[CHAR] Us, Redux

[Gowi]

David “Detective” Levitski

“They’re hungry and sick, yeah, so what, I have a solution right here with this baseball bat.”

Age
51

Gender
Male

Former Occupation
Police Detective

Appearance
By appearances sake, David Levitski looks like the opposite of who he is—his smiles seem genuine, his manners can seem perfectly charming, and he gives off the impression of a kind-hearted traditional cop. Even before the epidemic David kept himself in shape to keep himself on the level with the criminals he constantly dealt with and the truth remains in this “apocalypse” (though he just calls it Tuesday). For clothing preference, not much has changed except for a bit more tears and stains in his clothes which consist of a trenchcoat and scarf in colder seasons or a light jacket in the warmer seasons alongside unassuming buttoned or non-buttoned shirts and jeans or khakis. He does always prefer boots though.

Height
5'9"

Weight
174lbs

Affiliates
Annette Danes – The “leader” of the community and probably the hardest working politician David knows, which is a compliment given David’s disposition towards well… everybody. If nothing else, Annette Danes is the individual he most respects as when there is a problem she strives to fix it and is most certainly not afraid to get her hands dirty.

Melissa Reynolds – A high school teacher from David’s original group, relatively young and suffering from neurotic fits of temperament. She taught literature to 10th grade students before the apocalypse came.

Nedine Rivera – Despite all of David’s attitude and personality flaws, he has a certain enjoyment for hobbyists like Ned; a woman who has collected what she could of the books. It’s surprising that David doesn’t think the prose of old dead men are better suited to fuel for stoves or other equipment but perhaps that has to do with his positive feelings toward the former wordsmith. He probably thinks she talks too much, though.

Shelia Carter – No opinion, really; David probably thinks it is good that she minds her own business.

Richard Levitski – An idealistic former police officer who has a habit of being the best of the people around him despite having a frail physique—not that his uncle cares anything about him at all. To Detective Levitski he is nothing but an naïve mouth-breather who shouldn’t even be in the same time zone as him, despite the fact he is family even before the epidemic the former detective cared nothing for his family as he saw them as relentless chores to deal with and that is without mentioning his particularly toxic relationship with his brother that sired the idiot nephew he so depressingly seems to be stuck with.

Thomas Wilton – A retired folk singer who achieved minor fame some odd decades ago, he’s been with David since before the community was developed and despite his age strives to keep everybody’s spirits high through song and storytelling. Apparently worked as a plumber and general laborer after his music career failed him professionally.

Naz – Whoever Naz is, David likes her opinions. People should be armed, survivors should be cautious, and we need to do what we have to survive. That last one is important and the opinion is probably mutual.

Skills
As a career cop David has collected various skills such as familiarity with handguns & revolvers, investigation talents for picking up on clues in people as well as the environment, occasional lock-picking, and breaking limbs with baseball bats. Wait, what? Truth be told, David was not a “by-the-book” detective in his time and in fact is kind of “mostly corrupt asshole” detective where he was known to use intimidation and physical assault in many situations to get what he wanted. If the situation needed this arsonist to have a three broken fingers to get some information then David would break four. Despite this sense of ruthlessness, David is good at his job as his skills make obvious.

+ Criminology
+ Intimidation
+ Investigation
+ Lockpicking
+ Marksmanship (Handguns)

Strengths & Weaknesses
It is likely that the strongest personality traits David has are the ones that are the most despicable and unaesthetically pleasing such as his cynicism, tactless honesty, realism, and ruthlessness. He would rather kill someone than have them “waste” supplies, views the world as it is and not as it should be, and always strive for a hard-working diligence. These traits obviously put him at odds with others when they are shown, especially in abundance, though there is a utility to the way the polish-american detective is.

If his strengths are not a sort of double-edged weakness, then there are options to be perceived for what are. This includes his excessive nature to be prone to violence, his patronizing view of optimistic viewpoints, his short-sightedness when he is in a bad mood, and what some could view as a two-faced attitude towards others like in the instance he hates his own nephew but quite enjoys the company of Nedine Rivera.

In terms of habits and indulgences he also is fond of a good vodka whenever he can find it.

History
A man as long-lived as David Levitski could publish a novel of his escapades and life experiences alone. This of course is something David Levitski would rather not occur as he would rather not be judged by his new neighbors for what he achieved throughout his childhood and adulthood. Born to a Polish immigrant following the Second World War named Waclaw Levitski in 1963, David would be the eldest of several siblings raised in a lower income class household that had much conflict inside and out. His father was an abhorrent and abusive alcoholic who struggled from one job to the next—from general labor to distribution line factory work and so on thus when the next time his father lost a job nobody in the family was sure if they were going to leave the city they were used to or if another one in the area would repeat the process. It came to a point when David’s mother divorced his father and they moved to a more stable (relatively speaking) environment permanently around 1974.

David’s new environment was crime-ridden and tough on his mother, especially considering the stigma that still existed amongst divorced women trying to pick themselves up in the era. Perhaps it was here in his mother, Ashley Levitski, where David learned an admiration for hard work ethic since his father was so careless and arbitrary to the point where David didn’t care for him. In a chance encounter in the local park David found himself at odds when he attacked a boy over a name he called his mother to the point he told him that he would “erase his face” – he was interrupted before doing so by a police officer by the name of Thomas O’Reilly, who would be his first father figure.

The time passed in the inner city and under the guidance of the “old school” police officer David found himself joining the Police Department and aspiring to keep his burning temper under control within the confines of the law and if so necessary unleash it on those who deserved it—for not out of a sense of morality, but just desserts. David’s talents were soon discovered in these formative years as he found a knack for noticing things that other officers didn’t which eventually served him well when he was promoted to Detective fairly early on in his career, though due to politics and relationships with his superior’s daughter he found promotion climbing any further was quite unlikely. Still David found himself enjoying the work with every thumb he cracked or head he slammed into a table—as if he was exerting some weird power fantasy over his abusive childhood with his father. Nonetheless, time went on.

In time David found his younger brother, Richard, following in his footsteps—though in his time away from home his brother had taken to weird senses of optimistic morality and found himself clashing with his older brother during holiday gatherings in which they debated perspective. Admittedly, David was abrasive and patronizing towards his own sibling and likened his intelligence to inanimate objects in an attempt to give himself a reason to beat his brother down. However, Richard didn’t snap proving himself to be the better man. Still the siblings found themselves at odds with each other for many years up to through the childhood of Richard’s first son which he named after himself.

The time as a cop carried on and David continued to see people for how they really were—selfish, manipulative, deceitful, arrogant, pig-headed, out for themselves, and ultimately pretty terrible people. For every criminal he met he saw at least one aspect of his father in them which only made it all the easier to trait them with such vitriol. “Guilty until proven Innocent.” he figured about these people. As time toiled onwards things began to change such as his partner in the squadcar, shifting from “old school” detectives like Andrew Tate to “new school” detectives like Joseph Atkins and Miranda Beake. The world kept proving itself to David however and he never strayed from how he believed. The years moved on.

Eventually came the epidemic, and as he pushed himself from group to group with his small assortment of survivors (his nephew, a folk singer, a high school teacher, and a few others) collided with another in February of 2014. The rest of David’s story is ongoing and the past is mostly buried as he cemented himself within the community Annette Danes founded.

And so it continues…

[DJAtomika]

"That'll be twenty dollars ma'am. No ma'am. No. I. Do. Not. Accept. Loose. Change. Only bills please."

---

Name: Warren Ames

Age: 62

Gender: Male

Former Occupation: Cashier, Vietnam War veteran.

Appearance:

Height: 5' 10"

Weight: 180 lbs

Scars/Tattoos/Other: A US Marine Corps tattoo on his left arm, faded now with his old age.

Past Affiliates:

• His old military friends, men from his platoon and company that lived, fought and died alongside him. Some made it back to the States to attempt to reintegrate back into normal society, most came home in boxes.
• His old landlord, a younger man named Miguel. The two shared an odd form of respect: neither bothered the other; Ames paid his rent on time and with the exact amount, not a cent more or less, and Miguel minded his own business about some of the old man's...eccentricities. After the outbreak occured Ames lost track of the Spaniard, maybe he's still alive out there somewhere. He really doesn't know.
• A neighbour, by the name of Richardson, more specifically the widow of said Richardson. Her husband had passed some years before and she lived alone in the apartment across from his, and you could say that there was something between the two, but in all truth Ames enjoyed her company the same way she enjoyed his, nothing more and nothing less. Two lonely souls just looking for someone to spend the rest of their days with.

Current Affiliates: None. Everyone he's known has either died of old age, natural causes, or the virus. A sad, lonely existence seems to be Ames' life. Until now.

Skills: His years spent in the business of managing and crunching numbers has given Ames a very good head for quick calculations, a talent that lasts even into his old age, though it is hampered somewhat by that age and its effects on his gray matter. That same mind for quick, unfettered number crunching is also the home for a precise eye, one that is well trained not only by numbers, but also by the time he's spent in the military. Not only is he able enough to guesstimate a distance or odds, but he is also precise enough that things do happen to within a reasonable frame of them happening. No he's not superhuman, neither is he super smart, but he's smart enough.

The military has also prepared Ames for more than he bargained for in the apocalypse, for if it had not been for those treacherous months in the jungles of North Vietnam and the shitstorm at Ho Chih Minh, he would not have learned, through sheer will and determination, the skills and ways of living with the bare essentials, and even without them. Ames is a survivalist by nature, one skill he had taken to practice even after the war and his old age. Once he retired, Ames would spend days or even weeks on end camping out in the forest by himself, perhaps to relive those misbegotten moments of the war, or maybe it's because he is the most at rest in those conditions, encapsulated in the memories of his brethren, both fallen and living alike.

Of course, having been in the military means he knows his way around firearms. He is no crack shot, but he knows enough about firearms and firearm safety to ensure that maybe something doesn't go wrong with whatever ill-begotten gains the Towers have.

Strengths: His prior military training in the Marines has given Ames the abilities of thinking quick on his feet and a natural leadership sense that has yet to evade him. Add to that a keen eye, though worsened with age, and a bravery matched only by the VC he once fought against, and Ames is quite the man. He can survive a good while on his own given enough provisions (and heart meds), and though he's no craftsman, he at least knows how to tie decent enough knots and how to fashion extremely rudimentary gear or fixes for broken stuff. He is also dependable and an honest man, past the hard soldier exterior which he does little to maintain.

Weaknesses: Mild PTSD, rheumatism, general old age, the years have not been kind to Warren Ames. His mental faculties may still be those of a man turning forty, maybe, but his physical capabilities aren't so great. He can't even run a few feet without stopping to catch his breath, and occasionally, his chest acts up. Maybe it's a side effect of the medication he takes for his PTSD? Or maybe it's his old pump complaining about his lifestyle. He doesn't know. All he knows that his body's slowly failing and, one day, it'll give up the ghost, and so will he.

History: The Vietnam War was not good on Ames. He made friends in his company, and he watched half of those young men end up in plywood boxes buried under six feet of dirt. Some never made it back to the States in one piece. The memories still haunt him to this day, though Ames is a tough man. After the war, he went into accounting for pretty much his whole life. It's what he was born into, having a mother and father that were both dedicated number crunchers whose lives were so stale and boring that you might think that he'd be the same. That was the main reason that influenced him to go into the military, where his father hadn't.

The 70s were a turbulent time, and soon the war effort was put into gear; Ames was shipped straight off to Vietnam, leaving his ailing folks behind. When he returned, momma was dead of a stroke and pop was in the hospital, where he too went several days later. They left him their considerable wealth and their business, in the hopes that he wouldn't put it to waste. In their memory, of course he didn't. With the money he hired several folk younger than himself to run their accounting firm while he furthered his studies, whereupon he took a graduate degree in finance management, qualifying him enough to start watching over his own company.

He planned on offering good, affordable insurance rates to families of the time, but seeing as this was the late 70s going to the 80s, it didn't sell so hot. He kept his chin up and forged through the tougher times, when insurance started to sell better after the world got less and less safe. Through the decades he toiled, struggling to keep his company relevant through the 90s and into the new millenium, where even more tragedies befell his nation and places abroad; good business for him, yes, but now he had to keep up with demand as well as keep up all the good work he'd made for himself in the past. By this time he was already in his fifties, pushing sixty, and he decided, finally, to step down and let someone younger than him take over. He separated from the company entirely, intent on using his gains to live out a quiet, peaceful life.

Of course, he soon got bored with the retired life, and so he scored himself a job as a cashier at a local grocery store, where he worked all the way until the outbreak itself hit. When that happened, he instinctually did what every other American would do: stock up and hunker down. Canned foods and long-lasting supplies, like bottled water and soaps, were plentiful at the start, but one week was all it took for things to dwindle down to trickles and drops. Soon there was almost nothing left to scavenge, by which point the infection was in full swing, dropping people like flies, left and right, destroying whatever semblance of a life Ames had left. He barricaded himself into his apartment, intent on staying away from the worst of it, while he lived off of tins of beans and bottles of water, slowly regressing into his training while the world around him crumbled.

Eventually the worst was over, and when it seemed like everything was calm, he broke free from his cocoon and went wandering. A few weeks later and he stumbled upon a working radio that was broadcasting a message from the Towers and he, naturally intrigued, made a beeline for them.

[clericbeast]

Xerxes Hasek (REMOVED)

[Palindromatic]

~*~

HANNAH PRITCHARD

~*~

AGE: 28
GENDER: female
FORMER OCCUPATION: assistant store manager
HEIGHT: 5’11
WEIGHT: 127 lbs
SCARS/TATTOOS/OTHER: N/A

PAST AFFILIATES:

• Marcus Yap: Hannah's thirty-five-year-old boyfriend of six years;
• Monica Pritchard: Hannah's sixty-year-old mother;
• Alfred Pritchard: Hannah’s fifty-nine-year-old father;
• Jeremiah Pritchard: Hannah’s thirty-eight-year-old brother;
• Francine Coxwell: Hannah’s forty-year-old sister;
• Johnathan Coxwell: Francine’s husband and close family friend;
• Chelsea Coxwell: Francine's and Johanthan’s twelve-year-old daughter;
• Marshall White: one of the survivors Hannah lived with up until The Towers until Marshall ultimately took his own life. Hannah hadn't been very close to him but still thinks of him from time-to-time;

CURRENT AFFILIATES:

• Mary-Ellen Cooper: a fifty-two-year-old woman and part of Hannah's original group;
• Elliot Rice: a twenty-eight-year-old man, from Hannah’s original group, and close friend to Francine;
• Charles Okeke: a nineteen-year-old boy, previous neighbor of Hannah’s, close friend, and from Hannah’s original group. Hannah exudes a protective, sisterly nature over Charles;
• Gerry Tran: a forty-five-year-old man whose English is fairly limited, from Hannah’s original group

;

SKILLS: When the upcycling craze bloomed on Pinterest long ago, Hannah became wrapped up in it. That, paired with her intelligence and creativity, makes Hannah a resourceful ally. She’s also got problem-solving skills down a T, able to work her way out of any situation or find a solution. Even when it’s on a topic she doesn’t yet know, Hannah’s mind will work overtime and pitch plausible ideas (or at least she thinks they are) based off what little understanding she has of it.

It doesn’t come naturally, but having studied psychology and reading articles about body language, Hannah feels as though her ability to read others is one to not be taken too lightly. When dealing with unknown people, Hannah likes to imagine herself as a social chameleon; she gets others and, through their motives, gets a better understanding of how to act and react in certain circumstances.

In her relationship with Marcus, Hannah was, without a doubt, the handyman of the household. She knows the difference between a Phillips head, slot head and a Robertson screwdriver, or how to hold a handsaw. Maybe she can’t build a whole house, but she does now how to repair a leaky sink.

And, Hannah doesn’t like to brag, but even after the apocalypse, she can make a mean Americano.

STRENGTHS: From all the years spent studying, switching majors and always needing answers to trivial questions that keep her awake at night, Hannah is fairly intelligent and studious, having often been on the honor roll or Dean’s List. All throughout school she had been dubbed a nerd or a bookworm; she had an affinity for reading, and not the sappy YA romance novels, either. The hard sci-fi novels, space opera, thriller/mysteries, all the way up to historical non-fiction and textbooks on religion. Likewise, Hannah always has an urge to learn what she sees others doing, wanting to know how things are done or made. Easily Hannah will get the hang of something; she’s a quick learner with a refusal to stop wanting to learn everything.

Throughout her life many people have said Hannah’s empathic nature is a valued one. She’s a caring and thoughtful person. She understands people, relates to them on a personal level, and is a good listener. It had never been a desire of hers to become a therapist or anything even remotely close, but Hannah’s ability to hear someone’s problem or pain and calm them down, make them feel better or loved is a natural trait she doesn’t think twice about. To Hannah, it’s basic human instinct to care for others so deeply, especially after there’s so very few left to care about.

WEAKNESSES: Hannah doesn’t have the toughest skin, nor a strong voice. She’s a pushover, sensitive, soft-spoken and non-confrontational. Her preferred method of dealing with upset or aggressive people is trying to talk things over while combatting overactive nervousness, but even then she won’t speak up or try to defend herself unless absolutely necessary. She's prone to crying when alone, still mourning those that were lost and dwelling on too many questions. On the outside she can appear calm when sifting through corpses, but there's always the one or two that gets to her. She's not a mentally strong nor brave person; she's a team player and will help in any way she can whenever needed, but don't expect Hannah to carry any army into battle. She may cower in the corner instead.

Though Hannah’s gotten used to the new way of living, she tends to bottle up negative emotions in favor of appearing okay with everything. If something is bothering her, Hannah will try to ignore it or downplay it as nothing too serious. Avoiding issues at all costs is her forte.

Francine is not a physically strong person; she’s thin, unable to lift a lot of weight and is not nearly coordinated enough to run smoothly for long periods of time.

HISTORY:

Hider

In a quaint little apartment still in the process of being furnished exclusively by IKEA’s best, Francine lived with her long-term boyfriend, Marcus. Sometimes at night when neither could sleep and all the other conversational possibilities have been worn down, pillow talk of marriage would arise. It was never fully serious – not to the extent Francine wanted – but Francine was more than welcoming of the idea of settling down with Marcus for the remainder of her life.

At a small café near the downtown core’s financial district, Francine worked as the stores’ assistant manager. For months the higher-up’s had been promising Francine a promotion to managerial level and her own store, but it was something Francine doubted deep down within. She was simply too shy and timid, too much of a pushover to want to constantly ask about it for fear of coming off as annoying. Besides, the coworkers at her store were some of her best friends – a makeshift family. To leave them permanently, knowing she would have to replace them, broke her heart more than she would ever admit. She was okay with staying behind if it meant not having to lose the people she grew so close to.

Elsewhere in the city, Francine’s mother and father had officially moved in with their other daughter, Hannah, and her own family of three. Most Sundays Francine and Marcus would have dinner at their place, where sometimes her brother Jeremiah would attend, looking more and more ragged than ever, on some new drug Francine preferred to pretend never existed. It was easier to ignore Jeremiah’s lifestyle, believe they were all one happy, fully-functioning family, and that Jeremiah wasn’t as bad off as Francine knew he was.

Playing the card of ignorance was better than facing reality.

When the virus began circulating the news and became a serious threat, Francine and Marcus bunkered down with Hannah’s family and their parents. They stayed in the basement, stockpiled food, listened to the radio until it became too hard to keep hearing so much destruction and death daily. After so long, they shut it off for good. They sat quietly and waited, listened to gunshots and sirens and fires rage on. Very quickly on it became chaos in the streets; people didn’t want to wait for death, it seemed.

Jeremiah never arrived, never replied to any of their text messages. Francine doubted any got through, what with the millions of other people jamming the airwaves. In some morbid, twisted way that left Francine questioning her sanity ever since, she preferred he didn’t. She wanted to believe, of all of her family, Jeremiah – the strung-out, couch-hopping lowlife – survived, and that he thrived in the new world. Even at his worst, Jeremiah was resilient. Francine liked to imagine him sobering up and rebuilding society single-handedly.

That thought helped her cope with the images burned into her mind of how, in the cramped, damp basement with mildewed boxes pushed to the sides and enough canned food to last only a week, each and every single last one of her family let out a shudder, a groan, a wet and weak gasp. One-by-one they all went limp, and Francine didn’t know which one to try and help first. She froze, her hands reaching out for Marcus as her eyes fell on her mothers’ worn, weary face that became lifeless, motionless.

When her body began to respond again, Francine ran to her niece Chelsea’s side, knowing it was what everyone would have wanted. But Chelsea was dead the moment Francine was next to her, frantically shaking her, trying to get any response from the young girl.

In the end, Francine stood in a room of bodies she once loved and lived for. She was too shocked to do anything but stand stock still, wide-eyed, staring at a pockmark in the brick wall as her mind tried to process anything that had just happened. It felt like an impossible nightmare, one that Francine couldn’t grasp the reality of until it had hit her hard, like a cannonball right in her guts.

On auto-pilot her feet carried her outside, looking for help or an escape or something to explain what really happened. Standing on her front lawn covered in crispy brown leaves, she saw the teenage boy from across the street, Charles. Without a word shared between the two, they crossed the gap of concrete and grass between them in a second and embraced one another, and for a solid day they sat on the grass and wept heavier than ether had in a long time.

After two days of searching for help – or other living people – and finding only more bodies that further reduced the duo to tears and emotional exhaustion, they returned to their homes. It was an agreement they made that they couldn’t return home and see their families again. Instead, both gathered their belongings and left before any attachment could pull them back. Even as they walked down the road in a hurry with knapsacks on their backs, Francine wanted to run back just to make sure her family wasn’t still alive the whole time.

Eventually Francine and Charles made their way to the EMS station a few blocks over, still hoping help would arrive. Instead, after a few days of total silence in-between sobs and fits, a small group of regular people showed up. There were three of them, making a group of five in total. It was getting colder outside, and no one from the group wanted to see any more corpses, so they remained indoors for a few months. Over that time, Francine learned to cope a bit more with the loss of her entire family through the help of total strangers that became very close to her. Calling them friends wasn’t quite right; they were more than that, and in a different way.

Come February, the supplies had gotten lower and it began to make more sense to leave their pseudo-home. Trekking out into the cold, blistering wind, bundled up and unprepared for it, they made their way from building-to-building, becoming inner-city nomads. Through that way of surviving they found another survivor, Gerry Tran, who was unable to communicate very well but became a quick fixture of their group. English or not, Gerry was part of them, and they relied on him just as much as he did to them.

The group headed for The Emerald Towers as it was the next closest residential spot, and that day had been a particularly bad one. They walked through the front doors, set down their packs, took a moment to shake out the cold from their bones, and saw three other people – Annette, Alexander and Amina. It was a relief to see other living beings for a change, and despite the weather, that night had been the first time Francine laughed in a long while.

When one of their group, Marshall, jumped from the rooftop and committed suicide, Francine simply stared at his body half-buried under the snow from the warmth of inside. Amongst the sadness, pity and regret, Francine felt disappointment, and slight anger. She cried for him, but not in the way she had for the others. There wasn’t as much emotion or effort behind those tears shed. It just wasn’t possible to keep crying like that anymore.

Since the beginning of The Towers, Francine learned to look at the bodies with a little less humanity and sorrow. They became a trademark of the city; they were not things she let herself think about, or feel things over. It made scavenging for supplies more bearable. It made getting through each day less depressing.

It made it easier to not feel guilt every time she laughed or smiled or had a light-hearted conversation with someone. It also made her question her sanity and what became of her, that she felt so disconnected and unaffected. But those were thoughts she never let leave her head.

It made life easier that way.

[Palindromatic]

. . .

ANNETTE LOUISE DANES

. . .

AGE: 47
GENDER: female
FORMER OCCUPATION: Mayor of Rittendale
HEIGHT: 5’6
WEIGHT: 118 lbs
SCARS/TATTOOS/OTHER: in a small, square-lettered font on her left wrist, Annette has a tattoo of the birth date of her son, Sebastian.

PAST AFFILIATES:

• Jason “Jay” Danes: Annette’s forty-eight-year-old husband;
• Sebastian Danes: Annette’s thirteen-year-old son;
• Chantelle Mackey: Annette’s thirty-six-year-old sister;
• Gregory Mackey: Annette’s seventy-two-year-old uncle and former close friend;

CURRENT AFFILIATES:

• Amina Ali: resident of The Towers, close friend/emotional support;
• Alexander J. McMurray: resident of the towers, close friend, second-in-command;
• all other residents of The Towers;

STRENGTHS: If anything, Annette Danes is known for her ability to appeal to the masses. Her charismatic skills kept her afloat during her term as Rittendale’s mayor; even if she never wholly believed the words she let rocket off her tongue, she knew when to let them go and how much force should be put into each syllable. When her back isn’t making friends with a corner, she’s personable, attentive and understanding. She has a sharp tongue and quick wit – a million different retorts or statements will sprout in her mind before her opponent had the chance to attempt to voice their way out of an instant verbal KO.

Likewise, Annette was never blessed with the ability to read a textbook and memorize every fibre of those words, but she does possess adequate “street smarts”. She thinks quickly and clearly, always on the ball. Rarely does Annette slip up or not immediately grasp a concept.

WEAKNESSES: Annette always had been a workaholic, ever since she was first employed as a fast food chain cashier and felt that gritty texture of a crisp paycheque between her fingertips. That thrive to constantly work and do better leaves her exhausted. Annette is unwilling to give up, even when success has long since left her reach. She’s critical of herself, constantly blaming and berating herself for not doing better, not putting more effort into things. This puts her under constant stress, making her agitated and restless, unable to eat or sleep comfortably and always anxious. She’s aware the migraines, heartburn and stomach pains she experiences may be caused from it, but Annette refuses to worry about those.

In the same vein, Annette cares too deeply about what others think of her. There’s a façade she held for years that she was a confident, well-put-together political warrior who always knew the answer. The end of the world didn’t change her need to be that hero; it only made it more needed. In reality, Annette doesn’t believe she’s nearly as strong as she’s made out to be. Inside, she’s an anxious bundle bound to unravel and never stop crying or shaking once every knot comes undone. People look to Annette, and she hungers for their willingness to. It started when Annette first became mayor, how she craved being the good guy, the one with all the answers and solutions. Annette needs to be their saving grace, and then some. It’s the only way she can feel validated.

At her age, and with her health, Annette is not a physically adept person. Her knees crack when she crouches and more often than not she awakes with new pains in her back and shoulders. A bad right knee makes it difficult to run before the pain begins, and truth be told, Annette can’t do a single push-up to save her life.

HISTORY:

Hider

In the year of 2007, Annette Danes became a household name in the city of Rittendale; she was a mayoral candidate known for her sharp mouth, unwillingness to bite her tongue, and ambitious plans to better Rittendale. With the promise of more bike lanes, greenspace, pedestrian-only streets, free public transit and to fight for taxpayers, Annette’s platform was also well-received, though many had doubts she would accomplish everything she promised.

Steadily, Annette’s popularity grew. From enthusiastically appearing in the city’s Pride Parade to supporting and promoting small businesses, Annette made a face for herself as someone who genuinely cared about others. As she once joked in an interview, it was why she always excelled in customer service.

As of 2008, Annette Danes won the election. She went on to lead a full term, managing to reduce crime rates to an all-time low as well as fulfill each promise she made. Though she may have earned the title of “The Green Giant” from her often spoken about drive to make the city as eco-friendly as possible, Annette was renown for her motivation to improve the environment.

In the end, however, Annette was not voted back into office for a second term. She lost to her former competitor, Michael Mann. Though it was a tough blow, it was not all in vain. Annette had been looking forward to an early retirement for a while.

With her husband and son, Annette lived in a well-off condo near the beaches area. They had a pitbull named Sandy and an overweight housecat named Danny.

When the virus hit, Annette’s son Sebastian passed away first. Jay, her husband, collapsed onto the floor just as Annette scrambled to pull Sebastian into her arms. For several hours Annette had attempted CPR on both to no avail. It had not surprised her when no emergency response team answered her calls.

Eventually, when the sun came up and both were pale, cold and unresponsive, and when Annette finally felt the bitter sting of an early winter wafting in through the windows, she sat down on the floor next to both her son and husband and stared off at the dawning sky.

[Lord Wyron]

Name: Dr. Erik Reznov

Age: 38

Gender: Male

Former Occupation: Family Physician

Appearance:

Pre-Outbreak

Post-Outbreak

Wardrobe Style: Before the Outbreak, Erik's clothing was very formal and fastidious, typically consisting of a black, gray, or navy blue single-breasted suit and tie with a white or light blue button-down shirt underneath and brown leather shoes. Even during casual periods, Erik would simply discard his sport coat and tie, showing a need to remain somewhat meticulous.

Opting to choose function over form since the Outbreak, Erik's clothing nonetheless remains tasteful and neat. His typical outfit on a day-to-day basis consists of a polo shirt, button-down or turtleneck of various colors, which he keeps neatly tucked into a pair of trousers with brown or black leather shoes. During colder weather or as an added layer of defense, Erik will wear a brown leather jacket over his regular clothing.

Height: 6’0”

Weight: 162 Pounds

Scars/Tattoos/Other: Has a small scar just above his lip, no tattoos or piercings of any kind.

Past Affiliates: Lost his wife and two children to the Virus when it hit South Carolina. Unknown whereabouts of any friends or family, as much of his extended family lives in Germany.

Current Affiliates: Briefly traveled with a small group of survivors as a medic, but currently travels alone.

Skills: Despite being rather mild-mannered and modest, Erik shows a variety of talents that make him invaluable in a group setting. The most prevalent of these skills, perhaps, is his medical training. Having spent much of his adult life running a small medical clinic, Erik has experience dealing with a wide variety of injuries and ailments; ranging from the simplest of cuts and bruises to compound fractures and serious concussions.

Secondly, having been in the Boy Scouts in youth, in which he achieved the rank of Eagle Scout, Erik remembers much of the outdoor skills he learned: from starting a fire, to building a shelter, to treating water and navigating his way out of the woods, amongst other skills.

Thirdly, Erik is highly observant and resourceful, able to scan an environment or setting and pick up on the tiniest of details. He can use seemingly insignificant items to his advantage and utilize them for a variety of purposes, dependent on what the pressing need is at the time.

And lastly, Erik's medical training and fit physique make him a somewhat capable hand-to-hand fighter. While not being trained in combat, he exercised rather frequently before the Outbreak. This, coupled with his knowledge of the human body give him a slight advantage in close-quarters, though he can be easily defeated by opponents with actual combat training and experience.

Strengths: Erik is a quick learner with a passion for history, medicine and literature. As a result, he shows an ample amount of knowledge in these subjects and is fond of sharing such knowledge with others. Erik is a highly compassionate individual, which can function as both a strength and a weakness. Though he keeps a close eye on other survivors he meets, his trust is quickly won over if he believes the individual is righteous and good-natured. Erik is an avid reader of books, showing a preference for classic literature, Medieval Fantasy, or Science Fiction. As such, he can be found more often than not reading a book in his spare time as it helps draw his mind away from the Outbreak. Being a physician, Erik displays a high amount of focus and patience in stressful scenarios, being one of the first to try and strategize as opposed to running around blindly. Erik is adept at reading people through facial expression and body language, able to pick up on the slightest emotional cues with rather high accuracy.

Weaknesses: Sadly, Erik's compassion is as much a weakness as a strength. Due to spending much of his adult life helping others, Erik is far more open to helping or accepting other survivors, even if their methods/goals are far more ulterior in nature. Nevertheless, Erik isn't a fool and will quickly shun away those he deems as being unrighteous or ill-natured. Erik is very disclosed about his past, revealing very little aside from basic details such as his birthplace and schooling; though he still wears his wedding ring, he makes almost no reference to his wife or children.

Erik suffers from a variant of Phonophobia, specifically the fear of loud noises. Sounds like a loud sirens, gunshots, a balloon popping, or even dogs barking is enough to cause heavy breathing, anxiety, or even panic attacks in more severe cases, with a pressing need to escape the source of the loud sound as quickly as possilbe. Nevertheless, he will temporarily overcome this fear in life-or-death situations where survival takes precedence.

Also, Erik suffers from chronic nightmares from time to time, though whether this an underlying mental condition or simply a side-effect of the traumatizing Outbreak is debatable.

History: Erik Reznov was born in Berlin the single child of Klaus and Claire Reznov, his mother being American while his father was a full-blooded German. The small family moved to the United States when Erik was less than seven years old, settling in his mother's home state of South Carolina.

There, Erik got an ample amount of both American and German culture, as his father felt it necessary to instill Erik with an idea of his heritage. Erik lived a fairly normal life, both his parents were loving both to him and to each other and he made good grades in school, enough to graduate high school with honors.

Showing a passion for medicine since he was a young boy, Erik was accepted at Stanford Medical University, where he earned his Bachelor's and Master's degree before moving onto an internship.

By the time he was in his mid-twenties, Erik established his own small clinic in Greenville, where he had just enough notoriety to be on the map while still being considered outpatient. It was around this time that he met his future wife, Amelia, a fitness instructor who he first met after she came into his clinic for a sprained ankle.

The two of them began seeing each other after that, transforming from close friends into a romantic couple, which soon crescendoed into marriage.

The two of them lived an enjoyable, though not exactly excitable life, which they were both alright with. Over the next few years, Amelia gave birth to two children, a boy and a girl named Nicholas and Anya, respectively. Life seemed to go on normally for the Reznov family until late October 2013, when a dangerous virus that first appeared in South America hit the United States.

Erik was astounded and terrified by the Virus' sheer lethality and infiltration ability, as even highly-trained scientists were unable to come up with an explanation. Erik engrossed himself in his work, studying as much as he could to see if he could find a preventive, a way to halt the virus' progress. But then it claimed his wife and children.

Now left alone in a world filled with chaos, Erik spent the next few months of his life wandering, doing whatever he could to survive, even joining up with another small group as the team medic before eventually leaving to go off on his own again, never staying in one place for long.

One fateful night when he was kept awake due to terrifying nightmares, Erik received a broken transmission from a small radio he had found in a convenience store, a transmission that spoke of a place called The Towers, a place that had food, shelter, safety.

Gathering what little supplies he could, Erik set off once again, in hopes of finding the sanctuary he so desperately needed.

Other: Erik is bilingual, and can speak both English and German fluently. To branch off from this, as he learned to speak while still living in Germany, Erik speaks with a hint of an accent, as well as having a habit of throwing German words into conversation. Despite being a man of peace and a doctor, he does carry a Luger Po8 sidearm as a weapon, which he is capable of firing with adequate accuracy and precision; though he dislikes shooting or even drawing it, due to his Phonophobia.

[McHaggis]

.

[Scoundrel]

Melvin Cain

______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________

Name:

Melvin Cain

Age:

21

Gender:

Male

Former Occupation:

Singer and songwriter

Physical Appearance:

Melvin is a young man whose appearance is but a snippet of the apocalypse's unrelenting wrath - or at least a part of him is. On his right arm lies a big nasty scar that traces from his shoulder blade down to the wrist. A bitter reminder of the grim occurrences he faced during his time for survival and a failed attempt to save a loved one. Other than that, Melvin appears to be quite average for a person of his age.

Standing roughly at 5'8" in height and weighing at about 138 pounds, he has a fairly thin build which is entirely made up of lean and stringy muscles and a pack of small joints. Melvin was once fair-skinned but then sank into a medium tan as a result of frequent exposures from the sun and occasional hygiene negligence. His face is defined by a triangular shape with an angled chin and low cheekbones. His unruly light brown hair is moderately short in length that falls down to his upper back neck. Eyes are colored hazel with fair eyebrows residing on top. He has a thin nose line and a few growing facial hairs located at his lower chin and some skirting at the sides of his jaw.

Past Affiliates:

Previously belonged to a group of people who were residents from Melvin's neighborhood alongside with his mother, younger sister and a few of his co-workers in the music industry who happened to stand along for survival. They were a migrating lot who sought a safer community free from the virus or anyone who're carriers of it. Overtime they decreased in numbers but not from having one member catching the virus. It was mainly because of their morals and how it crumbled down every time the group broke into series of arguments. As of now, Melvin is one of the few survivors of the group as half of them either killed each other due to unsettled conflicts or were killed by hostiles. The rest of the group were caught by the virus and eventually died. That included Melvin's mother and younger sister.

Current Affiliates:

Melvin currently has no permanent group. His daily routine revolves around helping people who are in need and meeting up with other survivors. Usually, a majority of his time would be spent on exploring at abandoned areas by himself. The purpose of which would either be for his own way of killing time or to find a something worth living for.

Skills:

Melvin is an exceptionally good singer and an entertainer who is capable of giving people a good show with a fascinating vocal range. He can also play a handful of instruments such as the guitar and occasionally, the harmonica. With these, he can help and give hope to people who are running through a bleak environment despite losing a lot of their loved ones. However, having suffered through countless of losses, Melvin sometimes loses motivation on using these skills for the benefit of others. Other than that, he developed a certain skill for tracking since he often explores abandoned places by himself. His tracking skill however, is still at a novice level.

Strengths:

One characteristic which is considered to be Melvin's main strength is his perseverance. He can withstand almost every trial faced in life whether it'd risk him or not and show his rigorous willpower in the process. Most likely, nothing will hold him down from achieving the impossible not even by force alone. He doesn't fear the concept of failure even if he undergoes it a couple of times. The only thing that he fears is not trying anything at all which then wraps him in complete regret.

Weaknesses:

Perhaps Melvin's greatest weakness comes within the forms of negativity as it perfectly opposes his main source of strength. It is the one trait that drags him down from all of his ambitions and instead, allows hopelessness to take over and rule his moral sense. At his pessimistic side, Melvin is often existentially conflicted. He always wonder aimlessly about life and what there is to it. This weakness of his generally places him into a depressed state but there are times where it could be worse.

Melvin is also unreasonably obstinate at times. Being stubborn often puts him through dangerous situations to the point where his life may be at risk but despite knowing that, he still has the spunk to be persistent and remain stubborn nonetheless. He occasionally has problems establishing trust with people as he is very much aware of how society revolves. More likely, he is skeptical even towards people who show nothing but straightforward camaraderie.

History:

Born and raised from a small neighborhood located at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At an early age, Melvin struggled to keep up with his life especially before his abusive father was still a household member of the family. He and his sister often kept their distances from their parents, mostly clamped together in a room while spending each unbearable moment listening to their father raise his voice and to the unthinkable noises of their mother being beaten. Melvin knew it had to stop sooner or later but even when trying one attempt after another gave no progress. The arguments were still flowing heavily with each passing day until a day came when Melvin's father went too far and assaulted their mother with a knife. The injuries were serious but luckily, it wasn't anywhere near life-threatening. Authorities arrested Melvin's father after his mother was admitted to the hospital. Since then, their father never returned nor did they see him again.

A remarkable breathe of fresh air followed several months after the incident damaged their family. Financial conflicts rose but wasn't as much of a bigger problem than their abusive father. Melvin's mother found a job at the city a few weeks later, knowing that there should be a replacement to their main source of income. It wasn't difficult even when they made several adjustments in the process. Melvin continued school and aided his sister with her studies as well. However, all of their hard work appeared to be insufficient as money grew shorter every time Melvin advanced to a higher level in school. He knew he had to do something, especially after he moved forward to high school. Ideas came but most of them weren't as helpful as he thought until an opportunity awaited him at a television show's talent audition.

Ever since he was little, Melvin was fond of singing and developed a certain hobby of it in the later years. He never knew he was good at it but his mother and sister always believed that he was blessed with a voice that can open people's ears. He was never the most confident person to say the least but participating in the said audition could help them prevail from his family's hardships.

All went well after Melvin auditioned. He was officially signed to participate in the talent show's program which then left him anxious but thrilled nonetheless. A successful result followed after he was placed at third place in the finals. It may not have been a clear shot to the number one spot but his way of singing was enough for a wide recognition. Soon, a few entertainment companies barged in and crowded Melvin with contracts, all of which were careers in singing that he might consider on pursuing. He didn't hesitate and accepted what's for the better. He knew his family was still there waiting to root for his success. It was all happening so fast that Melvin couldn't settle his mind but he was certain that success was already at his grasps. The hardships he once struggled to pass through were now under his reach and could now give the support that he's willing to provide for his family. Months after signing his career contract, Melvin was officially a musician, making money off of record deals. He became a known figure in alternative rock genre and made several appearances at famous venues throughout the United States.

Then the catastrophic plague came. Melvin immediately returned home to escort his family to safety but by then, chaos was already flocking his hometown with an uncontrollable outburst as every resident made desperate attempts for their preparation of survival. Homes were being infiltrated then stolen by a number of individuals. However, Melvin and his family were safe after being rescued by his agents and few co-workers. Terrified residents begged to join them but only a few were brought to their excursion. They rushed to leave the state and to a safer environment where people weren't running in an outrage. However, the group collapsed before they could even find a place. Melvin tried to break his family away from them but by the time he did, he noticed that they've already caught the virus. It wasn't long until his mother and younger sister lost their lives which then forced Melvin to wander in the midst of devastation. He never would've guessed what may happen next but after losing everything he had, Melvin came to the point where he wondered if there was still a reason to continue. He felt certain that there wasn't but his constant fear of death refused to let him join his family.

[Jinxer]

Name: Julius Charlton
Age: 21
Gender: Male
Former Occupation: Student/Part Time Worker at a phone shop.
Appearance:

Image

(Yes, it is Thomas Brodie-Sangster).

Julius wears thin, half-rimmed glasses (he prefers not to have the rim at the bottom of his vision as it is a constant reminder of his terrible eyesight). They are plain in design, black with silver arms and no visible designer logo. This goes for almost all of his clothing - plain with no large logos or statements. Julius prefers to wear white or pale blue polo shirts, clean dark blue jeans with no rub marks or 'designer styles'. If the weather calls for it he has a black, ankle-length, wool and cashmere trench coat and prefers to use an umbrella, dislike hoods of any kind on clothing.

Height: 5' 6"
Weight: 70Kg/11lb
Scars/Tattoos/Other: Wears glasses (is very short-sighted so he must wear them at all times), no tattoos or scars.
Past Affiliates: Julius has (had?) a fiancée back in Wales (UK) where he went to the same university right on the coast in a small town called Aberystwyth.
Both his parents and his little brother, three years junior to him, lived in south-west England while his older brother, just under six years his elder, lived in the midland area of England.
A few friends from his course at university (and a few others) had travelled with him across the Atlantic as part of an exchange programme. He has found the vast majority's corpses while two, maybe three (he's not sure how many exactly were on the programme) might still be alive. Only one he knows by name (Andrew) and he has yet to find evidence of either his death or continued life.

Current Affiliates: None. Andrew maybe alive but Julius has no clues as to where he might be and whether he is, in fact, still alive at all.

Skills: Julius is intelligent, mostly in an academic sense and has a particular skill for skimming through books for the information he needs. This largely comes from having studied history at university, now in his third and final year. He has little experience with practical applications but is not too poor with a hammer although more complex constructions will leave him intimidated. He also happens to know some basic first aid from his final years at school volunteering at the local hospital; perhaps more vital is that he worked on the burns ward at the hospital and so very few injuries will now upset his stomach. Unfortunately, due to his lack of qualifications or certified training his first aid skills are largely self-taught with no consistent knowledge.

Strengths: He is quick to grasp new concepts, situations and is a fairly good read of people. He remains calm in (most) stressful situations but will become panicked when a problem he feels he is incapable of solving presents itself.

Weaknesses: Julius does not have masses of initiative, preferring to follow than to lead even when he disagrees with the course being taken. He is often both short-termist and long-sighted in equal measures, often failing to come up with a middle ground solution. He also lacks empathy, which is an asset in reading others' emotions but a definite disadvantage when it comes to handling emotionally charged situations. As a result he can come across as cold and calculating, even during times when he's attempting to factor in others' feelings.

Julius also very particular. Sometimes this can be a boon when quality is the most important aspect of choice but his unstinting insistence on some areas, such as clothing, can be disadvantageous and rule out a wide variety of choice. So strong is this part of his personality that it will genuinely throw off his entire mood and confidence if there is no option which fits his criteria.

History: Born and raised in England, in various parts of the country, Julius has no particular region to provide loyalty to other than the country as a whole of which he is tremendously patriotic (but nationalistic, it must be said). At a young age it became clear that he had difficulty understanding others' emotions and reasoning as his was so far off anyone else's, although he had no trouble in reading and identifying emotion. In fact, he had quite a talent in this area and led a long series of doctors to confusion as to the diagnosis; he was not very far on the autism spectrum which was the usual culprit in such matters.

Eventually his parents simply accepted that Julius was 'different' from others'. There was no event or condition that this peculiarity could be assigned to, especially as Julius himself was not unfeeling; he had simply locked down his emotions at a young age having dismissed them as illogical and irritating. His friendships were often difficult arrangements, and few in number, as a result of his dismissal of 'illogical' social etiquette such as small talk. This lead him to be a hard studier, many more social activities thus becoming shut off to him, as he realised he made most people feel uncomfortable.

A successful academic career had him going to an isolated university, rather than Cambridge or Oxford which both gave him offers, on the corner of Wales where he could enjoy a degree of seclusion despite the high numbers of boisterous students in the town. A part time job gave him the income he needed to afford his fairly luxurious requirements (comfy seating, bedding, intelligent storage for his numerous books both academic and leisure, white goods to save time on more mundane tasks) with his scholarship funds going on academic supplies.

Due to his continued success at university, at least in the academic sphere - he had briefly joined a few clubs and societies in an attempt to broaden his skill base but had quickly found he did not fit in with any of the groups, he was chosen with a few others to take part in an exchange programme. Julius saw this as an opportunity to increase his experience with the world without overly stepping outside of his comfort zones and instantly accepted the proposition, the expenses all paid for. He left for the States with one other from his history course and other selected students from a variety of subjects; one of whom was Andrew who had switched from a Marine Biology course to studying psychology and found Julius a fascinating subject.

The programme had only begun at the end of September so Julius had only been in the States for a short time before hell itself seemed to come to Earth. It has been some time since he has had human contact, often avoiding groups as he suspected some would turn to less civilised methods of interaction in the devastation. The library had been his place of refuge for the past few months, having moved the corpses out of the building and finding methods to block entrances in case less friendly sorts came to his new home.

An old radio, whose batteries he had replaced several times now, which had been silent for about two months suddenly started up with a broken message. Piecing together what he could from the poor reception, Julius gathered a few essentials and then headed out for this place promising safe refuge.

After all, even he would go stir crazy without anyone else to talk to.

[Darkraven]

Valentina Vetrov (Removed)