.:Zombie Apocalypse mini bios:.

[Ludwig Beilschmidt]

This is always a WIP!

Name: Governor Ludwig Beilschmidt

Age: 27

Appearance: 

*Art is mine. Credit if you use elsewhere.*

Standing at an even 6', Ludwig is not only a rather tall man, but is a rather broad-shouldered and muscular one as well. He looks slightly older than he actually is due to the stress of his job wearing on him, but even with his 'desk job' he's still physically fit.

Ludwig was caught on one of his business days and locked in the building as a precaution. For the longest time, he was stuck wearing his suit, but was able to change into his civilian clothes after a while. He opts for comfortable and versatile clothing that won't hinder him and always has his pistol and an extra clip on hand. He may sometimes be found wearing glasses. However, he never takes off his wristwatch or at the very least, never lets it leave his person-it is his most prized possession and was given to him by his wife on their fifth anniversary.

Personality Changes/Quirks:
(Mostly just going to emphasize and some of his normal traits here and take them to the next level) 

* Pessimistic - We're not talking about the borderline pessimist realist he usually is, but a full-fledged pessimist. He's seen what this disease can do first hand...and he knows that it isn't picky about its prey. The cures aren't coming fast enough and who's to say they even will? At least this outlook of "prepare for the worst" will keep him from having any hopeful expectations thoroughly crushed.

* Merciless - It hurts him to think in this way, but those that were stricken with the disease are no longer human. They are no longer the people that he loved--or anyone loved--they are monsters. He's getting to the point where he won't think twice about capping a turned preschooler in the head. They're already gone....

* 0 Tolerance - for foolishness and goofing off. This is not some movie nor is it a game. This is a matter of survival and you can bet that if anyone steps out of line and puts other members of the 'team' in danger, they will likely face more than just getting yelled at. You will see just how bad of a temper he actually has and just how strict and how much of a hard-ass he actually is.

* Grief-Stricken - Part of his currently "sour  and stern" attitude has to do with the fact that he's being eaten alive with grief. He blames himself for not being able to protect his family and worries about them and their fate near-constantly.

* Distrustful - His inner circle is more or less gone by now so he's been thrust into a world of strangers that may or may not dislike him (gotta love politics...). He's not sure of who he can actually trust or who is going to stab him in the back or use him as a human shield the next time he turns around. So despite the fact that he thinks it's better for everyone to put the past aside and band together in order to survive, he doesn't fully trust anyone he didn't know before the outbreak.

Backstory:
After his primary education, Ludwig joined the police academy where, through his diligence and profound skill, ascended through the ranks to earn a position as a police commissioner. He was well on his way to a more administrative position within the police force, and during this time, he married his high school sweetheart, Chiara Valentino. Despite the track that he was on, Ludwig, after a few years of though, decided to take a different route and pursue politics--mainly because the local government was failing to fulfill their duty and the rest of the community was rather disenchanted with how things were being run. He was, after all, still focused on an administrative position, and he did believe

At first, Ludwig ran for mayor and with very little support or funding apart from his own. Naturally, his opponent was more equipped and experienced with how the race was to be run, and won. However, this helped to put Ludwig's name out in the public, and after several more years of faithfully serving in the police department and proving that he was one to earnestly want to do good and assist the community, he ran again. This time, he set his sights a bit higher (and was encouraged by a few close friends and his wife) to run for governor.

As was the case with his attempt at becoming mayor, Ludwig still didn't have a huge source of funds. Unlike his first attempt, he did have a lot more people willing to support him and offer their services. In the end, Ludwig beat his opponent by a hair. As promised, he started out strong during his term, managed to accomplish several tasks or at the very least manage good progress on the ones he started (such as trying to lower unemployment and fighting for more funds for education in the state...and trying to ensure the residents would be protected against the growing virus epidemic). It was not an easy task, of course, but Ludwig remained diligent and had more or less sworn to himself that he would accomplish a set number of goals before his term ended--even if it meant longer working hours and frequent trips away from home. 

As such, the following year or so was riddled with both a blessing and a curse. 

As the day of their fifth anniversary arrived, not only did Chiara give him a quality wristwatch, she told him that they would be expecting their first child. The celebrations, however, were short-lived since in two days time he was called off for a business meeting in one of the larger cities and as a result, a good distance from his home. The first few days of the meeting went off without a hitch, but as the week wore on, warnings of an outbreak began to flash across the news.  On the last day of his trip (right after a meeting nonetheless), the building in which Ludwig was put on lock-down; no-one came in...no one went out....for a while, at least. Despite the precautions he and the other members of the state and the local and national government had taken, the virus had managed to find its way into the city where it rapidly spread.

At this point in the beginning of chaos, his thoughts constantly went back to Chiara--he knew she was able to hold her own and was nearly as stubborn as he was, but this was a completely different threat. Thankfully, he was able to call her from a land line and inform her of the predicament and to instruct her how to take care of herself. That was until the power in the building went out and cut the call short and he was left hanging on four little words:

"Get home safely. I -- "

Ludwig's fight for survival had begun.

Main Weapon: HK USP pistol (given to him by one of his bodyguards as a precaution); a pack of Ballpoint Pens (GO DIE--EAT KUGELSCHREIBER!); whatever he's able to get his hands on at the time.

Greatest Skills: 
* Strategy/Leadership - He's been in positions of power and he knows how to lead and strategize. He's also seen combat before this.
* Physical and Mental Fortitude - He's strong physically, but he's also able to keep a cool head during chaos.
* Sure-shot - Give him a gun and he'll hit the mark.

Greatest Weaknesses:
* Rules - even now, he's still a stickler for them... and perhaps his greatest frustration is that he's having to react and adapt to a world that is becoming more and more chaotic and lawless. He's having a bit of difficulty pulling away from being the "good citizen" and reminding himself that it's "bend and break the rules or die".
* Stubbornness/Arrogance - He's a bit inflexible and once his mind is made up to do something, it's hard to sway him otherwise--he also just hates giving up control or leadership. Additionally, he's not one to ask for assistance unless it's the very last option.
* Loved Ones - In all veracity, Ludwig's family is not very extensive, and his (close) friends are few. What he does have, however, he cherishes dearly and would lay down his life for them if such a situation ever arose. They’re pretty much all he has, and if one were to take them from him or threaten them, the results could be quite disastrous for everyone involved.

Relationships:
* Chiara (NPC) - Ludwig's wife of 5 years; she is currently expecting. Her fate is still unknown.
* James Walser (NPC) - One of Ludwig's guards. He had great respect for the man and trusted him...if there was a way to hold a proper service or memorial, he would.
* Lili Walser (NPC/former Liechtenstein)- The daughter of one of Ludwig's guards. She's a quiet one, but quite respectful and Ludwig doesn't normally have any issues with her being around. He kind of has stepped into a slight fatherly role now that they've been thrust into a chaotic world of undead.

Other Things Worth mentioning:
*He's struggling not to start smoking again. It'd help with the stress, yes, but it'd also take a toll on his health (and Chiara abhors it)...maybe one every here and there and only when things get beyond chaotic.
* His wedding band is also a prized possession (and yes, as per German tradition he wears it on his right hand), but the wristwatch was the last thing his wife gave him before they were separated from one another. On the back of it there is an engraving: "To My Loving Husband, Love Chiara"
*Bullet wound on the back left of his shoulder. It's not much of a bother, but starts to ache during the winter months.

[Mihai Roșu]

"Killing must feel good to God, too. He does it all the time, and are we not created in God's image?"

Name: Mihai Roșu

Age: 25

Appearance: His hair has grown a bit long since the beginning of the apocalypse, and now frames his face. It's long enough to put into a small ponytail, which he does when it looks like things might get tight. He dresses simply for the most part, though with a couple of fashionable accents. Mostly, his attire consists of shirt, pants, and a jacket, but he's also taken to wearing masks and gloves for extra protection against zombie entrails. He has no problem going into dangerous places or looting stores, so whenever he requires a new change of clothing, he usually manages to get one. His left hand is missing, and in its place is a contraption that keeps a blade attached to his arm.

Personality Changes/Quirks:

SPOILER: Click to show

• Deceptive: He makes himself come off as harmless and genuinely intending to do things for the good of the group, but... Well, he isn't. Although he might make a show out of being worried and helpful, he's really just trying to throw suspicion off of himself until it's a good moment to strike. His police badge has done him a great deal of good in earning people's trust.
• Improviser: He's good at making stuff up on the spot, whether it be stories or plans or weapons. It's a good skill to have when the increasingly chaotic world around tends not to abide to plans, as well as fabricating stories and excuses on the spot for any suspicious behavior.
• Manipulative: In order to get others to play his game he unabashedly uses them and takes advantage of whatever weakness they have. He studies the group he is with carefully until he can understand their dynamics before he starts to restructure it into a volatile end.
• Whimsical: What he wants and plans are changeable day-to-day and from group to group. If it benefits him, he might even leave a few survivor groups intact, but it really depends on how he's feeling and whether he thinks it'll help him. If not, he might try to explore different ways of dismantling the reluctant trust between survivors. It's all really just an experiment.
• Sadist: He derives particular enjoyment out of playing mind games with people and studying how they react. His intentions for the most part during the apocalypse is simply to cause chaos and to disorganize survivor groups, preferably through augmenting distrust and getting them to kill or injure each other. Otherwise, he also likes to lead groups into dangerous situations and waiting to see who gets out alive.
• Guilt: Everyone's set to die anyway. Just some sooner than others. If they're going to die anyway, some people's deaths may as well be for his own amusement.
• Just wanna have fun: The main reason he does this is simply because it's fun to him. What he originally couldn't accomplish in an organized world is now easy to do in one that is ruled by chaos, so he's really let loose.
• Who says that murder's not an art?: He's a killer, and not a defensive one at that. While others might foster chaos due to their attempts at survival, Mihai actively seeks to create discord, oftentimes for no reason other than that it amuses him. He strives to think up creative ways to lead others to their doom, though at some points he may be goaded into doing his own dirty work.

Backstory:

SPOILER: Click to show

Mihai's family was perfectly normal, so it's a wonder why he turned out the way he did. The only stumbling block that childhood might have provided was the divorce between mother and father, though they parted on amiable terms and never once did he hear them have long, drawn-out shouting matches. In the end, his father, Constantin, was given custody of him while his mother went back to pursuing the career she'd left behind. Still, even during these early years, Mihai's behavior was a little off. He was particularly cruel to insects, which he caught to dissect, but he was once found throwing stones at a neighborhood cat and trying to hit birds and squirrels with a slingshot. His father charted it up to something Mihai would grow out of, and simply removed Mihai's weapons and gave the child stern lectures. Mihai only ever pretended to feel guilty.

Eventually, his father remarried to an Indonesian woman named Rani Ingkiriwang. She brought with her her own child, Annisa, or Nesia for a nickname. Nesia took quickly to Mihai, which he at first found annoying, but he eventually grew to like her as an impressionable kid who he could easily manipulate. As his activities escalated to shoplifting and petty theft, he encouraged her to come with him on his little stints, and was quite happy that she seemed to take to the excitement quickly. He kept giving her little challenges--stealing some candy, climbing high trees--until it escalated to the point when he dared her to cross a river. Normally, the river was perfectly safe to cross even by swimming, but that day, it had become particularly swift due to a storm a few days before. Still, Nesia accepted his dare (like he knew she would), and plunged into the river. She was swept away within seconds.

By the time she was found and his parents called over to the hospital, he had gone home and had been quietly drinking a cup of tea and watching a crime show. He was surprised that she didn't rat him out, but after careful consideration, he realized it was a manifestation of her devotion, which he didn't hesitate to use thereafter. She didn't stop following him around nor did she quit answering to his dares either, though she refused to have anything to do with water.

Thereafter, his activities escalated under the unsuspecting noses of his parents. While in middle school, he fell in with a group of older high school students, and not because of his studiousness. He was, however, cunning, and although they often amused themselves by trying to humiliate him, they rarely succeeded, and he used their underestimation to gain what it was he really wanted--drugs. It was honestly just curiousity at first. He tried them and found no great interest, but he did discover that he could make good money off of them, so he started dealing. Just minor stuff as he started figuring out the ropes, but he was caught early on when his shoplifting triggered a silent alarm and the cops found a small bag of marijuana on his person. Whenever he looks back on it, he remembers that event with great shame and takes it as a lesson to be ever more wary.

As he was no older than thirteen, Mihai was sentenced as a minor. He was sent to a rehabilitation program (even though he hadn't had great interest in the drugs themselves), and during his counseling, his parents decided to send Nesia to Indonesia to live with relatives. He was a bit sorry for the loss of his entertainment, especially during the long hours spent in therapy, but he eventually found something new to latch onto. He took a great deal of interest in his parole officer, and eventually began prodding him with questions about law enforcement. The more he learnt about the career, the more he became aware that although cops were supposed to protect the populace, there was no one to protect the populace from the cops. The set-up, in all honesty, sounded perfect.

He eventually became the model of rehab success. He never relapsed and never had another run-in with law enforcement, although the only real difference was just that he learnt to be ever more careful. The last years of middle school and high school passed without incident, and he was soon off to college, to a prestigious university on a criminal justice track (the irony is still funny). He took to quietly screwing people over just to satiate his desire for some excitement, getting a few people expelled on charges of plagiarism and drug use. It was also the year, he finally met his match in a certain Arthur Kirkland.

They met at a party, and to say that they 'hit it off' wouldn't be quite accurate. They took a mutual interest in each other, particularly on Mihai's part when he, at one point, tried and failed to endanger Arthur's scholarship prospects. However, competition to remain a step ahead of the other soon evolved into a partnership and sexual liaison, and by the fourth year of college, they'd begun living together. Those arrangements didn't change after graduation either, as Arthur continued to pursue medicine and Mihai enrolled in the police academy, then eventually became an officer of the law.

His habits did not change despite what expectations one might have about being a cop, and the system was easy to abuse. Behind the scenes, he ran a practice of extortion and bribery, including building up some close relationships with local criminals. He managed to keep all these activities below the radar until he one day shot and killed a woman he had been arresting. He was put on paid leave while the department investigated, though he doubted they'd turn up with anything. He'd planted a gun at the scene, and claimed that the woman had threatened him, which his colleagues and conservative media outlets were more than eager to eat up. She hadn't, of course. He'd initiated the entire confrontation with the intention of it leading to her death, just to see if he could get away with it.

As it turned out, they needn't even have concerned themselves over an investigation. Two months later, the plague had spread to the States, and everything was plunged into chaos.

Main Weapon: He thinks close combat is more interesting, so he'll generally use heavy-duty butcher knives, though he honestly has a stock of weapons. Most of them were acquired from 1) his flat, where he'd kept stolen evidence and department weapons over the years; 2) the department itself, where he'd gone to get a stockpile of guns after the plague hit the city; 3) looted stores; 4) other survivor groups, from whom he'd stolen weapons and resources. The weapons from 1) and 2) have mostly been depleted now, and, well, bulky guns aren't much use unless you're barricading yourselves somewhere. As far as firearms go, he has a few revolvers and pistols, though he only ever presents one, if asked.

Greatest Skills:

• Training: Having trained in the police force, he is physically quite capable. He's slightly stronger than the average civilian, has pretty good endurance, and although his aim isn't 10/10 he makes most of his shots.
• Agility: This is probably his strongest point. He's got quick reflexes and is light on his feet, and he's a good climber too. He could easily outrun the Infected if he wanted to. The problem is, he rarely ever wants to.
• Adaptability: Since he's really just looking to have a good time, he's not really concerned with stability. In fact, changes in the environment are the most interesting, aren't they? So he looks for new settings and people to adapt to, but never for long.

Greatest Weaknesses:

• Self-preservation: He has no sense of it. He doesn't expect anyone to survive past this disaster so he's making the most of it while he can, but making smart choices isn't the priority.
• Risk-taking: As such, he engages in risk-taking behavior to heighten his own thrill. He finds the adrenaline to be addicting, for the most part, and he's confident enough that he won't be killed so quickly. Whether this will last is something only time can tell...
• Enemies: His behavior earns him many enemies for sure. Not all of the people he's targeted have died, after all, and those who find him again may not be so trusting or merciful as they were the first time.

Relationships:

• Nesia: Step-sister. He loves her as a "project" he spent a long time working on, and would be disappointed if she died before it came to fruition. He may be cruel to her, but he's ever curious as to how she will react to the situations he sets out before her. Even after she'd left for Indonesia, they've kept in contact, and she was on her way to visit him when the plague broke out. Currently, he doesn't know where she is, but hopes to find her.
• Parents: Fate unknown. He isn't too invested in finding out either. Whatever.
• Arthur: Perhaps the only person Mihai has any semblance of loyalty towards. He finds that Arthur is the only person capable not only of keeping him entertained, but also of understanding whatever amoral activities Mihai happens to enjoy. He likes Arthur for that. They were living together at the time of the outbreak and have been on the run together since.

Other Things Worth mentioning:

• Sometime over the course of the apocalypse, Arthur managed to figure out an adequate way to attach a knife to his arm where his hand used to be. He'd still prefer to have his fingers back, but at least the attachment is sturdy and it's pretty hard to make him lose it. Also, it's better to have a way to stab a zombie than not. Maybe he should experiment with a gun next.

[Feliciano Vargas]

Name: Feliciano Vargas
Age: 19
Appearance:

For a nineteen year old, Feliciano is surprisingly scrawny. He's a little under the average height, standing a little under 5'8", but he's built like a twig. While he's always been small for his age, the relatively unhealthy early childhood he had might have something to do with his slight stature. It doesn't help that he doesn't eat much, or sleep much, anymore. Even worse that his clothes are all pretty baggy, swamping his features and minuting him all the more. That doesn't really matter, when his thick jacket and jeans protect him from both the cold and Infected teeth, though. He also has well-worn, nearly sole-less boots with too-long, fraying shoelaces, and a beanie to cover his hair and ears.
It belies his apparent skill with the frying pan awkwardly tied to a belt-loop, or the fact he has an unsheathed butcher's knife stuffed up his sleeve. Feliciano's knicked himself with the damn thing numerous times, but he doesn't have a much better way to carry the knife, or any other weapon, right now. All he can hope for is something more useful than the weapons he grabbed in his haste and fury... Any memento of his brother or grandfather would have been lost or discarded years ago.
Personality Changes/Quirks:
❣ "Be Not Simply Good, Be Good For Something*": Feliciano doesn't believe in inherent good and evil. Nothing exists in this world as purely good, or purely evil. You have to work to be good, and it's a process that will go on from the day you're born to the day you die. However, doing "nice things" doesn't make a person "good". Feliciano doesn't care if you're "nice" to every person on the fucking planet. Niceties are worthless. Feliciano thinks a person has to show your goodness. He has to help people, he has to be useful to be good; to be worth something.
❣ "Belief Is Something Which Uses You*": Religion isn't a "taboo" topic with Feliciano or anything like that. He just...doesn't get religion. He doesn't understand "God". The Catholic faith talks about how God is an omnipotent being; an entity of kindness, acceptance, and goodness in the world. Yet, Feliciano sees no signs of this "God's" work in the world around him. The living need the dead to sustain. Society rewards the greedy, the cruel, the cynical; puts down the poor, the weak, and the optimistic. Bad things happen to undeserving people, there's no rhyme or reason to it. Why they exist, where life came from, Feliciano doesn't know, but he can't bring himself to place his hope in some unseen being that promises love and kindness and rewards with pain and death. If there is to be good in the world, people must work for it--it comes from you, not some presence "watching over his people" from a plane of existence no one can see. If you believe in the divine, if you draw strength and will from it, all the power to you. Feliciano won't hold it against you. He'll just stay here, doing good because it needs to be done. (because he is worthless if he does not)
❣ Suppression Central: Just because Feliciano can only like himself when he can make other people happy doesn't mean his treacherous brain doesn't think its own stupid, selfish thoughts from time to time. Sometimes he thinks to himself how unfair it is that people get upset with him. He really can't please everyone, can he..? Why does he have to give up his blankets every night? Why does he have to put up with this shit?! But those thoughts won't help anyone. All they'll do is upset people. All they do is upset him. It's so much easier just letting other people do as they please, helping them when he can. Life doesn't hurt as much when he does.
❣ Going Hulk: Repression might seem like a good idea, but it's really not. Pushing things down only leaves them to build under pressure, more and more, until the dam that's built, simply bursts. When the boy's self-control snaps, he loses himself in the swell of emotion he's never properly learned to deal with. Generally it means severe depressive episodes. Sometimes... Sometimes the rage at his position, the indecencies he's faced in his short life; he can still see the blood under his fingernails. (Literally)
❣ Resident Therapist: Despite his own stellar ineptitude with his own emotions and downfalls as an imperfect being, Feliciano does his very best to help those around him navigate their own issues. Perhaps it's a subconscious understanding of his own failures that help him show others not to fall into the same traps. Maybe it's his own warped sense of worth leading the way. Regardless, the boy goes out of his way to try helping those struggling under the weight of their own demons. And even if you're not struggling so much as awkwardly eyeing the latest issue at hand, he will do his best to help you deal with it. Hopefully you come out of the situation relieved and happier than before.
❣ Elective Mute: When Feliciano isn't leaping at the chance to help someone out, he's generally pretty quiet. Most people are, nowadays, but it's a far cry from the cheerfully chattering kid he used to be. In fact, Feliciano can go days without saying more than a few sentences; though you won't see him without a forced smile upon his face. Seeing a smile often makes people smile on reflex, and smiling is proven to help people feel better, even if it doesn't start out genuine, y'know?
❣ Now Let Me Carry You: Feliciano sees his childhood for what it really was now; him clutching at his brother and dragging him down over and over again. Then his grandfather, once Lovino finally got sick of him and left even though he promised that wasn't the case at all and that he'd stay forever. All Feliciano has ever done was be the burden. Now? Feliciano would die or kill in efforts of helping the others. They don't deserve to get dragged down with him. He'll do whatever it takes to help them. He'll take on their burdens--he'll take them, literally, if that's what it takes to help. Hopefully no one will ever see him as a burden, the weak one always in need of assistance, ever again.
❣ Less of a Straight Line, More of a Tangled String: Feliciano doesn't really make much sense as a person once you start digging beneath the surface. He's a complete mess of repressed emotions and desires and fanatical desire to help others; not to mention his messed-up ideas of self-worth. It just takes a while to see that; and who's to say you can rely on him once you see the truth beneath his words...
Backstory:
Compared to Feliciano's older brother's hateful recollections of life with their parents, Feliciano can't say how he felt about his parents. He vaguely recalls yelling and dark figures and crying and being hungry and sick. He remembers approaching a limpid figure he's told was his mother and being shooed away; an angry shape of pain and fear with hard hands. He can see their faces in his mind but they don't elicit much of a response. To Feliciano, they were relatively secondary characters. The boy can't be sure if those are his memories or images built by recollections around him. If they're just nightmares. The memories Feliciano is sure of all focus solely on Lovino; playing with him, sleeping by his side, being protected by him... Lovino was the singular source of light in his early years, kind and caring rather than hateful or dismissive. The boy idolized and adored his elder brother, and latched onto him in an appropriately obsessive manner. In his later years, Feliciano can't help but wonder how his brother managed to survive without someone to take care of him... unless things only went wrong once Feliciano was born? Was that his fault as well..? Is that why Lovino eventually left?

Feliciano was about three or four when he started comprehending some of the words their father threw around. "Worthless!" "Useless!" "Good for nothing!" Those were hurled around at everyone in the house. Their mother failing to make dinner usually ended up in a shouting match; the man swinging his fists on particularly bad days. Lovino butting in and picking fights turned out the same way. But if dinner was on the table and Lovino was a "good boy" and stayed out of trouble...nothing happened. Their father still found reasons to yell, but not at them. He learned early on to do as he was told, to be a "good" boy, to stay out of trouble. Only Lovino praised him when Feliciano cleaned their room, or helped with chores. But he didn't get yelled at. People were "happy" when he was a good boy.

It was no skin off his nose when they were finally pulled away from their neglectful and abusive parents by social services. Perhaps Lovino's dirty clothes and frequent absences alerted people to their pitiful home life. Who knows? All Feliciano knows is one day he's in a dark, dirty room, hiding from his parents and waiting for Lovino to come home from school; the next, the two of them are herded into a car and taken somewhere to bathe, change, and eat. Lovino tried his best, but there's only so much a ten-year-old can do. However, any attempt at keeping Feliciano and Lovino apart ended badly. Very badly. Feliciano couldn't stand to be away from his brother; Lovino's school-times had always been particularly stressful for the younger Vargas, let alone being separated when he knew his brother was supposed to be around.

Because of this clinginess Feliciano had for his brother, it was difficult for them to find a permanent home. They spent the next three years hopping from relative to relative, school to school; sometimes sitting in a foster home for a few weeks before they were shipped away. This was particularly difficult for Feliciano--no matter how hard he tried, what he did, nobody seemed to want them. No one was willing to deal with Feliciano's troubles in school, or Lovino's distrust and anger. He tried so hard, but no one could be bothered. Only Lovino's quiet reassurances at night kept the nightmares and tears at bay. Sometimes. Feliciano didn't like to cry, though. Crying upset Lovino, and upsetting Lovino was the worst of the worst he could do.

Finally, though, they found someone willing to take care of them; give them a permanent home. When Social Services finally managed to come into contact with their grandfather, he seemed more than happy to help (as far as Feliciano knew, anyway). Feliciano was immediately taken with the Romulus. He reminded the nine-year-old of Lovino. They still had to fend for themselves in some ways, since the old man wasn't in the best of health, but he could provide for them. Feliciano enjoyed spending time with him, and the sense of stability granted to him by this permanent adoption helped Feliciano flourish in school where he once failed. However, this didn't diminish his love or dependence on Lovino in the slightest.

Lovino just didn't seem to recognize that.

Where the younger Vargas found comfort and stability, Lovino found only conflict and judgement, it seems. At first, things were fine. Lovino wasn't exactly trusting, but never in the boy's life had his brother been fully off his guard except when they were alone. However, Lovino didn't seem happy with doing the chores that Romulus put before him, so Feliciano did them himself. He didn't mind, and it made Lovino happy to have free time to himself. Except that "time to himself" went from hanging out with friends or in his room to vanishing for hours on end and coming back bruised and bloody or in the hands of a police officer. Feliciano didn't handle that separation well at first, but as they grew older and Feliciano became closer with their guardian, Lovino kept pulling away. He often got angry if the younger brunette wanted to spend time with him. Feliciano didn't want his brother to be angry, so he reluctantly backed off. After all, he was a good boy. Good boys make sure everyone is happy; especially the people who matter the most.

But one day, Lovino never came back.

Feliciano honestly hadn't expected it. Lovino certainly wasn't on the track to graduate school. He skipped plenty of times, and when he was there his grades weren't the best. When they were at home, Romulus and Lovino argued as loudly as the ailing old man could manage. All Feliciano could hear was how Lovino was turning out just like his father; that certainly wasn't the case, right? Lovino was kind, and loving, and always there. Just because he needed his space, and wasn't always happy, didn't mean he was becoming the focal point of Feliciano's childhood nightmares. However, Feliciano couldn't pick sides because he couldn't understand why Lovino was upsetting their grandfather, the only other person in Feliciano's life who had reached out with a kind hand and kept it it outstretched. Picking sides always made someone angry, and Feliciano was a good boy. But Lovino must not have seen it that way. One particularly explosive argument left Feliciano with enough "flashbacks" to flee to his room and not come out again. He never saw Lovino grab his bag. He didn't register Lovino slamming the door on his way out.

Lovino just left.

The wake of his brother's departure was one of the most difficult periods of time in Feliciano's life. Nothing quite matches up with that. At first, he just thought Lovino was staying in one of those weird places he stayed when he wasn't at home. It was common for Lovino to be gone for days at a time. He didn't think too much of it. Lovino had promised he'd never leave, and Feliciano trusted him implicitly. His brother was the light of his life; he'd never failed Feliciano before. But as days rolled into weeks, Feliciano's own studies started to falter, and he was visibly struggling to keep his upbeat nature. It was only Romulus stopping him from going to the police with a missing person's report that the truth settled in his gut with the force of a punch. His brother wasn't coming back.

Feliciano was inconsolable for days and depressed for months. Only Romulus's steadily declining health, leaving him house-bound and later bedridden, kept Feliciano from more...drastic actions. He was a Good Boy. He couldn't fail Romulus the way he had failed Lovino.

Barely a year and a half after Lovino had vanished, just before Feliciano's sixteenth birthday, Romulus's heart finally gave out. He died in his sleep at sixty-seven. With Lovino to the wind and none of their relatives wiling to put up with Feliciano a second time (assuming him to end up just like his father and brother before him), he was simply settled into foster care. Due to specifications in Romulus's will, Feliciano's money was placed in a trust fund his future guardians could use on his behalf until he could properly obtain it on his eighteenth birthday.

Once again, he was shuttled halfway across the country to his new "home". Robert and Kimberly Chapman seemed like decent people, having two other, much younger children in their care when Feliciano moved in. The teenager quickly learned this wasn't the case. They provided a house to stay in, food on the table, and access to school, but that was about it. They never showed up for Emily or Margaret's school events, and since Feliciano was old enough to take care of himself, he was offered even less support than the two girls under their care. Most of their time was spent entertaining their adult friends and their own desires. They weren't abusive by any means, compared to what the Vargas had experienced in his past, but compared to Romulus's care and Lovino's love before that, it was disheartening, to say the least.

Feliciano did his best to stay out of their way. He was a Good Boy. Where they failed with Emily and Margaret, Feliciano stepped in as a caretaker, helping the girls with their schoolwork and their personal problems. He didn't want them to end up like himself or Lovino, after all. It was obvious after a few months that they were happily using Feliciano's inheritance as they saw fit, but there wasn't anything Feliciano could do about it. He was too tired to try stopping them. He didn't want to anger them by stepping up. He didn't want to drag the girls into it, either. He was busy with his own school duties, anyway. He took on much of his classmates' responsibilities as his own, because he didn't like watching people struggle. It put him in a bad position, stress visibly wearing him down and affecting his performance in school, but he did his best regardless.

By the time Feliciano was eighteen, the money his grandfather left him as well as the income earned by the sale of his childhood home had dried up, with nothing to show of it. Since he was legally an adult and thus "grew out" of foster care, Robert and Kimberly didn't see any reason to keep Feliciano around, despite the fact he still had a few months before he could graduate. He had a job on top of everything else he'd been doing, but it wasn't enough money to live off of. He didn't know how to go about getting his own place to live, how to pay bills, or anything like that. The couple didn't particularly care, and he had a week to gather his belongings and leave before they kicked him out by force. Thankfully, the city had shelters where Feliciano could stay. Despite everything, he managed to graduate with average grades and get a better job. He finagled his way into a cheap, rundown one-room apartment in the "bad" side of town, and did everything he could to live at least semi-comfortably. He still stopped by the house every once in a while to check up on Emily and Margaret; make sure they had food and were doing well. He went to school events when he could, and simply tried to be there for them both.

Tales of a "new virus" attacking many places overseas and heading towards the United States reached Feliciano's ears during work, or in terrified whispers of people on the street. However, Feliciano has limited access to the news, so he couldn't be sure what was truth and what was fiction. After all, what kind of disease could reanimate the dead..? That was something out of a horror movie. It really couldn't be that bad, could it..?

Around his nineteenth birthday, the first stories of the infection hitting the East Coast reached Feliciano's city. Panic was on the horizon, and many people were packing up and fleeing west. Even if Feliciano had the money, he knew he couldn't go. Robert and Kimberly, as negligent as they were, certainly couldn't be helping keep Emily and Margaret safe and fear-free. Instead, Feliciano increased his visits to his old foster home, doing what he could while the adults were gone.

Everything went to fucking shit all in one day. It had started out so normally; getting off work himself, Feliciano had decided to stop by the house and make sure Emily and Margaret had gotten home from school alright. More news of the disease reaching their state and heading their way had sent much of the populace into panic, and there were plenty of stories of riots and the like cropping up everywhere. However, Robert's car had been in the driveway, and the front door was ajar. He'd gone in, terrified that someone had tried to loot the place. The place was a mess, and he could hear people rummaging through the bedrooms. He was quick to grab a stray frying pan from the sink before going to investigate. The girls were most prominent in his mind, so he stopped by their room first.

It was like coming to wake up his grandfather the day he died all over again. Were it not for the pillows over both their faces, Feliciano might've thought they were simply taking a nap. He knew better than that, though. He couldn't explain his reaction--rather than futilely trying to "awaken" the girls like he had Romulus two years before, Feliciano felt a rage he'd never felt before in his life. Who could do something like this?! The panicked sounds further down the hall drew his attention quickly enough, and Feliciano went to investigate there. He would find out who did this, and make them pay. He didn't bother sneaking in; he slammed the door open with his impromptu weapon raised.

A terrified Kimberly shrieked from her position at the door, and Robert looked up in alarm from where he had been packing his bags. The two seemed unharmed, but a quick glance showed bloody scratches to Robert's hands and forearms. Everything clicked in seconds.

By the time the red haze faded from his vision and Feliciano could understand what was going on around him, the Chapmans were dead and he was covered in blood. The teenager was violently sick when realization dawned on him. He had murdered them, just the same as they had killed little Emily and Margaret. He had bashed their heads in. What had he done?!

He wasn't given much time to come to terms with what happened. He was hearing screaming from outside, and sirens everywhere. Panicking, Feliciano had bolted for the kitchen and grabbed a knife before fleeing through the back door... straight into the arms of an Infected neighbor from down the street. It was only pure luck Feliciano managed to avoid having his throat ripped out, to be honest. Everything was happening too fast. (Part of him was terrified that if it had been a person, he would've reacted the same) He knocked it aside with a hefty blow to the head, and ran.
Main Weapon:
❣ Frying Pan: More specifically, a cast iron pan. It was the first item he got his hands on when his self-control finally snapped. Surprisingly, there are no dents in it--testimony to the durability of these things--but it's rusted with the blood of several zombies and his dead foster parents. [he certainly won't be cooking with it ever again]
❣ Butcher's Knife: A blade he grabbed while fleeing the scene of his old foster home. A frying pan is a good weapon to incapacitate someone, or destroy the softer flesh of decomposing Infected. But for human enemies, sometimes you need something a little sharper...
Greatest Skills:
❣ Caretaking: Feliciano has been inadvertedly bred his entire life to take care of other people. In fact, he goes out of his way to make sure other people are comfortable and safe before himself, especially children. He's good with cooking, cleaning, minor medical aid, playing psychiatrist; you name it, Feliciano has at least dabbled. He lives for taking care of people. Let him bury himself in taking care of the group--it's all he knows; all that matters. This includes less well-known skills, such as scavenging and shelter-building. He knows how to make things as comfortable for people as possible. (and you're lucky because he doesn't expect gratitude in response, either)
❣ Stamina: While he's certainly not the strongest person around, once Feliciano gets going it takes ages for him to stop. He doesn't get tired as easily as it seems, and even when he does, he recovers surprisingly quickly and is ready to keep going. He's not a quitter; at least when it comes to working for someone else's benefit.
❣ Stature: Feliciano's a small target. Not only is it hard to get a hit on him, especially from a distance, he can fit in places most adults can't reach, let alone dumb Infected. While he's very adverse to combat, due to his upbringing and his more recent trauma, he's very useful when it comes to sneaking around and reaching supplies someone else might not be able to. Plus he's good bait material, able to attract attention but quickly hide where most cannot.
Greatest Weaknesses:
❣ Ill-Equipped/Non-Violent Tendencies: Feliciano has never been much of a fighter. Fighting makes people sad. Even if he's being put down or beaten into the ground, it makes someone else happy, doesn't it? Because of his normally pacifistic nature, Feliciano is a pushover. He even has a hard time striking down Infected, because there's this weird line he's drawn for himself that the boy is terrified of crossing. He's also not very strong; he can do chores for days, sure, but winning a fight? Probably not gonna happen. He doesn't have many tools with him that're good for survival, either--what group would actually want him around?
❣ Lack of Self-Worth/Suppression of Self: Because of Feliciano's extra-extreme people-pleasing nature, Feliciano cannot find any worth in himself unless the people around him find him useful. He can only care about himself by being useful to people. Because of this, he will work himself to death, or do something seriously reckless without any regard for himself. This could potentially put the group in danger. Plus, if he doesn't voice his own opinions, try to put his input in the group's safety, how can they properly utilize his skills?
❣ Inability to Take Charge/Be a Leader: He is completely, 100% content to be led around and used. Whatever makes the group happy, Feliciano will do. Because of this, Feliciano would be hard-pressed to lead the group should something bad happen that leaves him the most capable. He can play adult for the kids, keep them fed and entertained and understood, but actually making decisions that would be life-or-death? Who is Feliciano to make those kinds of decisions for anyone? What if he messes up? What if he gets someone killed His anxiety would kill him before a word escaped him.
Relationships:
❣ Lovino Vargas: Absent Elder Brother. Feliciano used to worship the ground the guy walked on, even when Lovino was drinking and getting into fights just like their father before him. Lovino was the only light in what started out as a dark childhood, and when the bastard walked out on him, he took that light with him. No one had mattered quite like his brother, but Lovino hadn't given two shits. He left. Just like he promised not to. Just like everyone else. At the same time, though... Feliciano couldn't make the other happy, could he? Lovino had said as much before he was gone... but he promised to stay! This mixed response, selfish betrayal and self-loathing, plague Feliciano to this day. Because of it, the boy has no idea how he'd react if he ever saw his brother again. To be honest, he's scared to see the older man again...
❣ TBA: TBP
❣ TBA: TBP
Other Things Worth Mentioning:
❣ Birthdays: Feliciano's birthday is March 25th, eight days after Lovino's on the 17th. Didn't learn his     brother's birthday until after they were adopted by Romulus. After Lovino's departure, and later     Romulus's death when Feliciano was 16, the boy stopped celebrating birthdays at all.
❣ Oh Squiggly Line: Feliciano is about as "straight" as you are. While Feliciano hasn't properly explored     his own ideas of sexuality, he knows he's attracted to more than just women. Too bad the     Apocalypse is happening. Sex and romance don't seem to be on the menu.
❣ Trust: Feliciano doesn't really "trust" people. He doesn't necessarily believe the worst in them, but     he doesn't actively put faith in them, either. All he has to do is help them, he doesn't want or need     anything in return. He doesn't deserve anything in return. It's his job to make sure people are     happy, taken care of. (he certainly doesn't expect people to go out of their way to help him)
❣ Item 4: derp
❣ Item 5: derp
❣ Item 6: derp

more to be added later

[Kiku Honda]

Name: Kiku Honda

Age: 25

Appearance: Kiku Honda wears whatever he can find that is easy to move in. He tends to go with light and breezy outfits that allow for the most freedom of movement. Kiku also remains very clean, given the circumstances. As he's very aware of diseases, so he makes a concerted effort to wash himself whenever he can. His hair is shaggier than usual and his clothes may not be as immaculately pressed as they were prior to this nightmare, but compared to many he's encountered, Kiku looks far more put together. When outside, Kiku wears gloves, glasses, and a mask to prevent accidentally inhaling any bodily fluids. He always keeps a change of clothes to change into if he does end up with Infected Blood splatter. 

Kiku rarely bathes in front of others and does not remove his undershirt unless he has to. He was blindsided by a man he thought he could trust and was literally shot in the back and left for dead. Though he did survive, he was deeply ashamed that he allowed someone to catch him so off-guard and doesn’t like the idea of anyone seeing the jagged scar on his left shoulder blade. 

Personality Changes/Quirks:

>Paranoia: He's spent a long time alone, and as such he's grown very efficient in his activities. Emotions are a detriment to survival in this world and so Kiku has carefully packaged away feelings such as pity or mercy. Humans can be just as deadly as the infected and Kiku has learned not to trust easily.

> "Now I lay you down to sleep": Kiku prays for each person he kills before he goes to sleep each night, infected or not. He doesn't believe that it provides him any sort of redemption, but he does it for the souls of those sacrificed for his survival

>Book thief: He always has a book on his person, whenever he finishes one, he will pick one up from wherever he's currently passing through.This can be anything, recipe books, poetry, novels, comics. It doesn't matter. He reads them aloud at night just to kill the silence when he’s alone.

Backstory: 

Kiku was a Captain in the US Navy, stationed in Okinawa when the first reports of the disease reached him. The ships were returned home as the government began to splinter and most of the men went to search for their families in the chaos. His parents were lost in the first wave of the infection and with their death. he'd lost the only family he'd ever known… With no one to go to, he struck out on his own, with nothing but his Katana and a pack full of supplies. He didn't particularly want to live, but he felt that he owed it to humanity as a whole to make his life worth something and so he continues on, looking to join up with a lab who could use him to gather samples to help search for a cure. 

Recently though, he’s lost a lot of that motive. 4 months ago, he had partnered up with a former member of the military. He had begun to trust the man and began to let his guard down. It was then that the man betrayed him, shot him in the back, and stole all of the supplies that Kiku had been carefully collecting. Luckily the bullet hadn’t been able to penetrate his shoulder blade, which is the only reason Kiku is still alive. After a long recovery period, Kiku is more or less back to full strength (though his left arm still pains him when it gets too cold or it rains). But he never regained his ability to trust another person completely. Even if he travels with others, he rarely sleeps more than an hour or two at a time and always sitting upright with his back to a wall. Since his recovery, Kiku has stopped looking for a lab to join and instead tends to take small jobs ferrying people to places/groups that they request.

Most recently he’s picked up a rather strange partner, he intended to simply help her find her brother and be rid of her. And yet… he can’t shake the feeling that it’s not going to be that easy…

Tentative time line: (subject to change)

1) Patient 0 hits the West Coast: Infection begins

2) Two weeks out: Kiku’s ship returns to harbor, men are released to find their families. Kiku meets with Tino and finds his parents. 

         a. (Kiku and Tino part after a length of time TBD)

3) 1 month out: Kiku meets up with a fellow seaman of his ship, they form a partnership. 

4) 2 months out: Kiku’s partner betrays him and shoots him in the back before leaving him for dead and stealing his supplies (Anyone wants to plot to be the good Samaritan who keeps the Kiku from dying, I’m all good with that, but for now it’s an NPC who fished out the bullet from his shoulder.

5) 4 months out: Kiku meets up with Mei, agrees to help her find her brother

6) 6 months out (present day): Kiku finds Feli

Main Weapon: 

-His Katana: A gift from his mother, Kiku carries it everywhere. While he may also use an occasional sidearm, he always goes back to his Katana when times are desperate.

-He keeps smaller blades as well as a rotation of small pistols that he’s managed to scavenge. 

Greatest Skills:

>Swordsmanship: Cross him and you'll get a first hand demonstration. Kiku is terrifyingly efficient when it comes to combat and is not above using underhanded tactics. 

>Strategy: Kiku's a good man to have in a tight spot and knows how to utilize his talent and the talents of those around him

to navigate through most obstacles. Just know that he is the ultimate pragmatist and does not consider the lose of human lives. He believes entirely in sacrificing for the greater goal, and that includes himself. 

Greatest Weaknesses:

>Helpless people: Kiku's sense of justice hasn't changed since before the Outbreak. And though there are times when he has to leave people behind, it tears him up. Kiku often finds people who are trying to get one place or another and he usually helps ferry them if it isn't too far. He knows it's a part of him that he needs to let go of if he wants to find a cure but he can't bear to say no to anyone he can truly help.

> Trust: Kiku does not trust people. After nearly dying at the hand of his last partner, Kiku does not let his guard down, not completely. 

Relationships: 

> Tino: Sweet guy, Kiku spent little time with him but from what he can tell, the man was very nice. He hopes he survived. 

> Mei: …He still hasn’t figured out how to say no to her. She seems very attached to him and in turn, he finds himself letting his guard down bit by bit. This terrifies him and he hopes they find her brother soon. (But at the same time, he can’t deny that it has been nice, passing the nights with someone curled against him.) In short he has no idea how to feel about her.

> Feliciano: This boy can’t seem to stop picking up lost puppies. Feli just looks so pitiful and… Kiku’s turning into the worst lone swordsman ever.

Other Things Worth mentioning:

> Kiku sings at night, usually old lullabies his mother sang while his was growing up. He has a beautiful voice but is very self-conscious about it. The only people that have heard him sing since the outbreak are people who were dying, he sings to them to calm them down in their last moments. 

> He does not expect to survive and just wants to do something meaningful before he dies. This is not readily apparent to those who meet him, given that he works so hard to keep from dying, and he does what he can not to call attention to it.

[Alfred Jones]

Name: Alfred F. Jones
Age: 24
Appearance:

Personality Changes/Quirks:
★ Super Serious: While Alfred can still joke and have a bit of fun now and then, he acknowledges the severity of the situation and can act appropriately. Active combat is not the place for jokes, and with this Virus plaguing the world, they're all in the war zone.
★ Dirty Work Is Still Work: If someone gets infected in the group, Alfred can take care of it. If someone is regular-sick and won't survive the night, Alfred can take care of it. If someone has to stay behind to ensure the safety of the group, Alfred can take care of it. He has no qualms about putting the survival of the group or the success of the "mission" ahead of everything else, even his personal motives. Just don't blame him if you can't live with the choices you force him to make.
★ Trust: As with most people in this situation, Alfred is not the most trusting of strangers. However, he's been trained to recognize the signs of a person lying, hiding things, as well as the many symptoms of an infected human. He trusts his own judgments and abilities. Where others might gun a supposedly "infected" group on sight, Alfred will recognize a starving family when he sees it and have them taken in (but not without initial surveillance on them, just in case) If his trust is misplaced, though, expect him to accept his failure and do his best to "rectify" the situation. Do not break this man's trust. It will probably end with your death.
★ Enforcer: Just because your dumb ass read Lord of the Flies in high school and think that human beings descend into disorder and chaos when forced into a world without rules doesn't mean it's actually true. The rules have simply changed, that's all. Alfred will run a strict rule on his group, and those breaking the rules will be punished. You can't survive by putting others at risk or going "lol anarchy" and fucking shit up.
★ Clean-Slate Mentality: Who you were in the "old world" doesn't matter right now. Alfred doesn't care if you were a CEO or a politician or the garbage man. You hated her and the two of you were always at each other's throats? Fucking get over it. The Old World, as Alfred puts it, is on hold right now. Things from the "Old World" don't apply to the warzone you're living in. If you're told to get firewood or help bandage up your old worst enemy, you'd better fucking do it
★ To Help Others Is To Help Oneself: Alfred understands that everyone has goals they want to achieve in life. They might have changed drastically since the Virus befell the world, but they're still there. However, there is no fucking excuse for throwing other people under the bus just for your own selfishness. Like what the fuck guys? Teamwork is the only way you'll get what you want and keep it in a world like this. He despises people who use others for their own self-gain and then leave them to fucking die. He hates people who think they're too good to follow the rules and put others in danger. Things are going fucking wrong and constantly fighting within and without yourselves like rabid dogs isn't going to make anything better.
★ Sir Swears-A-Lot: Alfred used to be one of those kids who became flustered or super worried whenever anything worse than "damn" passed his lips. Lately he's much more willing to let crassness take hold, especially if he needs to make a point.
★ Knowledge Is a Man's Best Friend: With the fall of civilization as we know it, Alfred wants to do his best to preserve as much of the Old World as possible (without allowing the Old World's fallacies taint things now) in order to re-build and remember the way things used to be. The future deserves to know more than just the terrifying world they live in now, and have a light to strive towards once again. (This isn't to say, though, that he'll put the safety of the group on hold in order to save a book from being burnt, but recklessly wasting and destroying pieces of the past will set him off like nobody's business)
★ No Soldier Left Behind: Unless it is completely, utterly, 100% IMPOSSIBLE (such as going back ends up with the entire group dead), Alfred will go back for any member of his group. Always. (If you are dead or dying, Alfred can't afford to carry your body home, but he won't leave you to suffer or be eaten alive) The only exception is if he sees someone else choosing to leave someone behind instead of saving them. It's only his desire to keep people alive that holds him back from putting a bullet in those kinds of self-centered assholes. Also, battle buddies are a thing. Everyone travels with a buddy. Always. NO EXCEPTIONS EVER. Even if you need to take a shit, you'll bring a buddy along to wipe your butt for you when you're done.
Backstory: Alfred grew up a bright, intelligent young man, living with his parents in the city of Dallas, Texas. He was a bit of a trouble-maker as a kid, picking fights with bullies and challenging difficult, rude teachers. Other than that, though, he was a decent child. However, rather than continue on to college like many others in his grade upon graduation, Alfred immediately went and signed up for the United States Army. He wanted to help defend his nation from the "terrorists" plaguing the safety and security of his fellow Americans. 

Boot camp was a bit different, and much more challenging, than Alfred was expecting it to be. Not that he didn't excel (because he was a pretty big, strong guy in his own right), but it was a lot more work than he'd been led to believe it would be. The worst of it was buckling down to follow orders, despite not wishing to. The blonde had always been an independent person, making his own decisions and leading the way for others. However, he knew that his drill sergeants and superior officers knew what they were doing. Even from the "bag drill" his first day, Alfred worked well with his fellow recruits--taking charge in the little ways he could, such as helping rally and organize the rest of his future platoon into succeeding in team drills.

He flew through both Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training fairly quickly. Since he was focusing on infantry, Alfred spent the entirety of his training in Fort Benning, Georgia. It made it much easier to fly through everything, since he didn't have to travel like other recruits. The moment he finished his training, Al requested to start a tour overseas, a granted request--even in new recruits, it's rare to have them ask to go to the warzone so soon. He wanted to do everything he could to help his fellow soldiers, and he couldn't do that sitting at a base awaiting orders (the first sign of his naivety). 

Suffice to say, once Alfred was actually in the middle of a war zone, seeing the atrocities committed to the locals by both sides of the conflict, Alfred's tune changed a small bit. Before, as much as he was all for joining the cause to protect as many lives as possible, he was also wanting to help represent the face of America. Now, Alfred began to see the flaws in his nation.

Not that his nation, like most of the world, had lasted very long since his sudden awareness.

Alfred's first exposure to the virus was in the middle of a gunfight while overseas. Several mindless monsters mobbed his unit from behind, and only their protective equipment kept Alfred and his friends. However, they were distracted and several were taken down by the guerrilla forces they'd originally been facing. It was only after Alfred and the battered remains of his unit returned to base that they were debriefed on this "virus" essentially reanimating the dead. To add fuel to Alfred's fury, his unit was immediately pulled from active duty to undergo medical examination. "To make sure none of you had been infected", Alfred had been told, despite the fact he could vouch for his entire crew that none of the survivors had been bitten.

Once he was cleared physically, though, Alfred was shipped home instead of continuing fighting on the front lines. Due to his skills and first-hand knowledge of the Virus, his superiors wanted him to speak to soldiers on home soil and pass on his information. There were already tales of the virus spreading worldwide, even as far as the United States' East Coast. He was needed back home.

His passage home was interrupted, however. Intel had vastly underestimated just how quickly the Infected population was growing. The airport he had landed in was overrun, and his plane had nearly crashed in the ensuing chaos. Alfred and many other soldiers made it out with their lives and most of their equipment, and continued on-foot to the nearest Army base. Alfred was later on separated from his group, having attempted to save civilians from a horde of Infected. Alfred reacted as only he could: as if he were on enemy soil. Suffice to say, Alfred has been living that life ever since. He has enough cursory knowledge, as well as pilfered state maps, that help him find locations to resupply his MOLLE.

Alfred spends what little time he's not hunting down hordes of Infected or traveling from place to place actively searching for survivors and leading them to the safe houses he know exist.

Main Weapons:
★ Beretta 92F (M9): Alfred's standard pistol from his military service days. Has seen plenty of use outside the zombie infestation, and the weapon Alfred is most comfortable with beyond his knives (only because the knives don't cause as much noise and attract unwanted attention)
★ M9 Bayonet and ASEK (Aircrew Survival Egress Knife): These two blades are Alfred's preferred weapons, with the added bonus of working very well as survival blades. The Bayonet's sheath works well to cut through barbed wire as well as be attached to the barrel of his M4 Carbine, in times where bullets are scarce/unnecessary. The ASEK is incredibly useful as well, due to being made for pilots to escape failing/crashed aircrafts as well as survival. It has combat capabilities as well, and can be easily tied to a stick/pole and turned into a spear as necessary.
★ M4 Carbine: His "clearing the room" weapon of choice, for those tricky zombie hordes that just won't go away. It's smaller and lighter than his old M16 Rifle and better made for close-combat, which makes it ideal for dealing with zombies. He can also change the fire rate from semi-automatic to three-round burst as needed, which is a plus.
★ His Hands: While Alfred is by no means a properly trained martial artist, he was in the boxing club in high school and did very well in hand-to-hand combat training. It's more than enough against normal Infected.
Greatest Skills:
★ Combat Skills: Having spent the past six years in active service for the military, Alfred is very skilled in terms of combat and survival. This includes navigating difficult terrain, reacting well to unexpected attacks, basic survival (scavenging food, hunting, creating temporary shelters, etc), and minor first aid such as treating cuts, burns, and broken bones. Always be prepared.
★ Discipline: You don't spend half a decade in the military constantly lazing around and breaking all the rules. Alfred can buckle down and get shit done when it needs to be done, and he can control his own urges (such as that for food, rest, etc) with relative ease. He knows his limits, though, and how to recognize the limits of his squadron as well, never pushing them beyond what they can do unless survival dictates as such.
★ Leadership: Alfred may not have been an officer or anything, but he knows how to give orders just as well as take them. He can lead a group through a mission as well as plan the mission itself. He also knows when to concede to another person's expertise when they know more than himself, not just stubbornly keeping control and putting his group and squadron in danger. The group's survival is paramount, much moreso than any one person's desire for power.
Greatest Weaknesses:
★ Single-Mindedness: Alfred tends to focus hard on the mission at hand or the group as a collective whole rather than a congregation of individuals. Therefore, he might put people down or off by the way he runs things. He can also forget to put himself through the necessary self-care to keep his mental and physical health in tip-top shape.
★ Eyesight: While Alfred has worn contacts as well as glasses in his life, with the Old World crumbling around them it's all but impossible to get a specific brand of contacts, let alone a specific prescription, that're undamaged. The threat of cracked or lost glasses would be a hindrance as well. Thankfully, his eyesight isn't so terrible that he'd shoot a friendly instead of an enemy, but life would be more difficult without them.
★ Black-And-White Mindset: This isn't to say that Alfred sees people as strictly good-and-evil, right-and-wrong, etc. However, the world that once was (The "Old World") and the world as it is now are two very separate things. Many things in the Old World have no place in the New World (like grudges. seriously people get over yourselves). The biggest change is your perception on the concept of the "human" identity. Zombies are not people. Zombies are rotting corpses that can still move. That's it. He has a hard time grasping the suffering of those who try to insist a zombie is still the person they once knew, and he can be seen as cold and inhumane.
Relationships:
★ TBA: TBP
★ TBA: TBP
★ TBA: TBP
Other Things Worth mentioning: (Again, it can be a bulleted list instead of a paragraph)
★ Alfred wears his dog tags with him constantly (and honestly if he can create and convince the survivors in his group to wear their own as well, that'd be really nice) as a habit from combat days, but also as a self-identifier should he be taken out by enemy or friendly fire.
        JONES
        ALFRED F.
        078-05-1120
        O NEG
        NO PREFERENCE
★ Since Alfred was still in the middle of military service when the Infection began, he carries almost all of his standard gear with him. His MOLLE (Modular Lightweight Load Carrying Equipment) backpack is his best friend (even if it generally weighs the heavier side of 45kg (100lbs) at any given moment. He carries the following on a daily basis:
        Minimum of 2 liters of water
        MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) and any other food he can get his hands on
        Two sleeping bags and two bivvys--a spare of each in case of damage
        A fire-starting kit (replenished from surroundings as necessary)
        Hand-shake Flashlight
        First Aid Kit (includes sunscreen, blister treatment kits, burn cream, antiseptics/antibiotic creams,             epi-pens, bandages, pain relievers and pain killers, several SAM splints, sutures, and needles)
        Four two-way radios
        Satellite Phone (just in case it works)
        Cell phone (just in case it works)
        Weapons (when not in hand)
        Ammunition for his M9 and M4
        A skillet, pot, and pan for cooking
        Clothes
        Protective Equipment (gloves/combat vest/thick clothes/gas mask for protection from bodily fluids             of dead/dying zombies)
★ three
★ four
★ five
★ six

[Lucia Vargas]

Name: Lucia Bianchi

Age: 24

Appearance: She is messily dressed and is generally untidy. More likely to wear coats, even with holes in them, but will never dare to wear shorts or summer appropriate dress.

Personality Changes/Quirks:
Before the catastrophe she was far more trusting and optimistic, post catastrophe on the otherhand has caused her to become the complete opposite and has brought out the worst in her, particulary in regards to trusting others.

A individual who sees themselves as a leader, yet her emotional distress makes this dangerous.

She however would never threaten anyone in the group unless she regards them as a cold hearted traitor that would leave them all to die

Backstory: WIP

Main Weapon:
Kitchen Knife
Anything really

Greatest Skills:
Cooking
Caring for the sick
Sewing

Greatest Weaknesses:
Emotional instability
Pessimistic
Feeling as if she has nothing to live for

Relationships: To be plotted

Other Things Worth mentioning:
Nothing noteworthy