[hider=Chae Ryeŏn][center][img]http://i.imgur.com/0lrhwbL.png[/img][/center]
[quote=Chae Ryeŏn (pre-apocalypse)][center]"[i]I dunno, an apocalypse wouldn't be too bad... Hey! If they're dead, then you don't have to pay your debts, right...? I actually think that'd be hella rad, y'know?[/i]"[/center][/quote]

[b]Name:[/b] Chae Ji Ryeŏn
[b]Age:[/b] 26

[b]Appearance:[/b] Although varied at 1/2 Korean, 1/4th Vietnamese, and 1/4 Puerto Rican, Chae's ancestry doesn't exactly spell out 'melting pot,' but still, mesh together well with her own sense of fashion, to form a woman who possesses a very smokey, dark beauty.

[hider=Face + Body Type]Soft, almost black, almond-shaped eyes serve as the centerpiece of a porcelain, heart-shaped face. Full lips, a button shaped nose, and high cheekbones give a proud, if playful, profile. The shadows of the blemishes of her teenage years also dot her face, almost as freckles. Her skin is a sandy, golden brown, tinged with the shades of all of her family, tanning well is trait gifted from ancestry. Upper back length, coffee black hair frames it all, weal curls the longer it stretches down. Atop her head, rests a blue-black woolen cap-- a memento from childhood.

Physically, Chae is unassuming. She's tall for a woman, sure, able to meet the eyes of most men without needing to look up. But she isn't physically frightening. Time spent walking has given her legs more tone, sure, but generally, her upper body is somewhere between 'skinnyfat' and 'starving.' Her figure is one that is well proportioned, but her bust is several sizes below average. Black tattoos pollute the lengths of her arms as well as her belly and back, all relating vaguely to the Arcana, Theosophy, magic, numerology, hip hop, and poetry.[/hider]

[b]Skill(s):[/b] [list]
[*] Stealth
[*] Creative thinking
[*] Scavenging
[*] Speech ([i]Very effective in dealing with people... the infected... not so much[/i])
[*] Once drank an entire bottle of absinthe in one pull[/list]
[b]Preferred Weapon(s):[/b][list]
[*] Improvisation ([i]extreme/master proficiency[/i])
[*] Broken bottles/Stilettos (Light, short range, thrusting or stabbing weapons) ([i]above average proficiency[/i])
[*] Revolvers/Handguns (Small guns) ([i]average/low proficiency[/i])[/list]

[b]Personality:[/b] Chae is someone who, at her core, loves life, and loves loving things in life. Generally unconcerned with pursuing the same worldly pleasures as most found themselves chasing before the apocalypse. Chae was, more or less, a bum, less out of laziness, and more out only being truly concerned with her passions, and what made her happy. Still, even then she was full of self doubt, loathing and depression. She feels abandonment easy and tries not to stay too close to anyone, even people she considers friends. While some of these traits have helped her vastly since the Fall, other have proved ideologically detrimental. And occasional bouts of depression, stemming from many things, such as her surroundings and her undressed psychological issues, occasionally leave her so lethargic and apathetic she may be unable to move.

Chae, like the music she loves, is an ocean of beautiful emotional meaning and variability, melancholic and bangers. At her best, she's a clever, sarcastic, and pleasant idea woman who'll just as soon hit on everyone in a room as she would throw up her Wu-Tang 'W.' At her worst, she can be an unresponsive, vulnerable wreck, defined by her own insecurities and baggage.

[b]Brief Bio:[/b] 
[hider=Needlessly Lavish Version][center][i][b]Yesterday[/b][/i][/center]

[hider=][hider=Theme: Swimming Pools (Drank)(Instrumental) - Kendrick Lamar][center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WbqzmXuRsI[/youtube][/center][/hider]

"Uuuggggggggghhhhhhhhhh..." Chae's girlish groan polluted the semi-humid, still swamp. She and her companion walked, a lone pair on a road that seemed to go on forever, itself only polluted by abandoned cars and the occasional town. Atlanta was a long way away now, and most of the journey getting to Louisiana on foot. However, in spite of this, or perhaps because of it, Chae was prone to extreme bouts of ennui, all while avoiding the roaming hordes.

A roll of the eyes came from the man who walked by her side, something that sounded like the bastard child of a sigh and a dry chuckle escaped his lips. As if preempting his response, Chae spoke beyond a strained onomatopoeia.

"Dude, I'm sooooo bored!" She rolled her head back, as if to declare it to the sky, "God, why did you have to make the apocalypse so boring?" 

The man smiled, settling on silent laughter, "Just chill, Chi chi," He spoke in a deep, Latin tinged voice, "You'll wake the nzumbi."

She scoffed, "'Least that'd be [i]something[/i], Chito..." after a moment, she gave a resigned sigh, "No, you're right... you're totally right." She kicked a pebble off the road as they continued on, "So then, how much further now?"

With practiced speed, Chito adjusted his back pack, maintained his pace, and pulled out a very worn looking road map. After darting his eyes between points on the map and road signs for several minutes, he folded the paper and put it back in it's pocket just as fast. His shrug was both ecstatically happy and completely nonchalant, after weeks, months... however long they had been at it.... Chae was beginning to recognize how completely subdued the man's emotions were. "If it's accurate..." he began, "And we maintain this pace..." he said, a tone of playful remembrance, "I guess we might make to Baton Rouge before night."

"Really?" Chae, on the other hand, wanted to express her excitement by practically breaking into a jog, "This!" She started, accessing the innards of her own backpack with equally practiced skill, "Calls for a drink!" As if it was the last of it's kind, Chae held the bottle of Jack Daniels towards the sun.

"I'll pass." Was Chito's quick response.

Chae smirked, a '[i]you don't know what you're missing[/i]' type smirk. She wasted no time in uncapping the bottle-- three swigs-- a toast. A toast to days spent walking from one city in Louisiana to the next and even longer spent getting from Atlanta to where they were now. That familiar pleasant warmth filled her body. Everything felt just a tiny bit more spaced out.

"You're gonna get us killed, Chi chi."

Chae, without speaking, simply gave her traveling companion a wink bordering on coy.[/hider]

[center]~~~[/center]

[center][i][b]A Few Days Before It All Came Apart[/b][/i][/center]

[hider=][hider=Theme: Runway H - Death Grips][center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMlDLvA-nDE[/youtube][/center][/hider]

Chae hated this.

Her demeanor seemed to cast a generally disheveled aura upon the room, letting her feelings known to the mousey University students that seemed to surround her. Freshmen no doubt. Her presence had to be a dominating force to them-- as she sat, legs crossed, all the emotion of fiery Latin Bonita coupled with the hangover of said Bonita's husband on a siesta-- of course, there was also the anxiety that came with piling into a cramped financial aid office. 

The room was painted a dreadfully 'calming' blue, that only seemed to give strength to Chae's beating migraine. Around her, in hard plastic seats, were students of GSU, each more nervous than the next. Despite that, there was a hope to their youthful angst that Chae envied. She wasn't much older than them-- but even at her age with her debt and demeanor, she was, compared to them, an absolute failure.

A [i]bankrupt, lazy, sexy[/i] failure. She would correct herself.

Lined against a single wall, the students, young or not, were only given two options in their waiting room purgatory; SLEEP- which, while appealing, carried with it the risk missing your name being called. Or WATCH TV- Which presented itself as the only real option of the two. On now was the news, they were doing some live report on some new, hyper-rare sickness or something. The hangover continued to bump against Chae's skull.

Every few minutes, a woman's voice would DRONE over an intercom that sounded inches away from death. She would announce some name, and with clockwork precision, one of the students ahead of her would stand and walk towards a darkened hallway, as if the financial aid advisers were a guillotine.

Functionally, they were![/hider]

[center]~~~[/center]

[center][b][i]The Day It All Returned To Nothing[/i][/b][/center]

[hider=][hider=Theme: Komm, Süsser Tod (Evangelion version) - Arianne & Shiro Sagisu][center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KYYVrBX4v0[/youtube][/center][/hider]

[right][i]I know, I know I've let you down,[/i][/right]
[right][i]I've been a fool to myself,[/i][/right]
[right][i]I thought that I could,[/i][/right]
[right][i]live for no one else,[/i][/right]

"[i]Halmonee!?[/i]"

Chae was seriously beginning to panic. She was practically running from room to room in the old creaky house, screaming for her grandmother. The woman who had, essentially, let jobless, permanently sophomoric Chae live with her, rent free, for the past 7 years. Five Points was just on the outskirts of Downtown Atlanta-- but even here, [i]already[/i], chaos was beginning to break.

[right][i]But now through all the hurt and pain,[/i][/right]
[right][i]Its time for me to respect,[/i][/right]
[right][i]the ones you love,[/i][/right]
[right][i]mean more than anything.[/i][/right]

A panting Chae ran past a TV in the rustic living room, once something of an artist's pad, it now existed in a state of discord. The only functioning appliance in the house being a TV-- between bouts of static, the monotone, robotic message urged citizens to seek shelter in Atlanta.

A derisive scoff was all it got in reply from Chae, busying herself with packing in between frantic cries fro her grandmother. Atlanta would be a death wish; she'd seen them, people with the infection, the monsters that they become, she couldn't deal with that-- not right now. The tears were still warm in her eyes just thinking of the sight. 

[right][i]So with sadness in my heart,
I feel the best thing I could do,
is end it all,
and leave forever,
whats done is done, it feels so bad,
what once was happy now is sad,
I'll never love again,
my world is ending...[/i][/right]

No. Atlanta, other people, that would be bad. They needed to run away-- A few of her friends from GSU had agreed, between them all, she'd managed to organize a weird impromptu escape plan. She had family in Tybee Island. They could get there fine with a group of 10ish people, as long as everyone pitched in for gas. A few days south would be enough time for the WHO or the government or whatever to get everything in order.

Right?

[right][i]I wish that I could turn back time
'cause now the guilt is all mine
can't live without the trust from those you love.
I know we can't forget the past
you can't forget love and pride
because of that it's killing me inside[/i][/right]

They all had needed little convincing to go pack. Chae didn't exactly have faith in the government to keep [i]her[/i] best interests in mind through this. They never had. But there were more upstanding citizens than she at risk in all of this! Good people! And not just half-baked anarchists-- like actual law abiding, tax paying citizens. They had to try to resolve this in a few days. If her enlisted entourage was fast and they were all lucky getting out, they'd all be gone within the hour, Tybee before sunset, everything calmed down in a few weeks.

Now, if only she could find her grandmother...

"[i][b]Halmonee!!![/b][/i]"

[right][i]It all returns to nothing, it all comes
tumbling down, tumbling down,
tumbling down,
it all returns to nothing, I just keep
letting me down, letting me down,
letting me down,
in my heart of hearts,
I know that I could never love again
I've lost everything
everything, everything
that matters to me,
matters in this world[/i][/right]

[center]~~~[/center]

Chae stood silently. Sirens blared in the distance. People were yelling, different voices, different types of screams gliding all over her slight figure. Somewhere, something was on fire. Tears welled in her eyes, not from smoke, but from the sight in front of her.

A gentle breeze carried with it a foul stench. It brushed lightly against her skin, her hair loose wool on her hat blew with it as it passed.

[right][i]I wish that I could turn back time
'cause now all the guilt is mine
can't live without
the trust from those you love
I know we can't forget the past
we can't forget love and pride
because of that, its killing me inside[/i][/right]

In front of her stood a woman, clawing at shrubbery, in a small backyard.

It used to be her backyard, the womans. The woman was now, however, a mere shell. Chae still saw in it the woman... her grandmother... her halmonee. The eccentric Puerto Rican-Korean woman who had, essentially, let jobless, permanently sophomoric Chae live with her, rent free, for the past 7 years...

"...H-halmonee?" Chae's voice quivered, taking a tentative a tentative step forward, she laughing nervously to avoid addressing the reality, if even a little bit long, "Hey... Halmonee? C'mon. Let's..."

A growl came as the woman turned. Wrinkled arms appeared to be covered in lacerations and bite marks, equally wrinkled skin was as pale a curdled milk. Chae's eyes, filled with tears fighting to gush met those of the woman who was once her grandmother, freshly soulless. The infection drove the shell of the old woman forward, that low growl that once used to be the voice of her grandmother pushed her over the edge. 

Chae fell to her knees.

[right][i]It all returns to nothing, it all comes,
tumbling down, tumbling down,
tumbling down,
it all returns to nothing, I just keep,
letting me down, letting me down,
letting me down,
It all returns to nothing, it all comes
tumbling down, tumbling down,
tumbling down,
it all returns to nothing, I just keep,
letting me down, letting me down,
letting me down,[/i][/right][/hider]

[center]~~~[/center]

[center]~~~[/center]

[center]~~~[/center][/hider]
[hider=tl;dr] Chae Ji Ryeŏn, before the apocalypse, is an unassuming 26 year old college student. She lives with her halmonee ([i]grandmother[/i]), is jobless, is failing classes and is horribly in debt thanks to years of barely earning FAFSA loans. She has friends, but chooses to spend most of her time pursuing artistic or musical interests or simply becoming intoxicated, one way or another. 

Jobless, skilless, and depressed. A few days before the chaos, Chae sees a news report talking about the a new, extremely contagious and fatal 'mystery virus.' She doesn't pay it much attention, and instead turns her attention to her throbbing hangover, and the lack of initiative she feels when approaching modern education. 

A few days later, utter bedlam strikes as the virus known to Chae as 'the infection' begins spread fast across metropolitan Atlanta. The military sends out messages to all local broadcasting stations asking citizens to calmly head to quarantine and safety zones in downtown Atlanta. Chae's mistrust of the military and government prompts her to organize her own escape route with some students from GSU. She has family in Tybee Island they can spend a few days with while things settle down.

It is on this journey that Chae meets Miguel 'Chito' Evans-- he saves her from being bitten by her own infected Grandmother, and the pair begin to form a friendship. The journey to Tybee takes longer than expected, almost 2 days, but the group arrives to find the small community is in a worse state than Atlanta. The group survives, and gather supplies and Intel (both at Chae's insistence) for several days. The city is heavily deserted-- and while most people seem friendly enough at day, marauders have already begun to roam the streets at night.

Chae's family (as did most) fled from Tybee after day one. She isn't that concerned about their well being, although she does wonder what her next move should be. The group splinters, and Chito, the quiet, mysterious freshman has family in Louisiana and Haiti, and suggests the pair head to Baton Rouge. She agrees and they say farewell to the remains of the GSU group.

Chito's raw strength and calm demeanor and Chae's inventiveness and fast talking have generally kept the pair alive and out of trouble. Avoiding the hordes of infected, and surviving mostly off of small towns, abandoned cars and fallen survivors, their journey thus far has been long and difficult. They approach the Louisianan city less with the hopes of finding Chito's family, and more with the hopes of finding a place to settle down in...[/hider][/hider]
[center]~~~[/center]
[hider=Moksha 'Moki' Ryeŏn][center][img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Arabian_Mau_Kitten.jpg[/img][/center]

[b]Name:[/b] Moksha 'Moki' Ryeŏn
[b]Age:[/b] >1 yr

[b]Skill:[/b] [list]
[*] Is cat[/list]
[b]Preferred Weapon(s):[/b][list]
[*] Mouth
[*] Claws[/list]

[b]Personality:[/b] Meow.

[b]Brief Bio:[/b] Was born a few months ago. 
Momma cat died protecting him from desperate walkers. 
Is basically Black Panther.[/hider]
[center]~~~[/center]
[hider=Chito Evans][center][img]http://blahblahblahscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/miguel2.jpg[/img][/center]

[b]Name:[/b] Miguel 'Chito' Evans
[b]Age:[/b] 17

[b]Appearance:[/b] With the muscles of an amateur wrestler and the height of statue, Chito is just one of those guys you don't want to piss off in a small room. Training regiments derived from a military family and high school sports trainers looking to see their boy earn his sports scholarship a year early, his body is still toned-- with more than few fresh scars gained from dealing with the [i]nzumbi[/i] head on...

[b]Skill:[/b] [list]
[*] Considerable physical strength
[*] Remaining calm in stressful situations
[*] Remaining calm in pretty much any situation[/list]
[b]Preferred Weapon(s):[/b][list]
[*] Hand-to-hand ([i]extremely proficient[/i])
[*] Handguns/Rifles (Medium sized guns) ([i]average/good proficiency[/i])
[*] Improvisation ([i]below average proficiency[/i])[/list]

[b]Personality:[/b] Chito is a man of few words-- and fittingly, as is an easy description of his personality; Although he's young, he's cool, calm, and collected.

[b]Brief Bio:[/b] ([i]See tl;dr[/i])[/hider]