Atrophy — Roleplayer Guild

Owen Childs


"On the brightside, at least there’s nobody left to know that we all royally screwed everything up. Could be worse, I guess."



Name
Owen Childs


Role
Crewmate 2 - Crew Psychiatrist


Age
28


Gender
Male


Reputation
Before everyone was turned into a human ice cube, Owen more or less took on the role of a moderator during the behavioral tests and effectively led their discussions. He made sure everyone was included and heard from, even that mousy doctor, and shut his trap until it was his turn to talk—although there were more than one occassion of him interrupting somebody to crack wise. Still, all in all he seemed like a rather open and approachable person and, considering he’s the one everyone would talk to once they realized how messed up it was that they were now the only humans on the Earth, that’s a pretty good thing. However, now that they’re all thawed out, it’d be more apparent to the others that Owen taking the initiative is not uncommon. His voice is almost always the first heard when it’s time to make a decision, and it’s clear that, even if he doesn’t get his way, he’d like it to be the last one heard as well. It’s also more apparent that he’s easily upset and tends to hold grudges over petty things for much longer than most people.


Appearance 
Owen is a tall man with an otherwise average build of undefined muscles and slight smidgen of pudge around the middle. He’s unathletic, but not necessarily unhealthy. Although not having an Adonis-like physique, Owen does go out of his way to make himself appear neat. He has cleaned and trimmed nails, a neatly groomed mustache, and a cleanly shaved head. His teeth are white and straight thanks to who knows how much money and some very rough years in middle school. He wears a thick pair of glasses over his brown eyes, largely because the thought of touching or shooting anything into his eyes really freaks him out.


Height 
6’4”


Weight 
220 lbs


Positive Traits:
Approachable
Proactive
Organized
Observant
Hospitable
Good-Listener
Empathetic
Understanding
Honest


Negative Traits:
Pessimistic
Demanding
Resentful
Emotional
Sarcastic
Flippant


Personality Description
Owen is not a shy man. He likes making friends and goes out of his way to make sure that everyone feels comfortable. When he was younger he’d never shut up, and can still be somewhat chatty when the mood hits, but as he’s matured he’s taken on more of the role of an active listener. He likes learning about people, likes to hear them vent, and likes to try and help them through their problems. He tends to put himself in the shoes of others, and isn’t afraid of showing emotion or shedding tears. Over anything else, Owen is honest. Lying makes him feel extremely guilty; he’s one of those people who asks for forgiveness over trying to cover up or pass off his mistakes onto somebody else. 

He’s a bit of a perfectionist in a way. Owen likes things to be organized and can notice almost instantly when something is off or somebody is upset. His desire to make sure that things are pristine made him into somebody who takes initiative. Part of this is because he dislikes the awkward moments where something has to be done and everybody is looking around at each other in silence; part of it is because he just likes being heard. Still, he tries hard to do a good job and to set a positive example for others. He also expects the best from people and can be tough on those he thinks are dragging their weight or not contributing. And, since he’s honest, he’ll be blunt and let them know what he thinks about them.

While Owen isn’t a constant prankster, he tends to try and make light of things instead of always being off-putting and severe. Sometimes this can go too far and he can seem a little dismissive about things, not to mention he has a bad habit of using sarcasm whenever he’s slightly bothered by a situation. His biting comments tend to pick up drastically whenever somebody directly wrongs him in some way, and usually carry on for an excessive amount of time. If stressed too much, Owen can get rather moody and even angry, although he’d never go beyond hateful words.


Likes
Movies (From summer blockbusters to indie tearjerkers.)
Reading (Fantasy or Sci-Fi, but really mostly comicbooks.)
Scotch (He forced himself to like it.)
Pop Music (Listen, it’s catchy, okay?)
Games (Board games, card games, anything that gets a group of friends together and then gets them to hate each other.)
Cleaning (It’s strangely therapeutic.)


Dislikes
Messes (Unorganized, uncared for, unforgivable)
Sweets (He claims he’s sweet enough as he is. Plus, diabetes runs in the family.)
Curmudgeons (Lighten up. It’s not like it’s the end of the world or...ah.)
Stubbornness (It’s okay to be wrong. Really. It’d be fine.)


Skills
Psychoanalysis (But when he’s not talking about your mother, he’s good at relieving mental stress.)
Mediating (Because people are jerks unless there is somebody there to tell them not to be jerks.)
Reading People (He’d be pretty good at poker if he wasn’t so damn easy to read himself.)
Organization (From clean and tidy rooms to suggesting and running projects.)


Quirks
Owen talks with his hands. Constantly. All the time. They seriously never stop moving; it’s like he’s trapped in the body of an overexcited motivational speaker talking to a roomful of children.
The man never swears in casual conversation. When he’s annoyed or angered enough to utter a curse, it’s always a weaker variation of an actual swear word. “Sugar” tends to be his go to.
Nicknaming. Owen tends to give everyone he meets a nickname; the more annoying or embarrassing they are the better.


Pet Peeves
People who don’t clean up after themselves.
Knuckle poppers, foot tappers, pen clickers—anyone who fidgets and makes noises when they’re bored.
Slow walkers.


Weaknesses
Wears his emotions on his sleeve and is easy to upset; more emotional than rational.
His pettiness detracts him from the bigger picture.
Owen’s easy to guilt; lying is nearly impossible for him.


Fears 
Blood. Just seeing it makes him sick.
Eye stuff—eyeball touching, contacts, getting poked in the eye by a pencil going rogue, etc.
Dolls. Just look at them.


History
Raised Catholic, Owen was the middle child out of five kids and only boy his parents had. This meant an early youth of torturously boring Sunday services and being terrorized by his sisters that forced him to play with dolls and to dress up (years later he’d get back at them by embarrassing them in front of their boyfriends). Coming from such a large family, it was easy to get overlooked as a kid. However, instead of becoming sullen, Owen became rambunctious. He was one of those kids who was always talking, always moving, constantly yelling, and always demanding, “look at me, look at me.” This attitude spread from the household to school and church, where his energy earned him plenty of friends and the temple-rubbing frustration and scorn of his teachers. 

Aside from being a constant distraction in class, Owen wasn’t a horrible student. He wasn’t a great student, either. He mellowed out a bit when puberty kicked in, largely because the idea of having people look at him when he was an awkward mess of long limbs, acne, bad hair, and voice cracks was a horrifying one. Despite this, he was still able to get a girlfriend during his freshman year of high school. They were that one couple that were always together holding hands in the hallway or kissing at their lockers and generally annoying all of their single friends with their gross baby talk. They dated all throughout high school, and decided to go to college together. Owen didn’t know what he wanted to do when he grew up. She wanted to become a psychologist and then a psychiatrist. So, he took her classes.

They managed a whole semester of sticking together before mutually realizing that they were no longer into each other. It was a clean break, actually, and Owen was pleasantly surprised how intriguing he found psychology to be so he kept up with it. Four years, three girlfriends, and an uncountable number of beers later he graduated with his degree. He had really enjoyed his years at college, and decided to make the move to med school to finish becoming a psychiatrist. Due to advances in technology, the course plan had been truncated, but it still took Owen four more years to finish up his training and to find an internship at a psych ward that didn’t even come close to helping him with his student debt. It seemed that despite the whole world going crazy the demand for psychiatrists had gone down, assuming it had ever been there in the first place.

Owen didn’t like the environment for the psych ward, although it wasn’t a horrible place. It was clean, the doctors and orderlies were polite and caring, and the patients were generally only there for a few months at most. Nothing like the kind he saw on TV, where all the rooms were padded and inhumane experiments were being conducted on otherwise sane individuals. It just wasn’t what he had wanted. He had been hoping for an office, with a bunch of books he had pretended to read on the wall, and a large mahogany desk, with a big arching window of the city behind it, and a comfortable couch and a chaise lounge. He and somebody would shoot the breeze for a few hours over ten sessions and then the person would say that they were feeling better, pay him, and leave happy.

He never got the office, but he did get hired on by the ward he was interning for which meant less observing and more interacting with patients. It wasn’t ideal, but he still found that he liked talking and, more importantly, listening to them. However, for everyone that he felt like he had done a good job helping through a stressful time, there was another that would act as if everything was fine and then end up back there several months later, claiming the same problems as before. Still, he kept at it, hoping he would find someway to make a breakthrough. 

A breakthrough was made. Not for his patients, but for him. One of Owen’s old friends from school, Andrew, called him about Project Renascence and told him that they were looking for somebody to do some therapy work for the survivors. He was weirded out by the whole idea, but decided passing up an opportunity like this if there was an ounce of truth in it was a horrible idea. Besides, there was still that little kid inside of him that wanted to stand out and get the spotlight: no better way than being one of the six tasked with restarting humanity after the end. Taking a vacation from his job, Owen accepted his friend’s invitation. Several interviews and tests later, Owen was given a pill, a paper cup, and a handshake.   

And then everything was gone.



Owen Childs

Age: 28| Role: Crewmate 2- The Shrink | Friends  ☺  | Romantic Interest  ♥  | Neutral  ◑  | Friends with benefits/flirtation/together  ♥♥  | Enemies  ☠
◑Benji Baker◑

"I know it’s unfair to really blame you, but I’m starting to wish that you never thawed us out, Doc."

Owen has been disheartened by Benji’s skittish nature and feels that his failed attempt to assault the aliens when they boarded them is proof that his two years of isolation has affected his ability to make sound judgments. Still, he is glad that Doc’s alive, although Owen feels that he needs to keep a watchful eye on Benny-Boy to make sure that he doesn’t do anything completely nuts again. 

☺Tahlia Spade♥
"I was going to make us matching paper crowns, but Rend kinda ruined that."

She’s different than he had first assumed, really, and largely in good ways. She might be the only other person that the thought of having a tough conversation with doesn’t instantly stress him out, and he feels as if she has his back. Part of him does worry that he’s putting too much on her, and while he can forgive Tahlia’s violence against Rend since it was self-defense he cannot forget how willing she was to kill another human. Even then, he trusts her.

☠Echo Montigawitz☠
"I can make myself look like a jackass enough as it is without someone’s help, Benedict."

He finds her exhausting and he was upset, is still upset, that she didn’t side with Tahlia and himself when they were playing leaders. It stings even more because she was the one who convinced him to do it in the first place. He can sense that she has some serious problems that he might be able to help her with, that he’s kind of responsible to help her with, but at this point he’s more likely to leave the room than be left alone with her. 

☠Ailbeart Rend☠
"Normally it’d be considered delusional to compare yourself to Satan, but honestly this time I’d have to agree."

Ever hear the phrase “no good deed goes unpunished”? Well, that pretty much sums up Owen’s feelings when it comes to seeing a half-robot Rend walking around. The man seems utterly uncooperative, and even if Rend knew that Owen was the only reason he was still living Owen doubts that he would even get a half-hearted thanks. Plus, he undoubtedly had something to do with the lack of Andrew being on board, and his refusal to give a straight answer raises nothing but suspicion. 

☺Yaz Cormick ☺
"I want to tell you that everything will be okay, but I’m pretty sure you’re smart enough to know that I’d be lying."

Owen regrets not having a chance to really speak with Yaz yet. While the others are surely dealing with their own problems, she seems to be one of the few that is openly willing to admit that all of this is too much. He’d like to sit down with her and talk, even if he doubts that he can do anything to really pep her up. 

Owen Childs
"I’m a trifecta of a man: a failure as a friend, a failure as a professional, and a failure as a leader."

Owen believes that he might actually be the best bet for keeping everyone alive; he also believes that they are all completely fucked.
Owen Childs

Age: 28| Role: Crewmate 2- The Shrink | Friends  ☺  | Romantic Interest  ♥  | Neutral  ◑  | Friends with benefits/flirtation/together  ♥♥  | Enemies  ☠☺Benji Baker☺
"Trust me, Doc, in a few weeks you’re gonna be missing those days of isolation. But until then, I’m here for you."

Benji’s a good guy. Maybe he’s a bit too optimistic. Maybe he’s a bit too naive. Maybe he’s a bit too much of a pushover. Okay, okay, maybe saying he’s just a bit of those things is a bit of an understatement. Still, it’s difficult not to be rooting for him. Plus, it’s nice to have somebody to talk to about books and to praise no longer having to worry about our school loans. The only downside  is now Owen’s gotta watch over him and make sure something didn’t crack too much in those last couple of years. 

☠♥Tahlia Spade♥☠
"Look, since you were clearly so worried about it I went ahead and talked it over with Doc. It turns out I was wrong: smiling won’t actually kill you."

Things with Tahlia are rather complicated for Owen. For starters, he can’t really stand how she’s a complete stick in the mud all of the time and keeps herself distant from the others. He can also tell that she’s easily annoyed by him, which of course prompts him to be even more of a pest. On the other hand, he respects her for being both honest and diligent, and with her intelligence and confidence he’s scarily reminded of pretty much all of his exes. Like, alarmingly so; it’s too bad that they’d probably just end up hating each other.

☺Echo Montigawitz☺
"Darling is my go-to-girl whenever there’s something to be done, but things would probably be for the best if she didn’t keep pretending that everything was fine."

At first glance, it seems that the only thing Echo doesn’t have going for her is her disinterest in movies. She’s intelligent, dependable, easy-going, and rather pretty, which is always a plus for Owen. However, he can tell that she’s holding back from the others and just putting up a positive front, and that worries him greatly. It’s like she’s not being honest with herself. Sometimes those kind of things are no big deal, but sometimes they can be ruinous. He just hopes that she’ll stop bottling and open up sooner rather than later.

☠Ailbeart Rend☠
"I think it’s a great thing that a person like Grandpa Rend is going to help rebuild society. No, really, I truly think so. I was worried we’d grow up in a civilization that wasn’t full of exploitative, narcissistic, sociopathic jerks that think of nothing but their legacy. Yeah, we are so lucky."

Owen didn’t really have a high opinion of Rend when they were all back on Earth, and always thought whenever a new upstart business tycoon was labeled “the next Ailbeart Rend” that it was supposed to be kind of an insult. Still, he was content with ignoring news about the guy and just pretending that he didn’t really exist. It’s hard to do that when they’re trapped together in a tin can. Plus, they had all met the original third male. Owen doesn’t know how he did it, but Rend took his place; it could have easily been Benji or himself that got left behind on Earth. He can barely tolerate the man, and he isn’t sure that there’s any good reason to even try to do so. 

☺Yaz Cormick ☺
"It’s good to know that there’s going to be somebody around that we can bother about getting the Wi-Fi fixed."

For a computer geek, Yaz seems like the kind of person Owen could get along with. He feels that they share a similar accord with how they treat people when they’re at their best, and respects her for almost always being genuine and not falling back on snide remarks like he sometimes does. Although he could do without the stubbornness, Owen doesn’t mind that Yaz is overly emotional and is actually kind of relieved by it. He also finds her robotic arm rather cool, but can’t help but wonder about the circumstances surrounding it. 

Owen Childs
"I mean, I’m guess I’m okay enough to be chosen to help save humanity, so that’s alright."

What can Owen say about Owen? Well, with a sardonic smile he’d probably say that he was crazy to go into the field of psychiatry. Otherwise, he thinks of himself as somebody who tries to do good but like most people either screws it up or doesn’t realize that the “good” he’s doing is actually detrimental. He wishes he had better control over his own emotions, and kind of doesn’t like how his tongue seems to move faster than his filter sometimes.
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