Post by Taffy on May 16, 2009 0:42:00 GMT -5
To give everyone a basic idea of what Damien looks like...except that he should be smiling more.
Full Name: Damien Adam Fray
Nickname: Never really got one (unless you count Gay Boy from the jock jerks, and occasionally The Damienator from his best friend, Riley)
Age: 18 years, 3 months
Gender: Male. No matter how feminine he acts sometimes, I promise he’s a guy.
Height: You know how most guys stay average until about 12 or 13 when they shoot up to incredible heights so you have to crane your neck to look at them? Well, that didn’t happen with Damien. He’s always been a little on the short side (and slight—but we’ll get to that in a minute). Currently he stands at 5’7’’, but he occasionally alternates between that and an inch or so higher. It’s rather odd.
You might think Damien would be a little upset with this lack of tallness. But he's not. Anything that makes him not stand out as much is fine by him. Plus, Riley appreciates not having to crane her neck upwards to look at him.
Description: After being in colour guard for a good 6 years, Damien has built some muscle (not the steroid-filled kind you get in football players, just the natural kind). These muscles consist of his arms, legs, and abs--all from spinning quads, leaping across the dance floor like a hardcore ballerina, and working for about 4 years on keeping his balance completely under control. Despite this, he's fairly slight, which makes it a lot easier to escape from tight corners (like when half the football team starts picking on him).
As far as facial features go, Damien has a lovely set of blue eyes that range anywhere from stormy to crystal clear. The rest of his face is what most people would consider average, except for the strong jawline that he received from his father and the delicate not-really-tan-but-not-pale-either complexion his mother had given him. Atop this handsome face lies a rather tangled mass of longish hair, which always remains a light, dusty brown colour, no matter if he's standing in the summer sun or hiding in a dark corner. It's slightly messy at best, but he still manages to make it look presentable. Maybe it's a gay thing.
Outfit: Like most of the gay community, Damien has a taste for style--even if his taste may seem strange to other people. Then again, his uncle does own a fabric business, and simply loves making all kinds of clothes for his nephew (no, the uncle is not gay).
He just happened to be wearing one of these custom shirts when the story started out. It was soft, cotton and black, with a pair of white headphones decorating the front and "My Personal Therapy" in curling silver letters. Accompanying this was his favourite pair of pants; khaki with multiple pockets, perfect for stuffing random useful crap in (they also look very good on him). Under these were a pair of gray-and-white tennis shoes with the Nike symbol portrayed in bright blue on each one. Completing the outfit was a single silver cross on a thin gold chain, which his father had forced him to wear since he was old enough to not put it in his mouth every time it was given to him. Even when his father left, he never took it off.
Equipment: As much as Damien loves colour guard, he also has an obsession with sword-fighting. He was on weapons line for four years, always the star with the sabre (even if he got crap about it from his dad). He owned two of them, in fact--though he never thought they would actually be used as weapons. But when zombies break loose on the streets, you've gotta grab the best weapon you have, right?
And for Damien, those happened to be his two sabres plus an extensive knowledge of almost every type of sword-fighting there is, from fencing to kendo to jousting. He was extremely good for a self-taught fighter (although his uncle did help him learn behind his father's back).
So Damien found himself wielding two untaped sabres (in guard, you tape them so they cause less damage) and a mass of sword-fighting knowledge in the face of a zombie outbreak.
He also has in his posession a small backpack (lightweight of course) with a few essentials in it; basic first aid kit, some food, a few small keepsakes, and guard tape. At least three rolls, because guard tape is the best kind there is.
Still, even with two swords and a bad-ass swordfighter complex, Taffy is planning on giving him a machine gun later on. Because Taffy thinks machine guns are the shiz.
History: After finding out that he was gay at age 9, Damien was discriminated against pretty much his whole life. Even at home, he was contsantly put down by his strictly Christian father, who left him and his mother barely a year later, about a week after Damien's 10th birthday. His father said it was for personal reasons, but Damien (being the smart child he is) knew it was because his father couldn't stand being around someone who he (as a devout Christian) considered to be unholy in the eyes of God (or whatever crap they believe). So he abandoned them.
After that, Damien and his not-so-distraught mother moved up north, found themselves an apartment and a new school Damien could go to. His mother said she would always love him, no matter who or what he chose to be. She and his uncle were his only family from that point on (unless you counted the three cats that he adopted off the street).
After a while, money began to dwindle. Damien's mother worked the night shift at the local hospital, and his uncle helped out every way he could (being single and head of a textile company, he was alright sustaining himself, but even he wasn't as well off as he would have liked to be). As soon as Damien turned 16, he went in search of a job. With his contribution, they were able to keep themselves off the street.
Meanwhile at school, Damien made one of the best friends he had ever had: Riley Falcon. She, Paul Baker, and Andrew Westlake were virtually the only kids at school that didn't make fun of him. Well, them and the colour guard, who all thought he was amazing. He managed to earn himself the position of costume designer, as well as rise to the head of the weapons line. He was a natural, and was immediately accepted into the guard community (although the school band still dissed on him).
As for getting into the whole zombie mess...
His mother had gone out for groceries one evening, a light bit of shopping before her shift at the hospital began. It was a normal, quiet evening, not anything out of the ordinary to suggest that a huge zombie epic might break out any minute, consuming the entire world within the hour. Damien was chilling in his apartment, playing with his cats while the Discovery channel played on the single TV they owned, when the phone started ringing from the kitchen. Leaving Anabell, Tracey and Nyte to play with their toys, Damien went into the other room, picked up the phone from its handle and pressed the talk button, instantly recognising the numer.
It was a call from Miss Claire, the receptionist at the hospital's front desk, asking if he had seen his mother. She hadn't shown up for work, and wasn't answering her cell phone. Instantly worried, Damien told her that his mother had just gone out to get groceries, and he hadn't heard from her since. A cold feeling began to seep through him as they exchanged a few more words, then he hung up, staring blankly at the kitchen floor. Then he raced into the hallway, grabbed his brown leather jacket from where it hang neatly on the coat rack, and dashed out of the door.
It took him exactly ten minutes to get from his apartment to the grocery store. Along the way he met no one, but as he ran he could have sworn that something--or things--was/were watching him from the shadows. When he stopped outside the store, his heart jumped into his throat. The sliding glass door was completely destroyed, glass shattered, frame folded in two and tossed aside like an old newspaper. Stepping carefully over the shards of glass, Damien entered the store, trembling from a sudden fright and cold.
"Hello?" he squeaked, voice shrill and tiny in the empty darkness of the store. No reply. Damien found his footsteps leading him down the rows of aisles, his stormy blue eyes automatically searching, searching...
At last he found what he had been subconciously looking for since he set foot in the store. At the end of the last aisle, back up against a far corner, still and lifeless, was--
"Mom!!" With a broken cry Damien dashed toward the still figure of his mother, whose fair hair fell in a tangled mess about her shoulders, partially obscuring her face. With shaking hands, Damien pulled back her hair--and nearly toppled over in horror. One side of his mother's face had been clawed off. It was still bleeding, and as he looked, he noticed deep gashes along her arms and blood staining the front of her shirt.
His vision wavered, and hot cheeks began to fall down his face. Feeling dizzy and sick, Damien carefully shut his mother's blankly staring eyes--but before he could do anything else, he heard a shuffling sound from somewhere nearby. Turning slowly, he tried to see what was there--and suddenly found himself on the ground, ears pierced by a blood-curdling shriek. Something heavy had landed on him. Something with claws.
"Agh!" Pain sliced through Damien as he threw up an arm to defend himself, only to have the creature's claws dig deep into it, leaving long gashes like those in his mother's arms. Overwhelmed by a rush of adrenaline and a sudden wave of anger, Damien fought back, using all of his strength to push the...the thing off of him. Leaping to his feet, he hurled himself at it and they met head-on, the thing's hunger matched by Damien's fury.
(Since Taffy is too lazy so post a full fight scene)
It was Damien who won. Panting, he stood over the corpse of a human-looking creature in a hoodie and jeans--but already he was beginning to understand that this thing, whatever it was, was not human. And there would probably be more of them. With a final glance at the body of his dead mother, Damien turned and dashed out of the store, more tears blurring his vision as he ran for home.
(From there he began packing, tried to contact each of his friends but failed, and learned from the radio in the kitchen that there was a safehouse at the police center on the other side of the city. He was hardened by the loss of his mother and, seemingly, his friends, and now he would have to leave his cats behind--because surely with zombies on his tail he couldn't efficiently transport three cats all the way across the city. We find him getting ready to leave--no more tears, just a numb kind of feeling and an overwhelming sense of loss.)
What kind of zombie they would most likely be: Okay, I know I threw in this one at the last second, but can you really see Damien as a zombie? I can’t. I think he would just be a regular one, if any.
Other: Just in case you didn’t know—he’s GAY. So don’t mind if his feminine side comes out, because it surely will now that a mass of man-eating zombies rule the world. Oh, and he loves rainbows. So zombie outbreak or not, he's going to freak when he sees Ari's hair. xP
Also, the names of his sabres are Raphael and Adonai.
I luffle him.