[color=lightgray][table][row][/row][row][cell][right][h3][color=#B8860B][i][b]Nigel "Hadrian" Cooper[/b][/i][/color][/h3][sup]"No Sir, just skilled with swords, shields and books."[sup] - Nigel in response to Ash asking about people's military past at arrival in Camp Mexico Beach.[/sup][/sup][/right] [b][color=#B8860B]⚘ Looking Inside[/color][/b] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ If there is one thing that Nigel has learned over the course of The End of the World, is it that one cannot survive without taking risks, sometimes even hang out the neck of one to save the others. Even his own. That's how Nigel tries to take on the hostile world around him, with a firm grip around his gladius and a stern look when he sees what they have to do, no matter the cost. He'll do so with ruthless Roman efficiency, not afraid to getting up close and personal. Perhaps this is why he's uncomfortable in social settings, being slow to understanding the human side of life nowadays. Nigel knows how to fight, but to talk and act normal doesn't come as easy. He's slow to truly warming up to people, while quick to taking a dislike of others that doesn't agree with him. Especially people poking fun at his Romanesque nature, though they're right in that he's gone too deep into his niché when he doesn't shut up about the Ancient world. He's only passionate about though, and those who can stand up to this is considered a friend. [color=#B8860B][b]⚘ A Brief History[/b][/color] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [hider=Pre-Outbreak] [color=#B8860B][b]Growing Up:[/b][/color] Nigel, contrary to what most children assosiated with those people he came to study and lecture on later in his life, had a rather happy childhood. He grew up a little northwest of Leavenworth, Washington state on the West Coast, the son of a small-time farmer as a father and a veterinarian for a mother. The only thing he could have wished for better was more time with his parents, due to them being busy many a time when Nigel wanted company. But living close to the woods as they did, he had plenty of time to explore his little world of wonders and exploration. While he didn't have an interest in chasing the local wildlife, he did learn the in's and out's of what the woods had to offer; berries, mushrooms, leaves and the like to be eaten, and what to stay away from unless you wanted a real itch in your backside. What time he did have with his parents, he learned the most from his own father. Being an ol'timer, his father preferred to make and repair his own tools, horseshoes, basically most of the metal used around the farm himself. "It's cheaper that way, and you don't have to pay for poorly made Chinese steel." his father always told him, but Nigel only remembered the smithing itself, which he never quit doing even as he went to university. [color=#B8860B][b]Adulting:[/b][/color] Life at university - Washington State University to be exact, was to prove a bumpy new chapter in his life. Nigel felt awkward socializing with all the new people around him, not used to such large gatherings of people at one place after growing up in halfway isolation, far from the buzzling city life. He applied first to take a degree in agricultural science, hoping to find a field he'd like. His father always told him that that was as good a field as any to take, and so why shouldn't he listen to his ol' pa? Because he hated it. Okay, perhaps "hate" was too strong a word, but he certainly felt it was not what he had thought of it to be. It just didn't click for him, and perhaps that was for the best. Because eventually, the rural farmboy made friends with other students at the university found a new passion in his life; Roman history. He had decided to attent one of the lectures with a friend, hoping to lighten up a dull day of papers and what-not. And by the end of the lecture, he was hooked. Addicted, in love, everything! He had found his calling in life; to teach history, and be amazed by Roman antiquity. And that's what he did. He changed his courses over to teaching, grew closer into the group of friends and history enthusiasts. It even went so far as to him moving out of state to join a Historical Roman Reenactment group on the East Coast. Sure he was able to find work there, but it was still a bold move for a former country boy. His parents supported him, however reluctantly. And so Nigel worked mostly as a teacher through his adult life, but put more and more time into his side-time passion of reenactment. There he gradually became the expert on weapon smithing and Roman siege warfare, not only explaining curious bystanders how they fought in sieges on both sides, but showing them with real weapons and constructions. He did learn how to swing the Gladius too, but he much more enjoying walls and siege engines than swords. [/hider] [hider=Post-Outbreak] [color=#B8860B][b]Your First Walker Encounter:[/b][/color] It was bad enough already that they had to attent a different faire because of some other reenactment group of vikings had been chosen over them. It was bad enough that they had so much free time on their hands due to little attendance, that they actually got through the whole "Building a Roman palisade fort" routine. It was even worse when they had to depend on their lives on the fort when the first signs of hell breaking loose arrived. At first it was nothing more than a distant shout of someone calling for a doctor, one which Nigel and his group payed attention to in the sense of fumbling for their phones and calling 911. But then, once the shouting turned into screams and cries, followed by loud moaning and people fleeing towards them, they knew something was wrong. Even more wrong when Nigel saw It for the first time; bloody, mortally wounded, yet stumbling determined towards him. Nigel didn't know what to do at first, but the sight of the carnage left behind convinced him of one option; to draw his gladius and threaten the attacker. When It didn't stop, he hit It across the head with the flat side. When that didn't stop It, the blade went through Its skull. With more kills necessitated as time went by, he would stop questioning if it was right or not. [color=#B8860B][b]Those First Years:[/b][/color] The groups first idea was to get as many as possible inside their Roman palisade to protect them. That they managed, guiding or even forcing people scared for their lives inside their little fortress before more of Them could grab hold. It worked at the start, but sooner rather than later it dawned on Nigel that simply sitting idly inside the fort was doing them any good. The Walkers couldn't get in, but neither could they get out. Within the nexy day their already pity supply of overly-priced water bottles and peanut bags ran out, as no one had expected this. And even if they did, they wouldn't have had time or space to store it. They waited, hoping the Walkers would lose interest and wander somewhere else. Nigel stood on top of the tower and watched to his horror that they didn't. More and more of Them came, hopelessly trying to grab him and only attracting more attention. They needed to get out. Nigel led the group in their valient attempt to 'break the siege'. Armed with their swords and shields, the reenactors put up the show of their life, holding back the Walkers and cutting them up as they tried to protect the 'civilians' in the middle of their Testudo. Tried, because it almost worked. Some Walkers got through and had a field day, while others managed to get a bite or slash through the swords and shields, infecting them. And even when they managed to get most of them to safety in the local grocery store, the damage as already done. Within the night, more people had started to turn, starting the cycle all over again. That night Nigel started to change into his current self; he grew more cold and determined to survive, whatever the cost may be. The coming weeks, Nigel and his remaining 'Legion' decided that they needed a long-term plan, and set out on the open road for better grounds. They found their sanctuary in an old, abandoned sanitarium, perfect to their liking; high, sturdy walls of iron bars surroudning the whole building, an open grounds perfect for farming, and plenty of space on the inside for storage and scavenging material for them building defences. And for a long while, it worked fine. The settlement, "Nova Invictus" as the reenactors fittingly named it, survived for two years with what they had. They allowed in some people, but many very turned away because of scarce resources, obvious Walker wounds and dubious motives. Nigel did regret those turned away, but knew he had little choice. It was "Us versus Them". And that's how they survived, and most likely attracted attention to themselves. After the two year mark of Nova Invictus, they were attacked. Not by the Walkers or random looters mind you, but an all out-siege of their fortress. This was a well-organized band of survivors who wanted what Nigel and his people had, and they wanted it now. They refused to give up, and the siege lasted until their walls were breached and compound compromized; their home was gone, as the besiegers foolishly for themselves threw firebombs at the building. Nigel and those remaining saw the writing on the wall, grabbed as much as they could and fled out into the darkness to live another day. One died of severe blood-loss that night, and one refused to believe his girlfriend was dead and so went back, never to return. Nigel and the handful of close friends went on into the night, surviving another year and a half as semi-nomads. The last half year Nigel was alone, the last one of the Legion XIII Augusta still alone, migrating slowly and stealthely south in hopes of reaching spring sooner. He was unsure of where he was ending up, but eventually he found himself within the borders of Georgia. [/hider] [hider=Since Entering RP] [color=#B8860B][b]Searching:[/b][/color] Nigel didn't know what he expected to find down in Georgia, though he surely didn't expect to find the companionship of three other survivors. Well, they were four for the briefest of moments which will become clear. Nigel had taken shelter in an abandoned house in the midle of a swamp and ready to move on westward, when Fortuna decided to intervene. First he came upon a man asking about his wife; Robert was his name, a man of God it seemed. This would have been only an expected surprise to Nigel, hadn't it been for the three following survivors he met. The dynamic duo of Wayne and Hank, and Erica further up the road. Robert didn't make it far, suffering from heatstroke and lain to rest on the road. They were an unlikely group of survivors, never quite the friendly bunch to everyone in the group, though they got further than Nigel had done on his own. They survived, and that was what was important. Over the course of the following month, the group of four made their way further south for about three months. As they ventured into the grand state of Florida, Fortuna struck once again with her sense of humour - even more survivors. This time it wasn't just a ragtag group of deshuffled people, but the remnants of the United States military. Three groups met in Wewahitchka, and they entered Camp Mexico Beach as one group of strangers. [color=#B8860B][b]Camp Mexico Beach:[/b][/color] Initially Nigel was reluctant to lay his life in the hands of the military folks at Camp Mexico Beach, but the passing week changed his mind. They spent a week in quarantine for obvious reasons, though their stay was far from the horrid isolation he first feared. They were well-fed, cleaned, checked by medical staff and given access to more entertainment that Nigel had seen for years. At the mercy of the camp's people they were treated well overal, strict but fair. He had changed his mind. This was somewhere he felt he could stay, take part in rebuilding Civilisation. Only time will tell if he will stick out like a sore Roman thumb or not. [/hider] [color=#B8860B][b]⚘ Relations[/b][/color] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [hider=Major] [right][sub][h3][b][color=0072bc]Thana Martin[/color][/b][/h3][/sub] [sup] "Athena, excellent choice. I couldn't agree more really" [sup]-Deciding which Greek god suited each other, during first day of work.[/sup][/sup][/right] Nigel first met Thana in Quarantine, surprised the level of emotional upheavel her appearance caused amongst the survivors gathered there. It quickly became apparent just how much she meant to them, and soon Nigel too would grow fond of the woman he'd call for "Athena". He was assigned to work with her in the greenhouse, finding its underwater-section a true Hanging Garden of Babylon. Unsurprisingly he became impressed with her skills, and truly respects her. It helps to have someone willing to listen to his Roman banter too. [right][sub][h3][b][color=magenta]Erica Monroe[/color][/b][/h3][/sub] [sup]"What, you too now? I do in fact not have a stick up my ass!" [sup]- Nigel to Erica's jest on what it means to be a bit stiff.[/sup][/sup][/right] Nigel's first time with Erica was far from ideal. She was the one who had to take down Robert after he died of heatstroke, and the one to break the news to him. Though she was probably right, and the two of them followed Hank and Wayne back to that fishing shack in the swamp. The initial weariness has washed away over time as they've grown close friends. Erica has so far been the only one to take an interest in Nigel's Roman disposition and him in general, and for this he considers her his only true friend. It is therefore a shame that Erica has disappeared into the backdrop of the everyday life of CMB. No longer does Nigel find comfort in her presence, and he often finds himself missing her company, though it will be the same. [/hider] [hider=Minor][right][sub][h3][b][color=4682b4]Ashton Jameson Holloway[/color][/b][/h3][/sub] [sup] "Nemo tenetur se ipsum accusare, Ashton…" [sup]- Quoted at Hunter's trial.[/sup][/sup][/right] Nigel finds Ash to be a man with both his feet firmly planted on the ground, even if that observation is only at a distance. Their time together has been brief, but what words they've exchanged have shown Nigel that Ash is a man of his word, a strong individual and industrious military man. He has respect for the man, though he knows little of him. [right][sub][h3][b][color=dc143c]Thalia Angelica Carmichael[/color][/b][/h3][/sub] [sup] "I...yield. Are you not...entertained?" [sup]- Yielding to Thalia in their first sparring match.[/sup][/sup][/right] More than companions of verbal interactions, these two fighters spend most of their time together sizing one another up and down before they come to blows. Literary. While Nigel hasn't spoken much with Thalia, their time sparring and dueling has forged a peculiar bond. They fight, but help each other up back on their feet afterwards, even teaching one another a few tricks along the way. Nigel has nothing but blunt respect for the One-Armed Amazon. Respect, and a score he intends to win. [right][sub][h3][b][color=662d91]Alexander Polawski[/color][/b][/h3][/sub] [sup] "Not acting, reenacting. There's a big difference in playing with swords and actually swinging them." [sup]- Conversation during the Tuna Casserole incident.[/sup][/sup][/right] The old legionaire, friend of Thana and man who's seen far too much. Those are Nigel's thoughts on Alexander, the old man from Chicago. They have only sparingly spoken with each other, and their paths cross rarely. For a man his age though, he seems capable of holding his ground. With age comes experience, like a true member of the Triarii. Nigel is curious as to what Alexander has seen, considering his bouts of daze. He wonders, and perhaps one day he will find out. [right][sub][h3][b][color=8dc73f]Amelia Vincenti Payne[/color][/b][/h3][/sub] [sup]"Just like how it worked in real life; limit the speed and increase the, what do you call it, Armor Class?" [sup]- Discussing the implementation of historical tactics into DnD.[/sup][/sup][/right] While no connection was made between Nigel and Amelia during Quarantine, the neo-Roman felt a strong sense of sympathy for the troubled young lady the moment he laid eyes on her. Shaking, frightened and head clean-shaven, life had dealt a harsh hand of cards for Amelia. Their friendship didn't begin until the unlikely event of Nigel joining (or being fooled into joinging) the game of DnD. An unlikely friendship built upon his historical facts and tales, and her immense imagination, combined into an unstoppable force on the tabletop battlefield. Strange, but a welcome friendship. [right][sub][h3][b][color=00a651]Hunter Monroe[/color][/b][/h3][/sub] [sup]"You can keep cursing nuggets all you want, Hunter, but right now isn't a good time to apologize. Later. [sup]-Reprimanding Hunter for his drunken stupor at the CMB party, telling him to apologize later.[/sup][/sup][/right] What started as a well-placed suspicion towards the clearly unstable young soldier, grew slowly (or quickly, it felt as if both were true) into a paternal sense of responsibility from Nigel's side. He tried - and failed - to help Hunter recover from his social ineptitude over the course of their first week inside safe walls. And now? Gladly the death penalty was not bestowed upon Hunter, though the enforced psychological help was not a fine wine to drink. Harsh, but neccecary. Nigel awaits and hopes for Hunter to find some semblence of social stability. [/hider] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [/cell][cell][center][img]https://i.ibb.co/p2DQMsf/ezgif-com-resize-1.jpg[/img] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Male [color=#B8860B][b]↕[/b][/color] 35 [color=#B8860B][b]↕[/b][/color] Caucasian ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 6 feet [color=#B8860B][b]↕[/b][/color] 175 lbs [color=#B8860B][b]↕[/b][/color] Toned ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Grey [color=#B8860B][b]↕[/b][/color] Light red [color=#B8860B][b]↕[/b][/color] Pale ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [color=#B8860B][b]Psychology[/b][/color] [/center][hider=] [b][color=39b54a]Positive Traits:[/color][/b][list][*] Hopeful [*] Adaptive [*] Loyal[/list][color=c0392b][b]Negative Traits:[/b][/color][list][*] Stubborn [*] Stern [*] Hardened[/list][color=2F4F4F][b]Fear:[/b][/color][list][*] Deep waters[/list] [/hider] [CENTER]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [color=#B8860B][b]Abilities[/b][/color] [/center][hider=] [list][*] [color=#B8860B]Strength:[/color] 32 [*] [color=#B8860B]Dexterity:[/color] 27 [*] [color=#B8860B]Fitness:[/color] 22 [*] [color=#B8860B]Intellect:[/color] 37 [*] [color=#B8860B]Will Power:[/color] 24 [*] [color=#B8860B]Perception:[/color] 17 [*] [color=#B8860B]Attractiveness:[/color] 24 [*] [color=#B8860B]Luck:[/color] 24 [/list][/hider] [CENTER]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [color=#B8860B][b]Languages[/b][/color] [/center][hider=] [list][*] [color=#B8860B]English (Native):[/color] 30 [*] [color=#B8860B]Latin:[/color] 37[/list] [/hider] [CENTER]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [color=#B8860B][b]Skills[/b][/color] [/center][hider=] [list][*] [color=#B8860B]Rifle:[/color] 36 [*] [color=#B8860B]Shield:[/color] 65 [*] [color=#B8860B]Sword:[/color] 75 [*] [color=#B8860B]Hand To Hand:[/color] 50 [*] [color=#B8860B]Blacksmithing:[/color] 50 [*] [color=#B8860B]Farming:[/color] 37 [*] [color=#B8860B]Navigation:[/color] 20 [*] [color=#B8860B]Survival:[/color] 30 [*] [color=#B8860B]Tanning:[/color] 37 [*] [color=#B8860B]Tracking:[/color] 20 [*] [color=#B8860B]Alertness:[/color] 50 [*] [color=#B8860B]History (Ancient):[/color] 60 [*] [color=#B8860B]Profession (Teach):[/color] 70 [*] [color=#B8860B]Psychology:[/color] 37 [*] [color=#B8860B]Scavenging:[/color] 30 [*] [color=#B8860B]Science (Military):[/color] 37 [list][*] [color=#B8860B]Siege Warfare:[/color] 37[/list] [*] [color=#B8860B]Stealth:[/color] 40 [*] [color=#B8860B]Trade (Leatherworker):[/color] 30 [*] [color=#B8860B]Trade (Construction):[/color] 30 [/list][/hider] [CENTER]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [color=#B8860B][b]Profession[/b][/color] [/center][hider=] [list][*] Highschool teacher: Nordfolk (Pre) [*] Roman Reenactor: Spartanburg (Outbreak) [*] Guard: Nova Invictus, Spartanburg (Post) [/list][/hider] [CENTER]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [color=#B8860B][b]Family[/b][/color] [/center][hider=] [list][*] Julian Cooper - Father (Unknown) [*] Nicole Cooper - Mother (Unknown) [/list][/hider] [CENTER]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [color=#B8860B][b]Character Trivia[/b][/color] [/center][hider=] [list][*] [color=#B8860B]Sexuality:[/color] Heterosexual [*] [color=#B8860B]Likes:[/color][list][*]Wine [*]Learning new skill [*]The Outdoors [*]Everything Roman [*]Talking about his hobby [/list] [*] [color=#B8860B]Dislikes:[/color][list][*]Being lectured by 'experts' [*]Swimming [*]Tight spots [*]Idleness [*]Vodka [/list] [*] [color=#B8860B]Scars:[/color] Small cuts and old bruises on his hands. [*] [color=#B8860B]Piercings:[/color] N/A [*] [color=#B8860B]Tattoos:[/color] N/A [*] [color=#B8860B]Blood Type:[/color] Unknown [*] [color=#B8860B]Religion:[/color] Atheist, ironically Roman polytheist [*] [color=#B8860B]Birthday:[/color] 11th of March, 1977 [*] [color=#B8860B]Face Claim:[/color] Kevin McKidd [*] [color=#B8860B]Nickname:[/color] Hadrian, Sportacus [*] [color=#B8860B]Items Of Note:[/color] [list][*] [*] [/list] [/list][/hider] [CENTER]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][/cell][/row][/table][/color]