Here's my draft. I've knocked it out and will probably return to make some modifications but I believe it gives the core character I'm aiming for some life.
Name: Julius Charlton
Age: 21
Gender: Male
Former Occupation: Student/Part Time Worker at a phone shop.
Appearance:
(Yes, it is Thomas Brodie-Sangster).
Julius wears thin, half-rimmed glasses (he prefers not to have the rim at the bottom of his vision as it is a constant reminder of his terrible eyesight). They are plain in design, black with silver arms and no visible designer logo. This goes for almost all of his clothing - plain with no large logos or statements. Julius prefers to wear white or pale blue polo shirts, clean dark blue jeans with no rub marks or 'designer styles'. If the weather calls for it he has a black, ankle-length, wool and cashmere trench coat and prefers to use an umbrella, dislike hoods of any kind on clothing.
Height: 5' 6"
Weight: 70Kg/11lb
Scars/Tattoos/Other: Wears glasses (is very short-sighted so he must wear them at all times), no tattoos or scars.
Past Affiliates: Julius has (had?) a fiancée back in Wales (UK) where he went to the same university right on the coast in a small town called Aberystwyth.
Both his parents and his little brother, three years junior to him, lived in south-west England while his older brother, just under six years his elder, lived in the midland area of England.
A few friends from his course at university (and a few others) had travelled with him across the Atlantic as part of an exchange programme. He has found the vast majority's corpses while two, maybe three (he's not sure how many exactly were on the programme) might still be alive. Only one he knows by name (Andrew) and he has yet to find evidence of either his death or continued life.
Current Affiliates: None. Andrew maybe alive but Julius has no clues as to where he might be and whether he is, in fact, still alive at all.
Skills: Julius is intelligent, mostly in an academic sense and has a particular skill for skimming through books for the information he needs. This largely comes from having studied history at university, now in his third and final year. He has little experience with practical applications but is not too poor with a hammer although more complex constructions will leave him intimidated. He also happens to know some basic first aid from his final years at school volunteering at the local hospital; perhaps more vital is that he worked on the burns ward at the hospital and so very few injuries will now upset his stomach. Unfortunately, due to his lack of qualifications or certified training his first aid skills are largely self-taught with no consistent knowledge.
Strengths: He is quick to grasp new concepts, situations and is a fairly good read of people. He remains calm in (most) stressful situations but will become panicked when a problem he feels he is incapable of solving presents itself.
Weaknesses: Julius does not have masses of initiative, preferring to follow than to lead even when he disagrees with the course being taken. He is often both short-termist and long-sighted in equal measures, often failing to come up with a middle ground solution. He also lacks empathy, which is an asset in reading others' emotions but a definite disadvantage when it comes to handling emotionally charged situations. As a result he can come across as cold and calculating, even during times when he's attempting to factor in others' feelings.
Julius also very particular. Sometimes this can be a boon when quality is the most important aspect of choice but his unstinting insistence on some areas, such as clothing, can be disadvantageous and rule out a wide variety of choice. So strong is this part of his personality that it will genuinely throw off his entire mood and confidence if there is no option which fits his criteria.
History: Born and raised in England, in various parts of the country, Julius has no particular region to provide loyalty to other than the country as a whole of which he is tremendously patriotic (but nationalistic, it must be said). At a young age it became clear that he had difficulty understanding others' emotions and reasoning as his was so far off anyone else's, although he had no trouble in reading and identifying emotion. In fact, he had quite a talent in this area and led a long series of doctors to confusion as to the diagnosis; he was not very far on the autism spectrum which was the usual culprit in such matters.
Eventually his parents simply accepted that Julius was 'different' from others'. There was no event or condition that this peculiarity could be assigned to, especially as Julius himself was not unfeeling; he had simply locked down his emotions at a young age having dismissed them as illogical and irritating. His friendships were often difficult arrangements, and few in number, as a result of his dismissal of 'illogical' social etiquette such as small talk. This lead him to be a hard studier, many more social activities thus becoming shut off to him, as he realised he made most people feel uncomfortable.
A successful academic career had him going to an isolated university, rather than Cambridge or Oxford which both gave him offers, on the corner of Wales where he could enjoy a degree of seclusion despite the high numbers of boisterous students in the town. A part time job gave him the income he needed to afford his fairly luxurious requirements (comfy seating, bedding, intelligent storage for his numerous books both academic and leisure, white goods to save time on more mundane tasks) with his scholarship funds going on academic supplies.
Due to his continued success at university, at least in the academic sphere - he had briefly joined a few clubs and societies in an attempt to broaden his skill base but had quickly found he did not fit in with any of the groups, he was chosen with a few others to take part in an exchange programme. Julius saw this as an opportunity to increase his experience with the world without overly stepping outside of his comfort zones and instantly accepted the proposition, the expenses all paid for. He left for the States with one other from his history course and other selected students from a variety of subjects; one of whom was Andrew who had switched from a Marine Biology course to studying psychology and found Julius a fascinating subject.
The programme had only begun at the end of September so Julius had only been in the States for a short time before hell itself seemed to come to Earth. It has been some time since he has had human contact, often avoiding groups as he suspected some would turn to less civilised methods of interaction in the devastation. The library had been his place of refuge for the past few months, having moved the corpses out of the building and finding methods to block entrances in case less friendly sorts came to his new home.
An old radio, whose batteries he had replaced several times now, which had been silent for about two months suddenly started up with a broken message. Piecing together what he could from the poor reception, Julius gathered a few essentials and then headed out for this place promising safe refuge.
After all, even he would go stir crazy without anyone else to talk to.
Age: 21
Gender: Male
Former Occupation: Student/Part Time Worker at a phone shop.
Appearance:
(Yes, it is Thomas Brodie-Sangster).
Julius wears thin, half-rimmed glasses (he prefers not to have the rim at the bottom of his vision as it is a constant reminder of his terrible eyesight). They are plain in design, black with silver arms and no visible designer logo. This goes for almost all of his clothing - plain with no large logos or statements. Julius prefers to wear white or pale blue polo shirts, clean dark blue jeans with no rub marks or 'designer styles'. If the weather calls for it he has a black, ankle-length, wool and cashmere trench coat and prefers to use an umbrella, dislike hoods of any kind on clothing.
Height: 5' 6"
Weight: 70Kg/11lb
Scars/Tattoos/Other: Wears glasses (is very short-sighted so he must wear them at all times), no tattoos or scars.
Past Affiliates: Julius has (had?) a fiancée back in Wales (UK) where he went to the same university right on the coast in a small town called Aberystwyth.
Both his parents and his little brother, three years junior to him, lived in south-west England while his older brother, just under six years his elder, lived in the midland area of England.
A few friends from his course at university (and a few others) had travelled with him across the Atlantic as part of an exchange programme. He has found the vast majority's corpses while two, maybe three (he's not sure how many exactly were on the programme) might still be alive. Only one he knows by name (Andrew) and he has yet to find evidence of either his death or continued life.
Current Affiliates: None. Andrew maybe alive but Julius has no clues as to where he might be and whether he is, in fact, still alive at all.
Skills: Julius is intelligent, mostly in an academic sense and has a particular skill for skimming through books for the information he needs. This largely comes from having studied history at university, now in his third and final year. He has little experience with practical applications but is not too poor with a hammer although more complex constructions will leave him intimidated. He also happens to know some basic first aid from his final years at school volunteering at the local hospital; perhaps more vital is that he worked on the burns ward at the hospital and so very few injuries will now upset his stomach. Unfortunately, due to his lack of qualifications or certified training his first aid skills are largely self-taught with no consistent knowledge.
Strengths: He is quick to grasp new concepts, situations and is a fairly good read of people. He remains calm in (most) stressful situations but will become panicked when a problem he feels he is incapable of solving presents itself.
Weaknesses: Julius does not have masses of initiative, preferring to follow than to lead even when he disagrees with the course being taken. He is often both short-termist and long-sighted in equal measures, often failing to come up with a middle ground solution. He also lacks empathy, which is an asset in reading others' emotions but a definite disadvantage when it comes to handling emotionally charged situations. As a result he can come across as cold and calculating, even during times when he's attempting to factor in others' feelings.
Julius also very particular. Sometimes this can be a boon when quality is the most important aspect of choice but his unstinting insistence on some areas, such as clothing, can be disadvantageous and rule out a wide variety of choice. So strong is this part of his personality that it will genuinely throw off his entire mood and confidence if there is no option which fits his criteria.
History: Born and raised in England, in various parts of the country, Julius has no particular region to provide loyalty to other than the country as a whole of which he is tremendously patriotic (but nationalistic, it must be said). At a young age it became clear that he had difficulty understanding others' emotions and reasoning as his was so far off anyone else's, although he had no trouble in reading and identifying emotion. In fact, he had quite a talent in this area and led a long series of doctors to confusion as to the diagnosis; he was not very far on the autism spectrum which was the usual culprit in such matters.
Eventually his parents simply accepted that Julius was 'different' from others'. There was no event or condition that this peculiarity could be assigned to, especially as Julius himself was not unfeeling; he had simply locked down his emotions at a young age having dismissed them as illogical and irritating. His friendships were often difficult arrangements, and few in number, as a result of his dismissal of 'illogical' social etiquette such as small talk. This lead him to be a hard studier, many more social activities thus becoming shut off to him, as he realised he made most people feel uncomfortable.
A successful academic career had him going to an isolated university, rather than Cambridge or Oxford which both gave him offers, on the corner of Wales where he could enjoy a degree of seclusion despite the high numbers of boisterous students in the town. A part time job gave him the income he needed to afford his fairly luxurious requirements (comfy seating, bedding, intelligent storage for his numerous books both academic and leisure, white goods to save time on more mundane tasks) with his scholarship funds going on academic supplies.
Due to his continued success at university, at least in the academic sphere - he had briefly joined a few clubs and societies in an attempt to broaden his skill base but had quickly found he did not fit in with any of the groups, he was chosen with a few others to take part in an exchange programme. Julius saw this as an opportunity to increase his experience with the world without overly stepping outside of his comfort zones and instantly accepted the proposition, the expenses all paid for. He left for the States with one other from his history course and other selected students from a variety of subjects; one of whom was Andrew who had switched from a Marine Biology course to studying psychology and found Julius a fascinating subject.
The programme had only begun at the end of September so Julius had only been in the States for a short time before hell itself seemed to come to Earth. It has been some time since he has had human contact, often avoiding groups as he suspected some would turn to less civilised methods of interaction in the devastation. The library had been his place of refuge for the past few months, having moved the corpses out of the building and finding methods to block entrances in case less friendly sorts came to his new home.
An old radio, whose batteries he had replaced several times now, which had been silent for about two months suddenly started up with a broken message. Piecing together what he could from the poor reception, Julius gathered a few essentials and then headed out for this place promising safe refuge.
After all, even he would go stir crazy without anyone else to talk to.
