[CHAR] Sewer Rats

[BubblegumQueen]

(5'9 with a thin frame and dark green eyes. Face framed by mid-back length bronze/brown hair.)
Name: Lavender Cycle

Age: 26

Personality: Lavender isn’t exactly… the best with people. She’s kind of reserved and can be quite awkward in social situations. But, she’s also protective. Maybe to a fault. With an uncaring demeanor and a somewhat intimidating aura, she tends to be looked at with weariness even though she hasn’t hurt a soul out of pure malice or anger. If she trusts you, she will protect you with her life. It’s just a shame not many people are able to see her kindness for what it is. Just kindness. Then again, in the apocalypse it’s kinda difficult to take anything at face value.

Biography: Lavender was a normal girl, born in raised in Georgia. Born to 2 happy parents with 3 younger brothers, she accepted the role of the oldest sibling with joy. At home, she helped around the house and looked after her siblings. With both her parents working their asses off to take care of them all, Lavender didn’t mind playing the role of ‘mother’ to her siblings. And at school, she did her best to keep her grades up considering her dream of becoming a doctor. She’d always been drawn to medicine and being able to heal people.

Unfortunately, in some freak accident while her parents were at work, their house was broken into. The assailant was armed with a gun and assumed everyone was asleep while the parents were working late. But, her youngest brother wasn’t asleep having gone to the kitchen to get a drink. He was shot and killed on sight, waking the others. While trying to defend her home, Lavender was shot in the throat and the man escaped, never to be seen again.

She’d nearly lost her voice and can no longer speak very loud and her voice was ALSO permanently deepened due to it not healing properly. She became the outcast after that, her family and she struggling to recover from the loss of the youngest son. She never did. She threw herself into her studies, pushing away friends and any sort of social life. For her troubles, she received a free scholarship to NYU after graduating early, where she would study medicine. So, off she went and she ended up staying there for only a few months afterwards. But then… the whole apocalypse thing happened and she was one of the first people to flee underground. Her paranoia, having grown over the years, drawing her down there.

And it wasn’t until after the 10-year period that she ended up disbanding from her previous crew and went off on her own. Only to then stumble across the others and… well, you see where this is going.

Relationships: None yet.

What you originally brought:
1. A hunting rifle that her father gave (ammo and ear plugs included. They get grouped together.) her before she left to New York. She grabbed it before she left originally, having knowledge on how to use it due to going hunting when she was younger with her father.
2. Nightvision goggles she swiped from a nearby darklight paintball studio. It was the apocalypse, she figured it'd be understandable in this case.
3. A first aid kit. She figured that if she met some other people that were sick or injured, she might be able to help.

Skills:
1. Good shot: She has good aim from having gone hunting with her father for years. She’s best with a rifle and a shotgun.
2. Knowledgeable in Medicine: Due to her studying to be a doctor, she had knowledge in the human anatomy and can help with healing wounds that aren’t too serious. Anything beyond that is out of her field of knowledge.
3. Hearing: She has really good hearing. It’s kind of a thing that runs in her family and because she always does her best to take care of it. (Stems internally from her blaming herself for her brother’s death.)
4. Fast Runner: With her height (5’9) and the overall thinness of her frame, she’s actually a fast runner. Having been on the track time in highschool, it’s something she can have full confidence in.
5. Reflexes: When she wasn’t taking care of her family, at track, or studying, she was playing video games. It was a good stress relief for her and provided some entertainment for her brothers and she. (Even her parents at times.) And it’s due to her many years of playing video games and having to respond quickly to quick-time events AND from having to keep track of some of the most hyper human beings you’ve ever seen that her reaction time is so good.

Weaknesses:
1. Serious Suzy: She is a naturally serious person due to the harsh times and due to her inner fear of losing everyone and ending up alone. It also stems from her paranoia. She's always afraid that, should she let her guard down, she'll end up losing something or someone precious. So, it is very difficult for her to relax and this usually leads to paranoid thoughts or being distrustful of people at first. (And it takes a while for her to actually trust people. They'll have to really prove it.)

2. Insomnia: After the death of her brother, she'd always had a hard time sleeping. The reason being that due to her sleeping, she didn't hear her brother wake up and go downstairs. In her mind, if she was awake she could've done something even if she ended up being the one dying. So, it's really difficult for her to sleep and she usually ends up staying up to keep guard over their home.

Other: Nothing that I can think of at the moment. Subject to change.

[Lady Selune]

Appearance: She has a dirty-blonde ponytail that reaches to below her collar, tanned skin, and is short, at 5'4" She has dark blue eyes and a permanently tired expression.

Name: Maria Abaroa

Age: 16

Personality: Maria is a manic depressive in the best sense of the word. If she still had coffee, she'd chug it all day long, but instead she stays awake with scrounged caffeine pills and whatever chemicals she's cooked up to keep her awake. Somehow, she's avoided poisoning herself, although it's honestly a matter of time. Benzedrine is a favourite of hers.

She's obsessed with improving the quality of life of the group in any way she can, which mostly ends up in her building everything the group needs, might need, might not need, and probably won't ever need. Whenever she gets inspired, she's off like a shot, fiddling and tinkering until she finishes her project, before heading back to her bunk and crashing and feeling sad.

Biography: Maria calls herself a border hopper born and bred, but she's lived in the US for her whole life. Whilst both her parents were illegals, if she had wished to be, she could have applied for a legitimate citizenship. She never got around to doing so, what with the apocalypse sort of ruining her plans of any normal life.

She grew up in a noisy, messy and pretty dangerous area, and she learnt a lot of things hands on. Her father was a mechanic, her mother a cleaning lady. One taught her metalwork, the other chemicals. She doesn't talk about them much anymore though, or her family, friends, school... Really, she doesn't talk about anything before she met the group. She has her reasons though.

Relationships: They're all dead. All of them. She isn't talking about them though. As she's the most recent inclusion to the group, she hasn't made any meaningful relationships with anyone, but there's plenty of time for that to happen.

What you originally brought:

The JRS (Junker's Rad Suit.) It's a kitbash of diving suit, hazmat equipment and American football armour, minus the power. She constantly tinkers with it and tries to make it better, and most of the time the welder gets pulled out, it's to do something to the JRS. She has a car door shield for it, but rarely uses it and woe betide anyone who touches it. She calls it Jessie. Nobody knows why.

Her machete. Nothing special about it; looks like it comes from an outdoors shop of some kind, although the red ribbon tired around the end isn't standard. It's a good quality steel blade, with a cutting edge that's still sharp and still painful. A bit grimy and a bit dinged about, but it'll cut a mutant to bite-sized-chunks if it needs too, and that's all she needs it to do.

Welding torch and mask: She's rigged it to a car battery to get the power she needs for it. It's the crucial part of her constructs, and she's constantly looking for more juice to hook up to it. Doesn't really work that well, and she has to hand crank the battery constantly, but she'll take what she'll get. Really. The mask is a full-face UV job that prevents serious eye conditions.

Skills:

Now We're Cooking With Gas: She's pretty handy with appliances and the breaking down and reassembling thereof. She has an axe made from a drying machine and a hatchet handle, for example, and has made a bed using parts of a car. She's also constantly tinkering, unless she's being apathetic.

F in Chemistry: A lie. She was good at chemistry. Whilst the really serious stuff is too complex for her, she knows that rust + aluminium filings = explosives, and that you don't want to be caught unprotected when someone lobs a canister of 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile at you. She should know, she has some. Somewhere. She swears. Fuck it, she'll just make some more.

Step *Click* *Boom*: A slightly unhealthy love of explosives and the fact that she can't be everywhere at once means that she's make quite the set of traps. Like, a lot of traps. Landmines especially- she made one out of lego, a couple of shotgun shells and a microphone.

Waifish: She's short, does little physical activity apart from her surface trips, sleeps a lot, and weighs little. She doesn't need as much food as others do, full stop.

Power tools Are Never Dangerous: She's scary good with power tools and other gear you wouldn't expect a 16-year-old girl to be good with. Chainsaws, power drills, concrete cutters, blowtorches, and, of course, her welder. Shame there's so little power.

Fuck Off and Die, I'm Tired: To put it bluntly, she can be a massive asshole sometimes. Especially when she's tired, which is often. Because of this, she ends up swearing a lot, although after the apocalypse, nobody really blames her.

And There Was Much Rejoicing: She's seen too much death to give a shit about someone else loosing someone.Sure, she sympathises, but she's pretty harsh when it comes to death. She has empathy, it's just in a permanent state of torpor.

Waifish: Sure, she needs less food, but she doesn't exactly hit hard. Unless she uses her blowtorch, but then strength doesn't matter, as she gleefully points out. Before blowtorching your face off. Seriously, don't get in the way of that thing.

Sickly: Maria handles chemicals and materials that in a non-apocalyptic world would be used under much better safety precautions. Whilst her JRS has saved her from major radiation poisoning, she has skin and eye issues, as well as a nasty cough that sometimes crops up.

Other:
She has a bad tendency of slipping into Spanish whenever she gets angry, which means that she often speaks in an incomprehensible language (to the rest of the group,) for hours.

[Sohtem]

Sarah Blackthorn

Attire when she goes out

Name: Sarah Blackthorn
Age: 16

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Personality

Sarah is a friendly person and is always willing to give even the roughest looking character a chance and make friends with them. She’s not afraid to speak her mind or get into arguments with other people, even those she just met, but her pride isn’t so big that she won’t be the first to apologize if she’s in the wrong. One thing she can’t stand is guns, she knows how to use pistols, but she tries to avoid using a gun as much as possible. Even with the current state of the world, Sarah always tries to be as selfless as possible and help others, even if it puts her in danger or the same kindness wouldn’t be returned.

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Biography

Though Sarah was still fairly young when nuclear war broke out, she still remembered how things were before everything went to hell. For the first six years of her life, she grew up in New York City and although it was crowded a lot of the time, she was happy. Her parents were both well respected doctors, her father even being Chief of Medicine, this allowed them to afford the best life possible for her.

The happy times didn’t last long however when the first set of nukes dropped, many people had been killed by the blasts and thousands of others injured from debris and other effects of the bombs. Sarah had been at school when they hit, luckily she hadn’t been seriously injured and her mother had already been on her way by the time the chaos broke out.

Because of their oath as doctors to help others, they stayed rather than evacuating right away, but eventually with supplies running low, utilities failing and the safety of their daughter taking top priority, they were forced to abandoned the sick and injured still there. For the next six years they lived underground in the sewers, doing whatever they could to survive, all for the sake of Sarah, however one day whilst out scavenging for supplies, they came across a man that appeared to have been caught under some rubble. However it had been a trap set up by some bandits to rob them, they had willingly given up what they already had, but when they tried taking Sarah, her father fought back, holding them off long enough for her and her mother to escape.

The last thing that Sarah saw as they fled was her father being shot to death and falling to the ground, something that stuck with her to this day as well as the day when everything went to hell. That was four years ago, since then she’s learned more about medicine thanks to her mother being as equally skilled of a doctor as her father was and tries to follow the same principles regarding life as her parents did, though with everything piling on day by day, it’s hard not for her to think saving others is sometimes pointless.

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Relationships

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What you originally brought

• Knife
• Zippo lighter
• Small first aid kit.

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Skills

• Medical Experience – Though she doesn’t have the full experience of a doctor, thanks to her mother teaching her, she understands the human body and can suture wounds, mend bones and treat some infections. Anything that involves cutting into a person she lacks the experience and confidence to do so.
• Fire Arm Knowledge – She knows how to fire, disassemble, clean and reassemble most pistols, that’s about the extent of her weapon knowledge when it comes to guns.
• Driving – What cars that were still working and filled with petrol she used and taught herself how to drive.

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Weaknesses

• Hot Tempered - Since she's not afraid to speak her mind, she can easily be riled up should she get into a disagreement or an argument, distracting her from the current task at hand as well as throwing away logic for the moment.
• Astraphobia - Thunderstorms and lightning are like her kryptonite, whenever they happen, she can freeze up entirely, going from her confident, outspoken self to acting like a scared child, curling up into a ball and covering her head. She can just manage her phobia when indoors, though it's still a struggle, but if she's outside when storms and lightning are occurring, it's impossible to get her to do anything, let alone move.

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Other

Sometimes called “Red” because of her hair or “Pepper” because of her fiery personality.

[Infamous Empath]

My Hider

Name: Elijah McDonnell
Nicknames: Eli, Mac, Jesus, The Director
Age: 29
Personality: Eli is very creative, but nobody needs a creative writer in the apocalypse. He tries to be humble and sensitive and generous, but can be pushed into a rage by inconsiderate or selfish people. He has a certain self-hating thing going on, but also comes off as aloof to the point of conceited. However, that's mainly because he's so introverted and spends all of his time in his head.

Biography: Eli was in the military for 4 years and at the same time, he also tried his hand at filmmaking; his co-workers dubbed him The Director. He didn't like it but it was better than the usual nicknames. His parents always knew the end of the world was coming so they had basically made a compound where they stored food and stuff. Unfortunately, when the shit hit the fan, he was in NY visiting his sister. Now, he just wants to get back home to his parents and other siblings.

Relationships: TBD
What you originally brought: 9mm Beretta handgun, pocket knife, towel (don't panic... XD )

Skills/Abilities: Self-Defense (in the form of Israeli Defense Force martial arts and US Army training); psychology (whether you call it intuition, empathy, people-reading etc. he knows how to deal with individuals); driving (like, stupid-good. not The Transporter good, but still...maybe Drive good); leadership (mostly due to his military experience and knowledge of psychology, but also because he doesn't panic as much as most people do during conflict or stressful situations); inventory (did it for over 10 years).

Weaknesses: Although great at reading people and handling individuals, he is terrible with groups or strangers who are overly aggressive; doesn't like conflict, verbal or physical; can get irritated or even very angry at people for being inconsiderate or selfish; overly nice and generous, even to his own detriment; a bit conceited; lazy when it comes to physical labor; is not very physically strong or fit; not a good runner; most of his five senses including sight and hearing are below average.

Other: Eli knows where his stash of real survival equipment is: NC. He has no idea how he's gonna get there.

[Airalin]

Appearance:

Name: Colette Mistly

Age: 14

Personality: Colette has spent her life thus far learning one simple fact: Dishonesty is the strongest shield.

Biography: Colette only has a few memories from before the world was reduced to ruins. A trip to a beautiful lake with parents who argued for their entire stay. Being given a Barbie doll that would be her only companion for many long nights. Those times were, and then they were not. Just like everything else.

Her mother was the first to go in the aftermath. Colette couldn't remember the details. For a few weeks, she would disappear every other day. One day, she didn't come back. Her father never mentioned her again.

For a short while, father and daughter existed alone, in darkness, but not hunger. Colette never thought to ask her father where he got his food from. She would complain that it was not good, that she missed her mother, but she was told that, going forward, they would only have poorly cooked canned food to eat. In truth, even that had not lasted.

Once it was gone, they had left their cellar, hand-in-hand, and walked. They walked through ruined buildings and slept in scary caves. And there were other people. At first, they drifted path the strangers, but before long, her father explained that, in order to survive, they would have to find others to settle down with. By then, Colette had given up on arguing. When she was afraid, she would cling to her father's hand, and he would ruffle her hair. The world kept moving.

Eventually, Colette found herself in a network of tunnels, living with angry people she didn't know. Few of their faces ever became more than blurs, but there was an old lady named Pam who would smile at her, call her a kitten, and tell her stories of other places. Those stories faded as quickly as the other's faces. She recalled them only as kind sounds no truer than the lake she could barely remember.

Her father left her with Pam a lot. He insisted that she never accompany him or any of the others to the surface. Instead, Pam taught her how to do useful little things. Patch a hole in a sweater, build a fire, read the few books they had in their little hovel. She told Colette to always smile, to do small things for people, and slowly, the others around her would smile back. That was when she began to understand.

In time, her father vanished, and Pam died, leaving a ten year old Colette with the other members of her group. Like her father, they never asked her to go to the surface. She would cook for them, make them clothing, even teach them how to do small things for themselves. But only small things. That was the key.

One by one, all the others also stopped returning, and one day, Colette was alone. That was when she finally left. Saw those awful things. Learned that the darkness was safest.

As soon as she could, she found another group. They, too, would disappear. But not her. Never her.

Relationships: None yet

What you originally brought:
1. Her sewing kit
2. A knife
3. The journal of one man she used to live with

Skills/Abilities:
1. Sewing: Colettte can mend, and with sufficient materials, make, serviceable clothing.
2. Intellect: Colette is extremely good at recognizing patterns and picking up new skills.
3. Cooking: Colette can make food good enough that people actually want to eat it.
4. Social intuition: Colette is very perceptive of visual and verbal cues hinting at the emotions of others.
5. Faking: Over the years, Colette has realized that her own emotions were the enemy and has learned to hide them from others and project fake ones instead.

Weaknesses:
1. Inauthenticity: Those who get too close to Colette are likely to sense the disparity between the ways she speaks and acts and how she actually views things. Despite her skill at mimicking the surface-level emotions of others, she lacks their passion.
2. Physical weakness: Colette can't run fast, nor far, nor can she hold her own in a fight. She is thin and somewhat malnourished. She relies almost entirely on others for protection.
3. Paranoia: Colette feels she is, at all times, putting on a show, and as a result, tends to jump to conclusions when others behave strangely around her.

[mercenarius]

Aviel Cohen
23 years old

personality
Aviel is, at first glance, quiet and reserved. She doesn't speak much, even when spoken to; when she does, she tends to use short sentences and gets straight to the point. She tries very hard not to show any outward emotions, and most of the time, she succeeds. She is very goal-oriented, especially when venturing to the surface, and gets visibly annoyed when others don't behave the same way.

Beneath the cold, rough exterior, however, is the same bright, free-spirited girl she has always been. She loves cooking for others, and she loves watching them enjoy what she has made for them... even if she doesn't always act like it. And despite the fact that she never seems to laugh, Aviel actually does have a sense of humour - and a dark one at that.

Sometimes she wishes she could show that softer side of herself more freely... but then again, an apocalyptic wasteland isn't exactly the place for that, is it?

biography
Aviel was the first daughter of two, born to her parents just six months before they immigrated from Israel to Brooklyn. She remembers her childhood fondly: her father and mother opened a modestly successful restaurant, where Aviel and her younger sister often helped both in the kitchen and in the dining room. Both girls attended the same private, all-girls school. The family lived a good, comfortable life.

Then came the bombs. Aviel remembers that day, much more clearly than she cares to admit: she had faked illness and skipped school. She remembers laying in bed, reading a book; suddenly hearing explosions, seeing flashes; she remembers her father, in a panic, grabbing her hair and dragging her down into the basement. Her mother sobbing on the other end of the phone because her sister was missing. Her father demanding that Aviel stay hidden before locking her in the basement with all the food and water he could find. She remembers waiting there, although for how long, she could never be sure. Running out of food first, and then water. She remembers breaking her way out of the basement with what little strength she had, because she knew none of them were coming back.

Aviel struggled to survive at first. She went from house to house, searching for families that she knew, hoping that one of them might have been better prepared. Eventually she found the adult brother of a classmate; he was the first to introduce her to the sewers, and brought her into his group, made up primarily of his own peers. Although they were reluctant to accept her at first, Aviel earned their acceptance by proving she was a capable cook. They taught her valuable skills needed in order to survive on the surface, and she kept them fed as best she could.

After nine years, and for reasons she refuses to talk about, Aviel willingly left this group and began bouncing between other pockets of survivors. She's recently stumbled upon a new group, and has decided to settle for the time being and see how things work out.

relationships
none yet

what she originally brought
- her semi-automatic pistol & ammo
- hand-drawn maps of the surface, written in Hebrew
- candles & matches

skills/abilities
cooking: thanks to her experience working in her parents' restaurant, as well as being the main chef for her previous group, Aviel is quite skilled at cooking edible meals from little resources.

firearm proficiency: one of the first skills her first group taught her was how to properly use firearms to defend herself. She prefers pistols, and most of her knowledge and skill lays there; however she can still hold her own with larger guns if need be.

physical strength: Aviel is no longer the frail child who had to struggle to free herself from the basement. While no where near the strongest person alive, she can lift and carry a considerable amount more than the average female survivor. She can also hold her own in a physical fight.

good sense of direction: Aviel has always been good at not getting lost; learning to live in the labyrinth that is the sewers has only fine-tuned that skill.

perceptive: Aviel is quick to notice when things are out of place, or if something seems to be lurking around the environment.

weaknesses
suspicious: Aviel has a hard time trusting new people. She regards them with suspicion, and often assumes anyone willing to help her has ulterior motives. Her trust must be earned, but sometimes even she isn't sure how that can be done.

cold: Aviel's lack of trust tends to translate into an apparent lack of empathy for those around her. While this isn't always the case, she sees no reason why she should try to convince her companions otherwise.

language barrier: because she spent so long speaking almost exclusively Hebrew, Aviel often struggles with speaking and understanding English.

other
Aviel can read English to a certain extent, but she cannot write it.