Name: Jake Calhill
Nickname(s): Jay, Calhill, McAlister
Age: 27
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Asexual & Aromantic
Mono/Poly/Ambi/None: None
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Group: Group 1
Appearance:
Jake is, for the most part, a very average-looking guy. 5' 11" tall, a little on the thin side. He's gotten good enough at scavenging that he isn't starving, but its clear that the apocalypse is in fact a thing from his slightly too-boney limbs. Despite his thinner-than-normal frame, Jake's still got muscles.
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Short, rough-cut brown hair is barely styled, only enough so that it stays out of his face, and Jake remains as clean-shaven as he can manage. His eyes are a soft green-blue, set close together in his face. A good portion of his body is covered in scars, ranging from small cuts from shrapnel up to lichtenburg and burn scarring. Most of his electical scars are along his hands and forearms, while the burns are on his chest and back. Along his inner right arm is a series of eleven short, straight scar lines, clearly cut deeply.
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Jake wears a hodgepodge of clothing and equipment scavenged from army surplus and camping stores, all heavily patched over time. Almost all of his skin is completely covered, except for his fingers and parts of his face. Jake favors tight-fitting longsleeved undershirts and leggings beneath a t-shirt and jeans. Above that is usually a grey camoflage jacket, wind and waterproofed as well as an obscene number of pockets for practicallity. Over the jacket is an old, worn black ballistic protective vest, though the ceramic plates have long since broken and been discarded. Pretty much everything is some shade of grey or black, with the occasional muted blue, purple, or green mized in. He never takes off a pair of calf-high steel-toed work boots, the black leather worn and mud-splattered.
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Whenever he's outside a safe area or in the prescence of other people, Jake keeps a black neckguard mask over his mouth and nose. He's always wearing a dark-grey baseball cap with the US Army logo on the front, and padded fingerless gloves to give his hands at least a little bit of protection. A set of shaded plastic ski goggles hang around his neck for when Jake might need them, even if the lenses are scratched. Everything else that needs to be carried ends up in the light grey framed rucksack he carts everywhere, though the pack has been heavily modified and patched to the point that it's pretty much impossible to tell the original type of bag beneath all the changes.
~
A mostly handmade harness rests on the sides of the rucksack for carting around larger pieces of scrap, or for attaching makeshift sledges. He's got a long, mostly straight steel pipe strapped vertically to the left side of his pack, one end capped with a McGyvered hook for moving and/or pulling stuff. Jake keeps a sheathed combat knife at his left boot and a large adjustable wrench on his right hip, both held up by a leather belt for easy access. Multiple large pouches are strapped to the belt for quick-access storage, most holding food and first-aid supplies. Jake keeps his canteens tied to the sides of his rucksack for easy retrieval. A tattered olive green cloak sits under the backpack for better weatherproofing and camoflague
Apperance Picture Link: https://postimg.cc/K1YhCZsT
Personality:
Jake is not an open person. Oh, sure, he'll talk to you if you don't try to stab/shoot/bludgeon him, but he's not gonna spill his whole tragic backstory if he ends up liking you. Most of the time, if he's not wandering around aimlessly in search of supplies, Jake is tinkering with something. Tearing apart abandoned cars, fixing up old generators, or busting open gas pumps for the fuel. He loves experimenting with mechanical stuff, 'kitbashing' a bunch of scavenged parts together in the hopes that it'll do something interesting and/or useful. But what he really loves is fortifications. Planning killboxes, digging foxholes, dragging scrap metal for walls, it's just fun. The apocalypse sucks, absolutely, but now Jake gets to live out his dreams of a real-life, live-fire tower defense game. So, silver linings!
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He might be a little messed up, but it's fine. Not like there's a whole lot of people ready to call him out on it or anything. Society's gone, it's not like he can be tossed in jail anymore. Jake absolutely loves it when something explodes, especially when he's the one to cause said explosion. He's frankly a little addicted. Also fire. He's absolutely a pyromaniac. If you see smoke and hear someone cackling with mad laughter, it's probably just Jake. Occasionally, when he's got access to enough materials and is in relatively safe place, Jake will fall into what he calls an 'engineering fugue' where he'll just start making things. Sometimes they're useless trinkets, and other times it's a mostly functional moterized four-wheeler. Granted, the four-wheeler was destroyed about a week later when Jake crashed it through a bank's door, but it was absolutely worth it. Sometimes a man just needs to pretend he's the protagonist of an action-heist movie.
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The apocalypse has given Jake a very mercenary mindset, for the most part. How can he loot that building in as little time as possible? What could he gain by braining that girl over there for whatever's in her big bag? Honestly, the apocalypse couldn't have happened at a better time for Jake. He's become something of a pack rat and magpie in that he will absolutely grab everything shiny within his general vicinity. Neato rocks, mostly-polished scrap steel, an interesting piece of somebody's skull... It's all getting squirrelled away into some unknown pocket for Jake to hoard like the fire lizard he secretly is.
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Another point of note is Jake's, for lack of a better term, obsession with his equipment. He maintains his weapons religiously, and every scratch or tear is repairs as soon as he's physically capable of doing so. Other people have security blankets, Jake disassembles and cleans his pistol. It's something to do with his hands and somewhat meditative for him. Plus, it keeps him certain that all of his stuff is in full working order. The last person Jake met that laughed at him for this little quirk ended up dying when their favored machete snapped in half from being repeatedly bashed against pipes and the like.
Likes: Tinkering, explosives, fire, lightning, birds, old movies, canned beans, dark places, high ground
Dislikes: Cats, swimming, collapsing buildings, non-water drinks (Soda, juice, etc.), overly bright lights
Strengths:
-Fortification
-Vehicle/Equipment Repair & Maintenence
-Stabbing and/or Slashing
-Shooting
Weaknesses:
-Driving; As in, Jake cannot drive without the compulsion to do stunts. He is very, very bad at stunts.
-His Pyromania & Explodo-mania (I don't think there's actually a word for someone who's obsessed with making explosions, which is neat. From hence forth, I shall call this 'fragormania' because fragor both sounds like 'fragment' and is latin for explode. Lookit me, inventing new sciency words)
-Absolutely an adrenaline junkie
-Very 'stealth-adverse'
-Jake doesn't really trust or rely on anyone. He's about as repressed as he could possibly be.
Equipment:
-One five-inch steel combat knife plus sheath, with serrations along half the spine of the blade
-A pipe with a hook welded to the end
-Various mechanical tools (Screwdrivers, wrenches, assorted replacement parts, etc.)
-Knife sharpener
-Small gun cleaning kit
-Old spraypainter's mask
-Handheld gasoline lighter
-Foldable trench shovel
-Notebooks & writing utensils
-Steel pan
-An old but well-cared-for customized .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol & three 13-round magazines, without ammunition
-Battered low-power binoculars
-Mummy sleeping bag
-About two liters of gasoline in multiple thermoses
-One pound of gunpowder, still sealed in it's original plastic bottle
-Two liter-sized canteens, filled with clean water
-Sewing kit
-Various eating utensils
-30 feet of rope
-A straight metal rod & two battered Y-shaped stakes
-One liter-sized metal bucket
-Four and a half pounds of dry pasta, plus about a quarter-pound of cooked-but-cold noodles
-Vaguely clean bandages, tweezers, rubbing alcohol, and gauze
-Small collection of technical manuals on generators, firearms, and vehicles, as well as a few science fiction novels
Skills:
-Mechanical Repairs & Maintenance
-Defense Planning
-Shooting
-Knifework
-Basic First-Aid
Fears: Slight Agoraphobia
Mental/Physical Disorders: Pyromania, Fragormania
Affiliations: TBD
History: Jake was the only child of a teacher and commercial pilot, and didn't have much happen in his childhood. He ended up a combat engineer in the US Army basically straight out of college. While on tour, he discovered a fascination with fire and explosions, as well as learned about his skills in fortification. Some things happened, and Jake ended up with a bad conduct discharge. Not even a week later, the world's gone to shit and now here he is. Least he hadn't turned in all his gear, yeah?
Extras:
-Jake is left-handed, but shoots right-handed
-He'll eat absolutely everything, but will not drink anything except for water unless he's on the verge of death
-Every step against hard surfaces clicks due to the steel on the rim of Jake's boot soles
-Has a slight Southern twang to his speech
-Writes in aggresively legible Arial
-Reads books with only one hand. Always
Other: Kudos to anyone who can spot the reference.
Winter 
Night 
