Character Quote: “I wasn’t trying to be a hero. I just saw things that needed fixing—and figured someone had to do it.”
Name: Jack Landry
Aliases: Councilman Landry
Age: 64
Birthday: January 29, 1961
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Birth Place: Buffalo, New York
Gender: Male
Pre Outbreak Occupation: City Council Member, Brooklyn’s 39th District (formerly a building superintendent)
Languages: English, some Polish (learned from his local constituents)
Height: 6’2”
Weight: 188 lbs
Body Type: Broad-shouldered, though soft around the middle from time and routine
Eye Color: Blue
Hair Color: Silver
Skin Tone: Fair with a weathered, ruddy face
Tattoos/Scars/Piercings: N/A
Personal Style: Jack’s style is best described as “blue-collar”. Even in the office, he sticks to the basics: plain button-down shirts, worn-in leather shoes, and pants that are more budget-friendly than fashionable. There is one decent sports coat in his closet, which he wears to council meetings and public events with comic regularity. During campaign season, he refuses to don a tailored suit—he claims they make him “look like a lawyer”, which is an image he wants to avoid in his district to relate to the people.
Empathetic * Self-Neglecting * Honest * Controlling * Strategically-Minded * Hypersensitive / Thin-Skinned (especially to criticism)
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Relationship Status: Widower
Personality: Jack is a man of the people, not in a ‘stump speech’ type of way, but in the truest sense: he listens more than he talks, remembers people’s names, and carries a mental map of every cracked sidewalk in his district. He doesn’t view leadership as power, but rather responsibility, pressure, and long nights reading zoning code to protect his neighbors from predatory developers. He’s not an idealist, nor is he a cynic. He believes change is slow, hard, and worth the trouble.
His late wife, Lillian, served as the pillar that kept him grounded. She hated politics, but loved Jack’s approach. After she passed, the work became his compass. He threw himself into city council meetings, community advocacy, and direct engagement, leading from the ground level. However, underneath the strong exterior, Jack carries guilt for wasted time, lives affected by policy failures, and more recently, the dozens of people he couldn’t save when the city started burning.
Character Alignment: Lawful Good
Habits: Tends to sweep his fingers through his hair when nervous or while in deep thought; writes observations in a leather-bound notebook every night to chronicle the new world; wakes up at exactly 5:15 AM, no alarm—decades of routine still hardwired in him
Hobbies: Outdoor activities, including hiking and fishing; wood-working / carpentry projects; collecting vinyl records;
Fears:- Watching someone he knows turn
- Losing his daughter (Claire)
- Dying without making a difference
- Losing his mind or his moral compass
Likes:- Strong coffee
- Folk bands
- Local radio shows
- Quiet mornings
- Good, old-fashioned decency
- Small talk
Dislikes:- Anyone who says “I’m not political”
- Grandstanding and obvious vies for attention
- Traffic
- Reckless behavior
- Excuses
- Being idle
Pre Outbreak Skills:
- Organization
- Negotiation/Persuasion/De-escalation
- Public Speaking
- Knowledge of the urban infrastructure and navigating the city streets
- Maintenance and repair, including carpentry, plumbing, electrical, and HVAC
Post Outbreak Skills:What Do They Carry On Them:- Clothing - Button-down plaid shirt, light blue jacket, khaki gray pants (iPhone in right pocket), leather belt, and dark brown work boots
- Wallet – Driver’s license, various cards (including social security, Medicare, voter’s registration, work certifications/permits, and personal business cards), a family photograph from before his wife passed away, credit cards (three total), and $80 cash
- Portable shortwave radio
- Folding utility knife
- City-issued yellow emergency vest
- Samsonite Navy Blue Messenger Bag – a set of pens (3) and a legal pad filled with various contacts, sketches, and notes, building schematics, a leather-bound notebook, a stack of campaign flyers, phone charger with a power bank, statin drugs for high cholesterol, sunglasses, reading glasses, a metal water bottle (currently filled), key ring, and a bag of Snyder’s Pretzels
Life Before The Outbreak: Jack was born in Buffalo, New York, on January 29 to Joe and Angela Landry. They were a working-class family that instilled a strong work ethic in their son from a young age, emphasizing that money and status were not the primary keys to success. Their own low-income situation reinforced this notion. Despite their occasional financial woes, there was always food on the table and a sense of belonging among them.
As a child, Jack displayed a natural affinity for fixing things, often taking apart radios and other small appliances around the house in an attempt to discover how they worked. He even helped repair a broken furnace one terrible winter, following his father’s guidance to replace the defunct thermostat. His parents encouraged his mechanical prowess, and he was quick to learn. Although he wasn’t the most outgoing kid, this newfound interest helped him to break out of his shell and earn the respect of his peers.
In school, Jack was an average student who struggled with reading and writing, partly because he simply didn’t see the point of it all. Instead, he took to working with his hands and learning the trades. After high school, Jack accepted a job as an apprentice for a local building superintendent, cleaning hallways and assisting with minor repairs. The job eventually became full-time, which turned into a career spanning three decades.
As a young man in the 1980s, Jack moved to Brooklyn in search of better opportunities in the big city, landing a job as the superintendent of his own apartment building. His duties ranged from fixing leaky pipes to dealing with tenant disputes. It wasn’t a glamorous position, but Jack took pride in keeping the building attractive for various clients, including families, elderly tenants, and struggling immigrants.
During this time, Jack met Lillian, who worked at the nearby deli. She was renowned within the community for her social engagement efforts, such as organizing potlucks and block parties. Jack saw this as part of her charm and quickly fell in love with her hospitality and dedication. Their relationship blossomed through these shared values, and they eventually married. A few years later, their only child, Claire, was born.
Jack’s commitment to the community deepened over the years. When landlords began pushing to raise rents and force evictions, he was the first to resist. He formed tenants’ committees and fought to preserve affordable housing. The bureaucrats and city officials rarely understood what was at stake for people who lived paycheck to paycheck. It was a world of corruption, which only compounded his frustration and ultimately led to his decision to run for office. That Fall, after a unanimous election, he assumed his position on the City Council.
His campaign was grassroots, focusing primarily on engaging and protecting residents. He earned a reputation as a straightforward, honest politician who wasn’t beholden to developers or special interest groups. While in office, Jack championed rent control laws, fought for better infrastructure funding, and supported local small businesses struggling against redevelopment. He also prioritized his transparency, often wandering the streets and speaking with residents to solve their problems.
Throughout his term, Lillian served as his anchor and emotional support. Despite her aversion toward politics, she remained loyal to her husband, acting as his closest advisor. Jack was left devastated by her tragic death after a long battle with cancer about a decade before the outbreak. He withdrew from public life in the aftermath, taking a sabbatical to grieve and revitalize himself. But after a few months, his duties to the people drew him back to work, particularly when he realized it was easier to bury his pain in service rather than drown in his sorrow alone. The best way to honor her memory was to dedicate his efforts to the community they both loved.
By the time the outbreak occurred, Jack had been contemplating a quiet retirement, though rumors began to surface about a dedicated contingent of local supporters trying to convince him to enter the mayoral race for New York City. He neither denied nor confirmed those rumors. Instead, he remained content to carry on with his work; it was the main motivation that kept him going from day to day after Lillian’s passing. While his daughter Claire, now a civil engineer living in Boston, called on occasion to check up on her father, she had her own life to lead and could rarely get away to visit. Jack regretted the distance between them, and so, when the outbreak began interfering with daily life, he feared for her well-being… especially when he found himself unable to reach her at the height of the chaos.
Survivor's Personal Journal: It was a typical day that started with Jack arriving at the office around 6 AM. He secured his usual cup of coffee, a blueberry muffin, and settled in to review a stack of financial reports for an upcoming budget town hall. However, around 10:12 AM, the initial call came in from the police precinct captain. The man provided details about a vicious attack on a pair of EMTs who had responded to a tenement fire; he suspected that drugs had played a role in the violence. But as the day stretched on, the phones continued to ring with similar incidents across the city. Eventually, most of the city workers fled for their own safety, leaving no one to answer the phones.
By this time, Jack resolved to ride out the crisis at the office. He surmised he could do more good assisting others than hunkering down at home and hoping for it to pass. Along with four others—two janitors, a former City Hall intern, and a teacher—he managed to barricade the building using whatever supplies they could gather. Once they secured the perimeter, he wrote down everyone’s names, addresses, and immediate family members on a piece of scrap paper to serve as a record of their survival.
As the hours progressed and morale began to wane, Jack couldn’t help but turn his thoughts toward Claire. Her final voicemail had lasted only three seconds before dissolving into silence, except for one sharp intake of breath. He winced and shook his head, not wanting to contemplate what that silence truly meant.
Theme Song: Simple Man – Lynyrd SkynyrdExtra Information:I agree to follow the rules for this RP and understand that if I do not follow the rules, the GM or Co-GM may kick me out of this roleplay.FC: Bill Pullman
Post:
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