against.
"My life is an ever swirling toilet that just won't flush" - Shit doesn't stop
⚘ Looking Inside ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Wayne is intelligent, driven, a force to be reckoned with. He sees the details where others might miss them and is ever the little helper. He is kind and loving, there for the common man as a protector. He is the hero we deserve. Okay, he was. A life time ago. Maybe two or three life times ago. He was once a great detective with the NYPD, but the harsh nature of the job got to him and he gradually slid into addiction and cynicism. Part of that good man who was a detective is still there, deep down. Deep DEEP down, somewhere in the cockles, maybe the sub-cockles, maybe even the colon. Today, Wayne is broken, down-and-out survivor who if he can finds it will live off a steady intake of drugs, booze, and sleaze. A sarcastic man with really no regard for his own life. The man goes through severe moments of trying to off himself only to have it back fire in his face. He says he is "Blessed with Suck." He believes he has pretty much seen it all, the worst that humanity has to offer and is genuinely surprised when he sees kindness. Every the cynic, he is skeptical of all around him.
Happy doesn't think that at all. (Yeah you heard me. Happy!) Oh, did I forget to mention that the man hallucinates a little blue unicorn with white wings, a pink horn, and buck teeth? Yeah, there is that. What type of mental disorder the man has now is anyones guess. On the outside when you strip away the addiction, the self-loathing, the suicidal tendencies, the cynicism, and the sarcasm the man is actually very well adjusted. Except for Happy, Happy is something else.
⚘ A Brief History ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Growing Up: Wayne grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Life was good. He came from a good old Italian family. Third generation in the US. Mother adored him, father was proud of him and his brothers kicked his ass. Life was good. How could it not be? Fight, eat, school, fight, eat, school. Ahh, just like the Irish but with good food and a cooler accent. Church was every week, he was even an alter boy - no he wasn't abused by priest. Father Giovanni was actually a good guy and was known to take a cane to other priests in front of the parish. (He didn't know why then, he does now.)
Adulting: Eventually he had to grow up and being from an Italian family meant you grew up to be one of three things: A cook, a cop, or a crook. Well his grand father was a cop, his father was a cop, both his brothers were cops, and his mother was a cops wife and mother: so he grew up to be a cop. It was just meant to be. After high school he married Sophia Maggidino. They had a daughter. He graduated from the academy and joined the force. Getting his degree at night school and eventually becoming a sergeant and a detective. Life was good.
That was until he saw one to many cases of shit hitting the fan. Time just wore on him and eventually Wayne snapped, beating a suspect nearly to death and biting his finger off. He went on leave. He got help. He came back - no sober. Shit kept happening and he kept getting worse. Eventually he was sent up state to get some rest. His wife divorced him and took his daughter to Florida to live with her relatives. He never saw them again but hey, he made more friends - these were all real.
Your First Walker Encounter:"Those fuckers. You would think with talk of the world going to shit that they would keep a better eye on the slightly mentally ill. You know, we short short fuses naturally but put us all together in close confines with the meds running out and shit is going to hit the fan. It did and wouldn't you fucking know it. One of those asshat slimball orderlies decides to get his putrid stinking ass off that lovely daisy patterned tile floor after I crushed his chest cavity in and tried to take a bite out of me. Can you believe that shit? Well, if I remember one thing from the academy, you put one round in the leg or shoulder to immobilize but not kill. I knew to NOT to do that. All else fails, take that bastards head clean off. I think Babe would have been proud. I knocked that fucker right out of the park. Happy puked, it was great."
Psych Hospital: Being in an insane asylum when any out break occurs is usually a good thing, you are cut off from the world so less likely affected. Not this out break though. Close confines with the dead makes more dead, people freak out, people do bad shit, people die and are killed. Then there are the insane. First thing was first, breaking out once shit started to get bad. Sure, it was about 8 months into the out break before he left the asylum but finally got to a point where one had to leave. Not because of people, but because of lack of resources. Plus he didn't want deal with the masses during year one.
Amish Country: By year two he had made his way to western Pennsylvania. He had to get the fuck away from major cities. What better place to go than to see how the Amish were fairing. I mean come on, a whole community of people who used no technology, had guns, and could self sustain. It seemed like a good idea. It was, except for the fact the Amish didn't like outsiders BEFORE the out break. Since it had happened, even less. Okay, he got some meals, did some work, but in the end Moses Yoder made him and a friend exit by gun point. Apparently Wayne and Happy had had one to many color arguments in front of little Eli.
Blue Grass: Come year 3 he had gone through West Virginia and landed in Kentucky. Blue Grass state my ass, more like who the fuck would ever want to be here state. Trees, lots of trees. Bugs, lots of bugs. Snakes, lots of fucking snakes. Booze, no booze to be found. Shit. And since no one had really ever lived in the state BEFORE the outbreak there was not a lot to raid AFTER it started. Kentucky was a bust. A complete and utter waste of a time but no going back and fuck Ohio. They were not repeating Amish Town. Screw those butter churning fuckwads.
Dixie Here I Come: Wayne was too old for this shit. He wanted to retire. Florida became the destination. He was NOT going through Atlanta. Screw that, so head south east towards the coast. South Carolina was year four. Decent places to raid, not a huge amount of people as long as you avoided the like three larger cities there. It wasn't a bad state but older men, once they make their minds up, it was done. And he had told Happy if they could get there, Disney World was a possibility. He lied but did Happy know that? Um, probably.
Georgia: It's year five now and Wayne has managed to get to Georgia. He isn't on the coast. Got pushed more west than he would like but hey, he is closer to Florida than he ever has been. Hopefully they will get there eventually but for now, smaller towns for raids, not too many people to deal with and that hoard is way behind him now - last seen on Jeykll Island where ran across some dead fuckers in Navy Uniforms clamoring around a submarine.
After that was the fucking swamp. And finding some more folk. One a girl: hot damn. Two a Roman: fucking hell. Still, have to keep moving forward and he did. Finding drugs where he could, drinking where he could, spanking in the woods when he could. One foot in front of the other trying to get to Florida because that is where old fuckers like him retire.
Camp Mexico Beach: Okay, this shit show wasn't a shit show. Sure, first things first - was getting found but after that, fuck yeah. Food, recliners, food, baths, food, ballerina's, food, air conditioning, food, beds, and did I mention food. Yes, quarantine wasn't a party but it wasn't bad. Fuck anyone that thought so, it was a god damn Eden! Para-fucking-dice! And then a beach party? Yeah, sure he had to go through therapy but fuck, for food, lay me down and talk about my childhood. SHUT THE FUCK UP HAPPY!!!
While he still sees Happy, he has learned to live with it and deal with the little fucker without meds. He spent many hours with Freedman over the first six months out of quarantine but Freedman does not take credit for Waynes turn around, he places that on Tatiana and Jamie. Having a family of sorts has seemed to help stabilize the man. He is still skitzo and will always be but Wayne is learning to deal well with it. Wayne self imposes isolation in lock up when he feels his mental state is getting out of control. While Freedman no longer believes he can help Wayne, Wayne still seeks him out to talk. Admin keeps Wayne assigned with Tatiana to help keep him as level as possible.
Hank and Wayne have been together since day one of the out break and Wayne refers to Hank as his hetero life mate. Fuck Jay and Silent Bob. Wayne traveled with Hank from New York to Pennsylvania: Dealing with the Amish together was entertaining enough for a time but well, we wont' go into why they had to leave. Virginia to Kentucky: No wonder people fucking drank before the outbreak in these states. They continued together through Georgia: The coast was interesting, seeing people fleeing a submarine. The Swamp they found more people. They reached Florida together: about fucking time! Hank is like a baby sitter at times to Wayne, Wayne gives Hank someone to talk to other than dead people, which is good.
Tatiana Newnan
"HA!" - When she punched Ash
Wayne met Tatiana when he got put in quarantine. He brought her and her kid food, she started teaching him ballet. It was an odd combination but Wayne seemed to latch on to the little red head with a nasty right hook. Babysitting Jamie from time to time in Quarantine. The two have grown a lot closer over the months between their therapy and working together. Wayne is now Jamies godfather and spends much of his off time taking care of the little one for Tatiana, who he seems to have adopted as a daughter.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Male ↕ 52 ↕ Italian-American ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 6'0" ↕ 198lbs ↕ Athletic Dad-Bod ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Steel Blue ↕ Salt & Pepper ↕ Sallow ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Psychology
"Protection comes in many forms." - Strength isn't always about muscle.
⚘ Looking Inside ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ A cunning woman, Tatiana can act in a rather scheming and ruthlessly determined way. She is crafty and shrewd: being rather astute and having rather keen powers of judgement when it comes to people. She is clever and sharp-witted: perceptive and observant about her surroundings in both location and the people around her. Alert and ever crafty. Steady and resolute she is resolved in her determination and unrelenting in her perception. A persistent woman, she is steadfast and unyielding about matters. Capable of much, she is concerned about the safety of those around her and safeguards them as much as possible in her actions and plans. Mindful and vigilant she is wary and careful.
Tatiana can be cautious and has many reservations. Vague about details and reluctant to share. Noncommittal and discreet is perhaps not an obvious choice to describe her ways but they are more than accurate. She is leery: wary due to realistic suspicions. Skeptical and not easily convinced she is ever questioning. She is unpredictable and temperamental, having drastic changes in her mood and actions that come on suddenly and without warning. Volatile: she is liable to change rapidly and unpredictably, especially for the worse. Strained by events, she is tense and uncomfortable around most. Suspicious, she is obsessively anxious and mistrustful, having an appalling dread in her that makes her overly cautious around people to an extreme.
Update: Tatiana has done well in therapy and has been able to deal with many of the issues that were plaguing her when she entered Camp Mexico Beach. That being said, it does not mean she is the bubbly girl she once was. She has hardened a lot and that cannot be undone. The world took its tole and somethings cannot be healed, only managed. She is still suspicious about new people but she isn't obsessively anxious anymore or cautious to an extreme. In fact she is more willing to take chances these days.
⚘ A Brief History ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Growing Up: Tatiana was born to Name and Name in Kirov, Kirov Oblast, USSR. This was during the tail end of U.S.S.R. and she was forced from Kirov to many other places in Eastern Europe throughout childhood as a refugee. Jumping from camp to camp to avoid the wars that always occurred when a large empire crumbles to dust. This continued for years and put her through what she believe would end up being the hardest years of her life, including watching her parents be executed in the street in front of her as she hid under a dead body.
Once the fall of the Soviet Union settled down she was able to return back to the city of her birth. There she stayed, living in peace, studying ballet and going to school until her sixteenth year. An American Ballet Company offered her a chance to move to the U.S.A. to study. She jumped at the chance and was eager to start a new life in a new world. It would be a chance to become something other than just another local girl who dreamed of becoming a Prima.
Adulting: Transferring to the U.S. was difficult, since she did not speak the language but with the help of tutors she was able to grasp the language and ended up getting her GED while working with the ABC to further her dance interests. Ballet came first, everything else was second. This was how things had to be if she ever wished to become something great. Though it seemed not to matter how good of a dancer she was or how much talent lay within her, due to her build she was always placed at the back of the pack.
In 2005 she opted to try taking a new direction with her dance and decided to move to Las Vegas Nevada. A city of Sin perhaps but also a place where those whose dreams would not come true elsewhere could come true there. That is if the luck of the draw was in your favor. For Tatiana it was. She found work with a production company as a back up stage dancer and quickly worked her way up to be the headlining performer. For the year before the outbreak she was happier than she ever had been, dancing on stage six nights a week as the star of a show that was designed just for her. She thought the worst in life was finally behind her, she was so terribly wrong.
Your First Walker Encounter: Rumors had been going around about how other areas of the country were falling to a flue type outbreak but in the middle of the Nevada desert things seemed okay. That was until it wasn't. The fever began to take people and soon the city of sin was turned into a war zone; one that reminded Tatiana of the cities back in Russia when things collapsed. Resources were low and it was hundreds of miles to get to the next city; people rioted but the shows had to go on and did until the very end. During what turned out to be Tatiana's last performance a man took ill during the first act, he was dead by the end of it and everything was put on pause while they awaited EMT's to remove the body. Tatiana was standing on stage watching as the scene unfolded and was horrified when she saw what she thought was a dead man grab one of the EMT's and start to rip the mans flesh off his bones with his teeth. She ran off backstage and grabbed her things before heading out the back door and into the streets; her survival instincts kicked in; at least flight had at that point.
Those First Years: For the first few weeks after the outbreak began Tatiana spent locked up either at the performance hall she used to perform at or locked away in her apartment. Her life growing up as a refuge and in a crumbling economic setting had created a bit of a hoarder within her. Ever since she had become comfortable in Vegas she had kept supplies. Food, bottle water, medicine. Anything she came across that she wished she had had more of during those refuge years made its way into her apartment.
She ended up deciding one day to try to see what was going on outside and began to search the streets; trying to find information if things would get any better since the net and tv no longer worked. Maybe she would find someone she knew. It would be something; anything was better than the solitude at that point. Solitude was the worst part of being a refuge after the starvation and pain. Sometimes it could actually be worse.
Tatiana was rounded up and taken to a camp, a supposed safe zone. She knew better than that. The place was like every other refuge or interment camp she had ever been in. It was no better. This many people who were hungry and scared crowded together in a small space never did well, add to that that there was an illness of some sorts causing things to go wrong made it so much worse. Disease spread in small confines. The only solace she found was when Davina found her. The two made a plan to get out and get away.
Since then they have been together; jumping from group to group when needed but mostly trying to stick it out on their own. The less people in a group that better. Two seems to be their perfect number. Both know enough to balance out the other and keep the pair going. Whether it is when Davina has to con a group to let them in for a short time or they are stranded in the middle of no where and Tatiana has to use skills she wished she would never have to again to keep them going. Either way the pair have survived this long and made it almost to the east coast after all this time.
Carrollton: In Carrollton she lost track of Davi, who had been with her since the beginning of the outbreak and through the entire trek to the east coast. Where she went Tatiana does not know. Tatiana ducked down in a closet in the DMV in Carrollton, when she came out Davi was gone and a man was there: Jack. The two stuck it out together for the next few weeks, moving through Carrollton to collect supplies and get to know each other.
Newnan: Arriving in Newnan was interesting. Tatiana was scared but had Jack. She got to know the people there, taught some dance classes but mostly studied psychology and learned how to counsel people. She became the main therapist for Newnan. Tatiana married Jack in Newnan and had a lovely wedding. The day Newnan fell Tatiana chased an orange cat into the distillery. The two ducked into a stand alone freezer when the place caught on fire and went up in smoke. Tatiana awoke later that day to find Newnan burning. She escaped with another and that damn cat following her.
The Road: Tatiana kept trekking, leaving markings behind so that Jack could find her if he was still alive. She gave birth to Jamie in the woods, days later - alone - she left and kept moving on. On the road, she was captured by a group who took Jamie hostage. Tatiana did what was needed to ensure the life of her child. Tatiana kept traveling with the group despite the burns and branding and other methods of torture she survived. Jamie kept getting older, Tatiana kept an eye out and leaving a trail when she could.
Reunited: It was raining and dark when Tatiana jumped out of a moving car after seeing the Hordebuster in the road. A fight ensued but in the end she was reunited with Ash, Jack, Riley, and Amelia. Finishing off the group that took her hostage, Tatiana kept moving with Jack and Jamie south, following Ash's orders. They ended up in Florida after a time and met a group from a local safe zone: the first Tatiana had seen since Newnan.
Camp Mexico Beach: Tatiana went into Quarantine. She ate, punched Ash, taught Ballet, did her chores, kept otherwise to herself. The interview was long and in Russian. Tatiana then moved into an apartment with Jack that had a room for Jamie and a local to help get them settled. Over the six months after the quarantine Tatiana attended many therapy sessions to work through her issues. As she did it caused a rift between her and Jack. They are still together but Tatiana doesn't look at him the same way she used to, currently they are mostly just together because they are comfortable enough around each other and want to be a support system for Jamie. Tatiana is considering full separation.
"Oh da, there is something you need knov." - Said right before Tatiana decked Ash
Tatiana met Ash in Newnan back when he was the leader. She worked with Ash very little but she talked to him a lot, following him around and poking him with a stick to talk. He married both her and Jack in Newnan before it fell and once the group met back up together he was named Jamie's Godfather. After they reached Camp Mexico Beach, Ash found Thana and he stepped down from being Jamie's God father, that was after she punched him. It was for the best. The man is the closest thing she has to a brother and she is closer to Ash than most anyone, probably even her husband at this point.
Wayne Maldonado
"Holy fuck Batman!" - Said right after Tatiana decked Ash
Tatiana met Wayne in Quarantine. He was different but got her and Jamie juice, seemed to look out for her and the baby, and stood up for her when others turned against her. Wayne started taking on the role that Ash was stepping down on and Tatiana ended up letting Wayne watch Jamie from time to time in Quarantine. He seems calmer with the baby around than when left to his own devices. Tatiana started teaching Wayne ballet, he sucks but she still works with him.
Wayne has become one of Tatiana's most trusted confidant as he is usually the one watching over Jamie these days.
Thalia Carmichael
"Da, I vill teach you" - About teaching Thalia ballet
Over the first six months, Thalia and Tatiana were around each other a lot due to training and Thalia wanting to learn ballet. The two have become good friends even if they really don't say a lot to each other. They push each other during training and when they aren't they are much like the silent female version of Hank and Wayne - a lot of nods and grunts while looking at other people.
"Welcome to Camp Mexico Beach" - Padre to each group that enters
⚘ Background ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Along the panhandle of Florida is a town that was once a vacation haven for people. Not a large tourist town like Panama City Beach had once been but a smaller town where people went if they wanted more quiet than elsewhere along the coast line. A place for retirees and families to go without the crowds. Where most days, even if the place was in the middle of a perfect summer, you could walk along the beach and be left alone with plenty of space. That was before the outbreak and the dead started rising once again. That kind of changes shit.
At least for many places. Mexico Beach is very much the same as it was before the outbreak. Still a lot of people in their autumn years, still rather quiet. Anything but a retirement community or vacation spot anymore. It is now what one might think of as a military type outpost. Nearly everyone there is a survivor of the outbreak and has been there since the beginning. Former Military took the lead and got things in order post haste when the world started going to shit. Being filled with generations of people that grew up before the internet, cable, or even color TV had it's advantages and the place has seemed to thrive. Sure there are younger folk as well but here the mantle of experience is in charge.
⚘ The Camp Itself ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Laid out below is a basic over look map of the town as it is now. The walls are twenty foot high and seven foot wide with a constant patrol built sand, stone and Roman-like concrete. There are only two gates, one at the east side and one at the west. Each gate is a set of two gates you must pass through to get into the man area itself. Out in the water is a patrol and nets designed to catch food and the walking dead that can wash up on shore. The town is very set in their ways and while open to new comers are not open to change. What they have their they have worked for and built. It works for them, has kept them alive and safe. Military Law rules and The General is in charge.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Location: Bay County, Florida, USA ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ C.O.: The General X.O.: Gunny ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The People: Military Style Law Population: 301 Ages: 2 - 87 yrs. Under 18: 12% Over 50: 52% Male: 64% Female: 35% ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Map Key
First In Command. Responsible for the entire Camp and over seeing all the higher staff members - Similar to a City Mayor or Governor.
Executive Officer:
Second in Command. Responsible for day to day activity and over seeing logistics - Similar to a City Manager.
Administration:
Responsible for maintaining all information and paperwork. This include records, communications, trade, and recruitment. This department typically handles personnel records, promotions, and the like.
Chaplain:
Dedicated to promoting the spiritual, religious, and personal morale of the entire camp. They also provide pastoral care and counseling, death planning, final death, and burial. They also provide mediation between parties.
Education:
Oversees the passing of knowledge from one generation to the next as well as maintaining library, research facilities, and recording events for future generations. Base education begins at Pre-K levels and students learn within age groups until their 18th year. Higher Education is conducted in apprentice fashion as well as class room and is coordinated through the Education department with others. This includes not only core knowledge but the arts as well.
Engineering:
Maintains all technology within the camp. Responsible for keeping Solar Panels and Tidal Stations in working order, repairs desalination, and so forth. Ensures that light, heat, AC, air filters, water, and sewage it taken care of and in proper working order. They are also in charge of bridge and wall construction as well as the desalination and distillation.
Fabrication:
In a time where one cannot just go down to the local Home Depot things must be made. From wood planks to tiles to replacement parts for vehicles and even threads and fabrics. If it needs to be carved, molded, created from nothing - Fabrication tends to it.
Medical:
Responsible for maintaining the health of the camp, the treatment of sick and injured, disease prevention and the promotion of good health. From mental to physical health, dental, surgery, and hospice care. They are also in charge of pharmaceuticals and the medical garden.
Mess:
While not only tending to food preparation and distribution for the members of the camp, they over see fishing, gardens, preservation, and the like to ensure there is enough to go around. They work closely with other departments to maintain nutritional balance and production of food, and clean drinkable water is available.
Operations:
Work as the lynch pin for all departments, coordinating efforts and prioritizing needs of the camp. They are also in charge of trade and runs. In addition, they are the ones to bring in new people, vet them out, test them for position, and make recommendations to the X.O. for promotions or even expulsion from the camp.
Safety:
Takes care of maintaining the perimeter of the camp, taking care of interpersonal conflicts, policing fights, checking equipment for danger, maintaining fire hazards, and monitoring the weather.
Supply:
Responsible for all supply outside of weapons. Keeps track of laundry and refuse services. Maintains clothing and hygiene of the camp, recording materials, stocking and inventorying what is brought in from runs, and proper distribution of items when requested if available.
Training:
Separate from education, this department specializes in survival tactics, fighting, weapons training and safety, creative solutions, and the like. Is in charge of recruitment and education for able bodied individuals for Safety Departments, Runs, and so forth.
Transportation:
Is in charge of all vehicles, maintenance and repair, driving, flight, and so forth. This includes maintaining ships for sea and evacuation coordination if needed.
Weapons:
Personnel of the Weapons Department assemble, test, and maintain all weapons and guard the armory. They are also the last line in clearing personnel that are allowed to be armed and do final testing to ensure anyone with a weapon is properly trained.
"You'll see thangs muh'way er you won't see straight at'all." - When her siblings argue with her.
⚘ Looking Inside ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ A force of nature, Bettina has an over-all positive attitude that seeks out fun and wishes to enjoy everything life has to offer. A woman who is full of energy and new ideas, she is energetic and spirited, and has a zest for life. High-spirited, the woman has a well-spring of vitality. Absolutely so, she is enthusiastic about most everything: spunky and vibrant. The woman is bubbly and bright with a pep that seems never ending. Carefree and lighthearted she is the picture of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Wearing her heart on her shoulder, Bettina is genuine, sincere and eager: showing strong feelings and beliefs in a burning and uncontrollably animated manner. She has an intense enthusiasm and an overflowing desire to enjoy things she is interested in. Undaunted she is willing to try most things at least once, or even twice when it goes wrong but was still exciting. A lust for life, she rides the natural high of adrenaline.
While having a love for life, Bettina shows a fondness for causing trouble in playful and not so playful ways. A bit naughty she can be vexatious, tending to cause irritation and frustration, even worry because of her annoying tendency for trouble making or pranking: revenge needed or not. Ardent, she has a quick-tempered nature. Aggressive and explosive, she is likely to blow up violently and erupt in anger if crossed. She is vehement and intense when she makes her mind up and has a reckless and tempestuous streak against those that have done wrong in her eyes. The young woman has shown a strong and unreasoning desire for revenge. Catty and venomous, she holds onto grudges and is spiteful in an unrelenting way that can border on maleficent at times.
⚘ A Brief History ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Growing Up: Bettina was born in 1970 in Leesburg, Georgia to Macsen and Chantilly (Beard) Martin. Her father a U.S. Marine and 1st generation Welsh Immigrant, her mother a country singer that went by the stage name 'Tilly June. The youngest daughter of four, and the second youngest of eight children, Bettina was raised on the family farm and spent her days being raised in the backwoods ways: hunting, fishing, riding, digging in the dirt. Bettina worked on the farm like the rest of her siblings, enjoying causing mischief and pulling pranks. With a habit of destroying things, Bettina learned early how to repair those things. Working on machines, hunting, and tearing up the town while her older siblings tried to keep her out of trouble: with little success. She sang and played an instrument like the rest of her siblings, favoring the drums.
High School: Being covered in grease, causing problems, and being a backwoods girl didn't stop Bettina from developing a sense of style and falling in love with fashion. She spent her high school days playing in the church choir, sewing and designing in home economics class, or working on cars in shop when she wasn't causing problems, skipping school, or developing new pranks to pull on the principle. She was given both in and out of school suspension more than once.
College: After high school, Bettina applies to several fashion programs and was accepted into several. She accepted the one at New York University. It was a long way from home, so packing up and moving took time. Living in New York City meant no car and having to walk, take the subway, or taxi's when not on campus. She spent much off her off time in the city exploring and seeing what the city had to offer. Bettina comes home during holidays.
USO: Bettina spent several days in Virginia helping her sister Thana and friend Ray out with an upcoming USO show down in Panama. Herself, her sisters, and one of her brothers spent time with Thana working on music and getting the acts together: not to some down time spent drinking, swimming, and hunting. Bettina did not go with Thana down to Panama, instead returning after the show was prepped to get down to her parents home for Thanksgiving.
Gilly and Bettina have been best friends since first grade. Gilly usually trying to keep Bettina from doing something she shouldn't or covering for her. That was until Michael, Gilly's older brother, died over in Lebanon. Gilly took his death harder than anyone. The straight laced girl turned to drinking and anything else she could get into. Bettina is a hell raiser, Gilly has lost her way. Bettina spent much of her high school years making sure Gilly got home safe, wasn't taken advantage of, or didn't OD. She couldn't stop her but she could do what she could to make sure she made it to the next morning. The two had a hard falling out when Gilly slept with Bettina's beau. Bettina broke up with her beau and took the admission to New York University. She hasn't seen Gilly since she enrolled.
Michael Thompson
"No, it ain't fair!" - When she found out Michael had died.
Though Michael was much older than her, they grew up together. Father of her nephew, husband to one of her older sisters, Michael was a brother. He was a grease monkey like her and much of what Bettina knows about engines is because he taught her. Out of the younger Martin kids, Michaels death hit Bettina the hardest. She had been planning on going into the army and working in the motorpool but once he died she changed to fashion and swore off the Military for life.
Raymond Adaway
"Where the hell you been?" - To Ray first time she saw him when he came back
Bettina grew up for the first half of her life with Ray around on the farm. She was still young though when he left for boot camp and so she never developed a strong relationship with him. He was fun, a big brother type for her, him usually trying to keep her out of trouble to help Thana mostly. Now that he is back she isn't sure what to think about him. Something doesn't sit right with her and she isn't hiding it.
Montgomery Broderick Tiberius Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff, The First
~waves then flips you the bird~ - Anytime someone asks him to speak
⚘ Looking Inside ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Montgomery is a man of few words but that doesn't mean he isn't bright. The man has the ability to find quick and clever ways to overcome various difficulties and limitations. He is creative and has an ingenious imaginative streak that makes him capable and able to get things done. Sharp and alert, the man is quick to notice things. Every watchful and alert to what is going on around him. On the ball, he is mindful and vigilant. Keeping a careful eye out for possible dangers or situations he can exploit. A bit whimsical, he can be comical and amusing. Tongue-in-cheek and playful about things, he can be entertaining and very diverting.
Being a bit of a jokster, Montgomery enjoys being prankish and is a bit of a delinquent. Causing trouble and showing a fondness for causing said trouble in playful and not so playful ways. Rascally and naughty he can be a bit loony and ever toony. Drawing some mirth from causing harm and trouble for others some moments can be rather nasty. The man does cause some disgust along the way. Being a bit distasteful about things and obnoxious in his actions and mannerisms. Offensive, objectionable, off-putting are just a few ways to describe the man. On top of all of that he tends to cause irreparable harm and damage when he feels like it. Calamitous and lethal if the mood strikes him. He can be antagonistic and show active opposition or hostility towards someone or even something.
⚘ A Brief History ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Life: Duct looks around and places his hand to his chest. He looks so flattered that you would want to know about little ol' him. Standing up he holds up a finger. Just a moment while he prepares. This is a special occasion. He must do it right. Toddling over to the closet he flings it open and steps inside, closing the door behind him. There are some loud sounds coming from the closet now. A lot of banging, scratching, thuds and bumps, and was that a canned scream? Oh my... this doesn't sound good. Maybe someone should go check on him. No one? How rude, he'd check on you! He might not help you but he'd still check.
The door busts open and Duct looks frazzled, pushing a cardboard stage across the room on wheels. Oh dear, it looks like he is setting up for a puppet show. Setting up the stage front and center he takes a bow before pulling out two socks from his bag. One has dark black curly hair and a waitress uniform with a name tag that reads Judy. The other is bald and is wearing mechanics overalls with a tag that reads Joe. Slipping behind the stage he ducks down and the puppets appear. Oh what a scene it is. There is a pink neon sign flashing: Seattle - 2023. The puppets looking at each other shyly, and then... Oh shit, they're humping. The bald puppet starts smoking 2 seconds later and wanders off. The curly haired puppet is weeping. Then her mouth opens and there is a silent scream. A new puppet is pulled out of the... You have got to be kidding... bottom of the curly haired puppet. The new puppet has short black hair and a black and white striped shirt. This is going to take awhile...
~eight hours later~ Well this has been a long session with no intermission! You have learned that he skinned his knee while learning to ride a bike, his mother worked hard but drank a lot - Koolaide. She loved Cherry. Dad was no where. Apparently you don't know if he spoke or not during this time but he really did enjoy the chocolate and mint icing cake he got for his eleventh birthday. He did a whole hour about that one. You aren't exactly sure when he started wearing tape over his mouth. It wasn't on the puppet one minute and was on it the next. Granted it could have been there the entire time. You really needed to pee but NO INTERMISSIONS!
~One intermission and three hours later~ Well High School was interesting. He had a crush on a cute little blonde, asked her to prom. She agreed but then stood him up! What a twat. He was devastated but he went nonetheless. Apparently it was a joke and she went with the quarterback for the football team. Well the poor guy developed a horrible burning case of jock itch and had to run to the hospital mid prom. Wonder how that happened. Don't worry the girl that stood Duct up wasn't left alone all night. Duct was kind to her. Handed her a blow up doll to dance with, dressed in the same dress as the girl! Oh it was beautiful! A true master piece and a great evening over all. You could tell, he skipped off stage.
~fast forward~ Sum up - No college, worked the streets as a street performer. Got a job at a traveling circus. They became big again after the "emergence" - The freakshow had new "freaks" for a few years. Carni life wasn't exactly for him but he enjoyed it. Learned balloon animals, slight of hand, etc. He made some great friends though, people that really understood him. They were a family. Okay, not totally. Making a pass at the strong man's (Troll) girl was a bad idea. He doesn't exactly remember how but he ended up tied to a tree that was on the edge of a cliff. That was exciting!
Okay, so he got out of that, he's running - well the puppet is running. Puppet finds a job, at a cell phone company.... Seriously? He sells cells? Um okay. Is this a joke? He got the best of himself again. Flirting with a Triad's sister was NOT a good idea! Puppet is running again, suddenly there are shadows everywhere. Ahh, okay he becomes a shadow runner. I get it.
Coming out from behind the curtain he takes a bow, his puppet bows. They toddle off together. End of story.
Recruitment Interview: Duct sits there when presented the question. Duct is wondering how he should answer. Interviews have always been easy for him. He rocks it out on communication! People just get him and what he has to say. Standing up, duct walks over and taps his interviewer on the shoulder, motioning to their front pocket. Walking off he opens up a wallet he pulled from their back pocket and pulls out the cash. He holds it up and nods vigorously as he tosses them back their wallet. Pointing to the money before acting as if he is going to pocket it. Then he notices how little money there is and looks disappointed, shrugging he hands it back and gives a condescending pat on the back. Poor thing, they obviously need the money more than he does. Jotting down on a piece of paper he writes - "Well obviously this doesn't pay well so adventure!" - He sticks the post it note on his interviewers forehead and toddles off.