[hider=Wow, what a fucking nerd]
[center][img]https://i.ibb.co/J2syRd8/portr.png[/img]
[SUB][color=black]◄[color=lightgray]No no, you see, you have to place the battery the other way in...[/color]► [/color][/SUB]
[sub][/sub]
[sup][h1]Sidney Ackerman[/h1][/sup]
[color=#D98719][sup]26 | Arroyo, New California Republic | 5'9/160lb | Human, Caucasian Male[/sup][/color][/center]
 
[indent][sub][color=cyan][b]A P P E A R A N C E[/b][/color][/sub]
[img]i.imgur.com/QHrg7nB.png[/img]
[/indent][indent][indent][color=lightgray]Were one to get a proper glimpse underneath the tinted plexiglass visor of the all-covering radiation suit that he seems to wear 24/7, the first impression would likely not be a horrible one, as would be expected from the man’s attire, but a neutral, or even a rather positive one – in fact, one could say that Sidney is actually a rather handsome young lad, although perhaps not the most stylish. Beneath auburn medium length hair swept aside for convenience, his face stands quite conventional, if not somewhat unblemished compared to the average wastelander; he’s pale skinned, clean shaven, aquiline nosed and slightly droopy eyed. Save for a jaw of ‘Habsburg’ size (in his own terms), his looks are plain, maybe somewhat attractive thanks to his fair complexity, although nonetheless, nothing stunning.

Sidney’s physique is, similarly, nothing stunning – he’s lean, and while he’s not exactly what one would call muscular, he’s just fit enough to endure the physical exertion required by his line of work. He’s accustomed to walking long distances while carrying heavy objects on his back, and is known for his competence at running towards safety in dangerous situations (although that hasn’t exactly done wonders for his reputation). His lack of scarring and deformities alone could count as testament to his danger avoidance skills. Nonetheless, Sidney does not rely solely on pure luck and competence for his safety – his mysophobic tendencies have led him to don a faded, rubber covered radiation suit at all times (bearing the emblem of the Followers of the Apocalypse on the right shoulder), over which he’s recently begun wearing a breastplate, after an incident with raiders in which he was shot at.
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[indent][sub][color=cyan][b]E Q U I P M E N T[/b][/color][/sub]
[img]i.imgur.com/QHrg7nB.png[/img]
[/indent][indent][indent][color=lightgray][list][*]A radiation suit with a closed-circuit air system
[*]A metal breastplate, with a gap cut into its right side to allow proper aiming of a rifle
[*]A Wattz Pattern laser rifle, old and used, with a wooden replacement stock
[*]A homemade coil pistol, built out of spare parts from a broken Gauss Rifle
[*]A doctor’s bag, full of implements, syringes, gauze and rubbing alcohol
[*]A bottle of iodine tincture
[*]A bottle of MedX
[*]A bottle of water purification tablets
[*]A satchel of five Stimpaks
[*]A packet of RadAway[/list][/color][/indent][/indent]

[indent][sub][color=cyan][b]M I S C E L L A N E O U S  G E A R[/b][/color][/sub]
[img]i.imgur.com/QHrg7nB.png[/img]
[/indent][indent][indent][color=lightgray][list]
[*]A large rucksack
[*]A toolbox
[*]A roll of gaffer tape 
[*]A wrapping of spare cables
[*]A box of spare electronics
[*]A handheld vacuum sealer
[*]A vacuum pack, full of dried meat 
[*]A vacuum pack, full of dried vegetables
[*]A homemade six-pack of canned food
[*]A large canteen of water
[*]A bottle of isotonic drink
[*]A bag of wet wipes
[*]A tube of toothpaste
[*]A toothbrush
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[indent][sub][color=cyan][b]S K I L L S[/b][/color][/sub]
[img]i.imgur.com/QHrg7nB.png[/img]
[/indent][indent][indent][color=lightgray][b]Repair (Core Skill):[/b] Having grown up amongst the Followers of the Apocalypse has allowed the mechanic inside Sidney to flourish – the man knows how to make things work.

[b]Medicine (Good Skill):[/b] Sidney knows that reassembling people is just as important a skill as reassembling machines – aren’t people just machines of a different make, anyway?

[b]Energy Weapons (Good Skill):[/b] If a man in the Wasteland wants to live long, he needs knowledge on how to disassemble things as much as reassembling them; in his case, vaporizing is the easier option. 

[b]Science (Average Skill):[/b] While he’s not well educated on chemistry or abstract physics, his knowledge of machinery and anatomy lets Sidney take some fine educated guesses about related topics.

[b]Sneak (Average Skill):[/b] Discretion is the better part of valor, isn’t it? Sidney doesn’t like high-risk encounters, and would rather take his chances in life without being perceived by possible threats.

[b]Speech (Average Skill):[/b] [i]“Good day mate, how’re ya doin’?”[/i]
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[indent][sub][color=cyan][b]H I S T O R Y[/b][/color][/sub]
[img]i.imgur.com/QHrg7nB.png[/img]
[/indent][indent][indent][color=lightgray]Frankly speaking, compared to most other citizens of the Wasteland, Sidney’s had it pretty good. Born in Arroyo, the resting place of many Wasteland legends such as the Vault Dweller and the Chosen One, by the time of Sidney’s birth it had long become a settled, civilized city, with most of the population having descended from the inhabitants of Vault 13. Sidney suspects possible Vault dweller ancestry thanks to his relatively unblemished body and fair complexion, although he’s never asked his parents about it – for all he knows, he was born to doctors Lauren and Gavin Ackerman in Arroyo, members of the Followers of the Apocalypse, an organization in which he would be raised as well; despite some ideological differences, it’s an identity that he’s accepted without issue.

With his parents constantly overworked and exhausted from tending to unending droves of patients, Sidney was often left alongside a family friend, a budget supervisor named Lilian Modi, whose collection of books and broken tools became companions for the young Sidney in his lonely nights, and sparked an interest in learning and engineering within the boy. Having been born into a scientific organization within a booming town meant that Sidney was able to grow up relatively sheltered from the horrors of the Wasteland – while not obscenely rich or anything of the kind, Sidney nonetheless had access to luxuries such as a proper education, healthy food, and running heated water, to an extent that he was able to take them for granted. Thankfully, the environment in which he raised was not one to tolerate privileged behavior; the Followers were, despite their dreamlike goals, composed mostly of worldly individuals. 

Perhaps because of his days spent fixing broken toys and tools, or perhaps because he had not received enough social experience in his youth, he decided to pursue a career primarily in mechanics as he grew older, rather than medicine or education. From what he had observed in his youth, machines were more reliable and predictable than humans, and that was something that appealed his goal-oriented character. By the time he turned 18, Sidney had gotten quite adept at fixing most of the faulty machinery that caused problems in the Followers’ Outpost, even if temporarily. Nonetheless, not satisfied with being a wrench monkey, he eventually took permission from his parents to leave Arroyo, and pursue higher education at the Followers’ University in the Boneyard. 

Setting out on the road to the University as part of a trade caravan was the first time Sidney got a taste of what the Wasteland was really like. Preyed on by mutants and raiders, the journey marked the first time in Sidney’s life in which he witnessed combat and death. Sidney suspects that the first time he took another man’s life was at some part of this journey as well – a rather anticlimactic experience, compared to the cathartic and soul-crushing tales he’d often heard. While the journey was not very remarkable, save these skirmishes early on, and an infected foot on one of the caravan guards that he, as the second most medically knowledgeable member in the caravan (the surgeon being amongst the few casualties), had to partially amputate. 

By the time the caravan reached the Boneyard, Sidney was more weathered to the realities of the Post-War life, yet interestingly enough, this fueled a drive in him to better himself for the people around him, rather than lead him further down his asocial side. He came to terms with the fact that, while the work the Followers did was perhaps ultimately pointless, it was still the best and noblest goal that people like he and his parents could strive towards. This drive led to him taking extra classes in medicine, although the detailed studies of infected patients gave him a somewhat unhealthy obsession about keeping himself as clean as possible.

Eventually, Sidney returned to Arroyo, having found that not much had changed since his leave. The Followers greeted him warmly when he return, and as he looked around to reorient himself with the place, had responded to his leave with finding another wrench monkey, and pinning a photo of him on the cork pinboard on the wall of their outpost headquarters, alongside a bunch of encouragement notes. He found himself surprisingly content with this legacy, and, after some time, decided to leave once more. While his parents objected at first, they could not argue with his reasoning – the more folks like him were around, the better it was for the inhabitants of the Wasteland.

After preparing himself for the life of wandering, Sidney set out once more, earning his living as a traveling mechanic and doctor. However, the endeavor was nearly stopped dead in its tracks right off the bat, when Sidney found himself ambushed by a bunch of raiders, who’d thought of him to be part of the security detail of the caravan they were planning to hit. Somehow managing to hold his own against the raiders until the target they’d been aiming for ended up coming in as the cavalry, Sidney thought perhaps that this was a sign for him to return to Arroyo, yet, realizing that he’d saved plenty of lives even if by accident, he decided to accompany the caravan to the end of their journey, making money off his professions in the trading posts, and even getting payment by the company once the caravan reached its destination. 

Finding caravan work to be a safer and more profitable way of going about his goal of wandering the Wastes and providing aid for those who could not afford to travel, he decided to join the caravan that’d saved his life near Sac-Town – and thus began Sidney’s employment with the Happy Trails Company.
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[indent][sub][color=cyan][b]P S Y C H E[/b][/color][/sub]
[img]i.imgur.com/QHrg7nB.png[/img]
[/indent][indent][indent][color=lightgray]Sidney isn’t exactly what one would call gritty. While he doesn’t have the most cheerful disposition, he seems to treat the grim realities of the Wasteland as granted, even if not welcomed. His view of life seems to have a rather cynical undertone to it; it’s not great, it’s not terrible, it’s just what it is, and everyone does what they have to do. Yet despite this rather grounded assessment of life and circumstances, he’s a fairly kind and amicable person, even if that part of him is somewhat muffled by the ever-present plexiglass visor that covers his face when out in the wilderness, and as long as it’s not borderline suicidal, will go to lengths to help people. Still, his selfless side aside, Sidney is not a brave man, let alone one all that used to situations that necessitate bravery, and prefers to avoid dangerous situations to the best of his abilities. He has an inherent fear of mutants and is often on edge around them, and is also heavily anxious in environments that are irradiated, filthy, or just contaminated in any other way. Nonetheless, perhaps his most valuable skill is that, so long as there’s other lives at stake, he does not let his fears take over his actions – how else could one explain such a squeamish man successfully performing field surgery?
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[indent][sub][color=cyan][b]D R I V E[/b][/color][/sub]
[img]i.imgur.com/QHrg7nB.png[/img]
[/indent][indent][indent][color=lightgray]As cliché as it sounds, as much as he does not want to admit it, Sidney believes in the sanctity of human life and dignity – maybe not in an individual capacity, for he is of the belief that some people are just not worth the effort to try and save, but as a rule, he tries to see in every hypothetical human being a person worthy of certain basic rights; even ghouls and mutants, as much as they trigger his anxiety via mere presence. He does not like the Wasteland very much, seeing it to be a brutish place, and considers himself, in perhaps a vain way, to be unfortunate for knowing too much about what ‘could have been’, and suffering from the difference between the possibilities and the realities. However, he is also of the opinion that one has to be the change that one wishes to see in the world, and knows that, were he to ignore the call that’s led him to wandering, he would live the rest of his days as an unsatisfied, bitter man. Thus, he goes on, hoping to make some visible difference to the Wasteland, one broken machine at a time.[/color][/indent][/indent][/hider]