Road Trip 2038: Interstate of Anarchy OOC [OVER]

[Pax Nerdvana]

Road Trip 2038
Interstate of Anarchy

Theme Song
IC
INTRODUCTION
Two years ago, the permafrost in the Arctic began melting due to climate change. Frozen within the ice was a virus completely unknown to science. As the ice melted, the virus was released. It was transmitted by drinking infected water, or coming in contact with the infected. Thing was, symptoms didn't show up for at least a week after infection, so people didn't even know they were infected. It spread rapidly, killing billions. Only 20% of the world's population was immune. With that many people dead, everything fell apart. The American countryside is now a lawless warzone. Any remaining cities that survived are lifeboats in a sea of chaos. A refuge in the storm. The old interstate highway system is the easiest way to get around, providing a lifeline for the cities, with supply convoys traveling between them. These supply convoys are made up of a variety of vehicles. Gas is scarce, so most still operational vehicles have been converted to run on solar power or some other fuel. Some industry and manufacturing remains intact, so it's possible to get some manufactured goods, like ammo and tools. Internet access is almost impossible to get.


PLOT
You are a member of one of these supply convoys, whether as a supply person, or for other reasons, such as immigration. You and your trusty vehicle will be making the long dangerous journey from St. Louis to Portland Oregon. It's dangerous to travel at night, so you'll have to make camp, and wait till dawn to keep moving. Keep your wits (and a gun) about you, and you might survive.

RULES

• No godmodding or metagaming.
• No overpowered characters.
• Standard NS rules (and data rates).
• Your character may die, but we'll try to avoid that.
• Multiple characters are allowed
• Have fun!

Applications
CHARACTER APP:

Code: Select all

[b]NAME[/b]:
[b]SEX[/b]: Male/Female
[b]AGE[/b]:
[b]IMAGE/DESCRIPTION[/b]:
[b]SKILLS/WEAKNESSES[/b]:
[b]REASON/ROLE IN CONVOY[/b]:
[b]GEAR/BELONGINGS[/b]:
[b]BIOGRAPHY[/b]:

VEHICLE APP

Code: Select all

[b]VEHICLE TYPE[/b]: (car, truck, horse, etc)
[b]MODEL[/b]: (ex. 2017 Ford F-150)
[b] FUEL SOURCE[/b]: (electric, etc., location on vehicle)
[b]ROLE IN CONVOY[/b]: (security, cargo, etc.)
[b]MODIFICATIONS[/b]: (if any)
[b]IMAGE/DESCRIPTION[/b]:

Many thanks to Harbertia for the format coding.

[Pax Nerdvana]

Reserved for rosters, maps, and anything else I need.

Current Location of the Convoy :
St. Louis, Missouri

Map


Convoy Roster
-Natalia Afanasiyevna Zhelezkina (Ihury)
-Stanley Hwang Ja-myung (Ihury)
-Forrest Peter Strong (Ihury)
-Karl McCluskey (Elejamie)
-Brayden Mossman (Elejamie)
-Connor Davis (Flarbinia)
-David Helley (Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States)
-Salvador Torres (Impeck)
-Obadiah Clarkson (Zjaum)
-Marcus Finch (Avayon)

Convoy Vehicles
-Toyota WISH (Ihury)
-Ram 1500 (Elemajie)
-Ford F-150 (Flarbinia)
-Electric school bus (Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States)
-Toyota Tacoma (Impeck)
-Arabian horse (Flarbinia)
-2018 VW Golf SportWagen (Zjaum)
-Dune buggy (Avayon)
-modified Ford Explorer (Flarbinia)

Convoy Cargo Manifest
-200 packages of Tylenol, each with 48 capsules
-2,329 pounds of silver ore

NPC List (NPC app is the same as the character app)
-Honda Takahasi (Flarbinia)
-Oliver Roscoe/Stan Festus (Flarbinia)

[Utceforp]

What kind of fuel would a larger vehicle (e.g. a dump truck) most likely use, and also would an M2 machine gun mounted on an important vehicle be too much of a waste of ammo? (I was thinking of making an app for the truck that transports the convoy's food supplies.)

[Awesome Dudes and Dudettes]

tagging for later

[Pax Nerdvana]

What kind of fuel would a larger vehicle (e.g. a dump truck) most likely use, and also would an M2 machine gun mounted on an important vehicle be too much of a waste of ammo? (I was thinking of making an app for the truck that transports the convoy's food supplies.)

I would think you could modify a larger vehicle to run off alcohol maybe, although I'm no engineer. An M2 would probably be fine. Also, I'll take suggestions for cargoes. As OP, I won't have a character in the RP, but I will be doing timeskips, scene sets, and throwing problems at the convoy.

[Flarbinia]

What kind of fuel would a larger vehicle (e.g. a dump truck) most likely use, and also would an M2 machine gun mounted on an important vehicle be too much of a waste of ammo? (I was thinking of making an app for the truck that transports the convoy's food supplies.)

I would think you could modify a larger vehicle to run off alcohol maybe, although I'm no engineer. An M2 would probably be fine. Also, I'll take suggestions for cargoes. As OP, I won't have a character in the RP, but I will be doing timeskips, scene sets, and throwing problems at the convoy.

Considering that this RP will start in Missouri, I suggest that the convoy carry lead, copper, silver, and lead, as the convoy would not have enough food to feed livestock.

[Pax Nerdvana]

I would think you could modify a larger vehicle to run off alcohol maybe, although I'm no engineer. An M2 would probably be fine. Also, I'll take suggestions for cargoes. As OP, I won't have a character in the RP, but I will be doing timeskips, scene sets, and throwing problems at the convoy.

Considering that this RP will start in Missouri, I suggest that the convoy carry lead, copper, silver, and lead, as the convoy would not have enough food to feed livestock.

Minerals and ores? That could work, and of course stuff would probably be traded along the way.

[Flarbinia]

Considering that this RP will start in Missouri, I suggest that the convoy carry lead, copper, silver, and lead, as the convoy would not have enough food to feed livestock.

Minerals and ores? That could work, and of course stuff would probably be traded along the way.

I doubt that anyone is going to be using money outside the cities, so the shipment might be lighter upon arrival than it was when the convoy left.

[Pax Nerdvana]

Minerals and ores? That could work, and of course stuff would probably be traded along the way.

I doubt that anyone is going to be using money outside the cities, so the shipment might be lighter upon arrival than it was when the convoy left.

A lot of it would probably be food as well.

[Duestchstien]

I doubt that anyone is going to be using money outside the cities, so the shipment might be lighter upon arrival than it was when the convoy left.

A lot of it would probably be food as well.

There would also probably be a small male shipment

[Ihury]

I've got a couple of apps coming up for a trio of kids driving a big load of paracetamol across the country.

[Ihury]

NAME
Natalia Afanasiyevna Zhelezkina
Наталия Афанасьевна Железкина

AKA “NatZ” (“Nat Zee”)

SEX
Female

AGE
26 (born 15 May, 2012)

IMAGE/DESCRIPTION
- Height: 171cm (5ft 6in)
- Weight: 58kg (127lbs)
- Eye colour: blue
- Hair colour: silver

Natalia is a slim young lady with distinctly Slavic facial features, with a pair of striking blue eyes that delivers an intense gaze and silk-like silver hair styled in an undercut a-la Tilda Swinton (which she sometimes ties into a man bun of sorts) which, coupled with her high cheekbones and typical Russian square jaw, gives her a rather butch look. She has a missing upper incisor, from an incident when she was 14 (she crashed violently into a lamppost while running up a hill); over the years, Natalia has developed a bizarre habit of lodging the butt end of her cigarette in the gap, which she calls her ”chimney”.

Being short-sighted, Natalia also wears a pair of horn-rimmed glasses with Transition lenses.

She usually dresses in simple, casual clothing, consisting of skinny jeans and a casual, unisex polo tee, sometimes with a windbreaker and/or a light blue baseball cap. For the past two years, she has worn a pair of well-worn, rather ratty Onitsuka Tigers, which are of the Bruce Lee black-on-yellow colour scheme.

Natalia has “ПИЗДЕЦ” (a Russian profanity roughly translated as “goddamnit”) tattooed on her right wrist; by her own admission, she got the tattoo when she went through an edgy rebel phase at the age of 17, and regrets it.

SKILLS/WEAKNESSES
Driving: Despite not possessing a license, Natalia is a skilled driver, having learnt driving techniques from observing her father and from playing around with his car in her free time; after setting off with a convoy, she has amassed a significant amount of driving experience. To the amazement of others, Natalia is able to execute a perfect parallel parking.

Language: Natalia is fluent in English and Russian, and can haggle in both languages.

Asthma: Suffering from asthma, Natalia carries three inhalers with her at all times, and is limited in the amount of physical activity she can do (to her irritation, as she is fond of playing frisbee). This is not helped by the fact that she smokes, if only occasionally.

Language: As she was raised speaking both Russian and English at home, Natalia has a habit of code switching during conversations, which leaves those who don’t speak Russian struggling to understand what she is saying.

Snark: Though her snarky demeanour and frequent use of sarcasm is well known among her friends, who consider it an endearing idiosyncrasy of hers, Natalia sometimes comes off as a cold, unapproachable individual.

REASON/ROLE IN CONVOY
- Cargo: Having come into possession of a very large quantity of Tylenol through a series of events partially out of control, Natalia plans to sell it all off for a profit; after all, headaches were not likely to go away even in the event of apocalypse, and there was only so much Tylenol a person (or three) could use in a lifetime.

GEAR/BELONGINGS
- Mevius-brand cigarettes (x2 boxes of 24 cigarettes)
- Victorinox Swiss Army Knife (x1)
- White driving gloves (x1 pair)
- Breath spray (x1 tube) (also functions as a pepper spray substitute)
- Blue inhaler (x1)
- Purple inhaler (x1)
- Brown inhaler (x1)

BIOGRAPHY
Natalia Afanasiyevna Zhelezkina was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on 15 May 2012. Her father, Afanasy Anatolyevich Zhelezkin, was a second-generation Russian immigrant working as an orthopaedic nurse in a local hospital, and her mother, Rosalind Redford, was a drama and ballet teacher. She grew up in a relatively comfortable inland suburban area, around which there was a field and a park, in which Natalia played a lot when she was young. It was in the park area that she was to be acquainted with the two with whom she would end up joining a convoy, after the virus.

She attended a local high school and vocational college, graduating with a diploma in interior design at the age of 23. She worked for a time at a local furniture company, until the outbreak of the virus in 2036, which killed her boss first.

Her father was the next to be infected, seeing as he worked in a hospital; he was forced to stay at home and, complaining of debilitating headaches, took large amounts of Tylenol on top of a laundry list of other medications. At roughly the same time, a pharmaceutical distributor nearby had abandoned its warehouse, leaving behind, among other things, a very large stockpile of freshly-produced Tylenol, of which Natalia got hold of a very large amount. Just two months later, however, Afanasy Zhelezkin died, and Rosalind Redford, though immune to the disease, jumped into the sea out of grief on New Year’s Day of 2038, leaving Natalia Zhelezkina alone with 2,000 boxes of Tylenol that still had at least six years left till expiry.

Unwilling to pass softly into the night, Natalia removed the backseats of her father’s Toyota WISH, loaded it up with the Tylenol she had taken from the warehouse, and set up camp in the field she had grown up playing with, while trying to figure out what to do. Here, she was joined by two of her childhood friends: Stanley Hwang and Forrest Strong, both of whom were immune to the disease, lost their families, and were also looking for a subsequent course of action.

Thus, the three pooled their resources (consisting almost entirely of Natalia’s Tylenol stockpile) and joined a convoy set for Oregon.

~+~+~+~+~

NAME
Stanley Hwang Ja-myung
黃子銘 / 황자명

SEX
Male

AGE
20 (born 11 December 2018)

IMAGE/DESCRIPTION
- Height: 170cm (5ft 6in)
- Weight: 64kg (141lbs)
- Eye colour: amber
- Hair colour: black

Stanley is a Korean boy of 20 years possessing youthful, neotenous facial features, with a coppery skin tone and a head of thick black hair that Natalia likens to “an electrocuted mop”. His eyes, which are rather large compared to other Asians, are of a light-brown, amber colour, and possess a somewhat sleepy quality to them.

Standing at just 170cm, Stanley is the shortest of the trio, which becomes especially apparent considering that Natalia, who is just one centimetre taller than him, often styles her hair in an undercut, the long portion of which she combs upwards with pomade, making her look taller than she actually is. Nevertheless, Stanley has a lean, toned figure, which has drawn the eye of a few girls before, though he has, to date, rejected all advances made on him by girls, for a few reasons.

For the most part, Stanley prefers comfort over style, which is reflected in his choice of clothing; he is always seen wearing a T-shirt with tracksuit pants, sometimes with a hoodie if the weather is cold, coupled with either a pair of lime-green Ipanema flip flops or a pair of black Budo Saga martial arts shoes. He also occasionally wears a straw hat identical to the one worn by the main character of One Piece. Often, he will roll up one leg of his trousers, as is common in the wushu community; he describes the feeling as being “like sticking one leg out of the blanket”.

(There is a picture on the internet of Stanley at the age of 17, competing for the last time in a citywide competition; he is seen wearing a silk costume that fades from white at the top to red at the bottom, with a crimson phoenix design embroidered intricately to the back. For some reason, it is one of the first pictures shown when one searches for “wushu” on Google in the US, though his face is not visible. Stanley has since pawned the costume.)

Whenever he is assigned to guard the car by Natalia, Stanley will also carry one of his swords in its case, slinging it across his shoulder; the weapon case is just a simple black cover with the flag of the People’s Republic of China at the top.

SKILLS/WEAKNESSES
Language: Stanley is fluent in English and Korean; unlike Natalia, however, he is not equally fluent in the two, as he was raised speaking English only, for the most part. As a result, he does not code switch, and can only haggle in English.

Agility: Having practiced wushu competitively since he was 11, Stanley has very high levels of physical agility and flexibility, possessing the ability to execute a wide range of acrobatic jumps of high difficulty, and is even able to land in a split.

Cooking: As a result of living with infirm grandparents for the later part of his childhood, Stanley had to learn how to cook; he is a moderately skilled cook, and can whip up simple meals on demand.

Photosensitive epilepsy: Stanley suffers from PSE, and has to take great pains to avoid any potential triggers (including vehicle headlamps); consequently, he does not ever watch movies.

Withdrawn: Though he does not suffer from any antisocial disorder or anything along those lines, Stanley is highly introverted, and often prefers to daydream or read alone in his free time. As a result, like Natalia, many perceive Stanley to be rather unapproachable, though for very different reasons.

Insecurity: Stanley perpetually worries that he may not be good enough, though he tends not to discuss his inner feelings. This insecurity is a double edged sword; on one hand, it drives him to train harder, but on the other hand, it causes him to have a persistent, latent anxiety that means he can never fully relax.

REASON/ROLE IN CONVOY
- Protection: Unlike Natalia, Stanley has little motivation to leave St Louis other than to seek a change in environment. Nevertheless, he does help Natalia to watch her cargo whenever they set up camp, ensuring no other members of the convoy attempt to steal their Tylenol.

GEAR/BELONGINGS
- Competition-grade jian (x2)
- iPhone (x1): his phone is six years old, and since the onset of the virus, has not been able to receive signals. He keeps it for the sole purpose of listening to music. He charges it using an outlet in the front of the car.
- Can opener (x1)
- VPA tablets for epilepsy (x2 boxes of 40 tablets)
- Picture of him and his three remaining grandparents at his high school graduation, in a picture frame (x1)
- Stuffed animal (x1)

BIOGRAPHY
Stanley Hwang Ja-myung was born on 11 December 2018, a third-generation Korean-American whose grandparents were North Korean defectors. His parents were killed in a car accident when he was six months old, and as such, he was raised by his maternal grandparents. His grandfather, a tai chi master, encouraged Stanley to learn wushu; as such, from the age of 8, he began to attend lessons with a former Taiwanese national team coach in the park near his house. It was at this park that Stanley became acquainted with Natalia Zhelezkina and Forrest Strong, with whom he would later embark on a journey; being rather shy and withdrawn, however, he only became loosely acquainted with them at first, communicating little except for casual small talk.

At the age of 11, just before completing elementary school, Stanley expressed an interest in joining competitions; initially hesitant due to his photosensitive epilepsy, the coach eventually decided to train him competitively, after Stanley’s doctor gave the green light for him to compete. At 16, one year after his grandfather died, Stanley won a statewide competition, and was offered to join the American national team; he declined, opting to stay behind to take care of his widowed grandmother. She, too, died two years later at the ripe old age of 89, having lived long enough to see her grandson graduate from high school.

Barely a month after her death, news of the virus began to spread, taking the lives of Stanley’s wushu coach, his other two grandparents, and a significant number of other people to boot. He, however, turned out to be immune, and as such, made a living for himself by delivering meals to the housebound members of his community.

By 2038, it was clear that the St Louis community had dwindled beyond salvage; as such, seeing as virtually all of the survivors were already making plans to leave, Stanley did so too, heading first to the park where he’d attended trainings; there, he met first with Forrest Strong, whom he’d talked to on a few occasions, and then with Natalia Zhelezkina, who had a car and, for some reason, a thousand boxes of Tylenol.

~+~+~+~+~

NAME
Forrest Peter Strong
AKA “FPS”

SEX
Male

AGE
23 (born 7 August 2015)

IMAGE/DESCRIPTION
- Height: 178cm (5ft 8in)
- Weight: 68kg (150lbs)
- Eye colour: brown
- Hair colour: none

Of the trio, Forrest is the most conscious of his appearance, and takes great effort to groom himself even after the onset of the virus’ destruction. He brushes his teeth three times a day, using less water to gargle when clean water is in short supply, and irons his clothes with a steam iron before wearing them. He sported an afro until he was 19, at which point he opted to shave clean bald; occasionally, he chooses to sport a moustache, which gives him a rather swarthy appearance especially coupled with his strong jaw and his well-built, muscular frame.

His usual attire consists of a smart casual buttoned-up shirt with well-pressed khaki trousers. He wears a pair of Adidas Superstar sneakers, which he cleans every two months, along with long black dress socks.

SKILLS/WEAKNESSES
Economic skill: Forrest holds a degree in economics, and as such, holds the highest qualifications of the trio. Though nobody cares about degrees in the post-virus world, Forrest’s knowledge of economics has given him a huge edge when it comes to understanding trade, demand, and supply in the post-apocalyptic world.

Cooking: During his university fraternity days, Forrest was known as “The Gordon Ramsay of Alpha Sigma Mu”. A talented cook, his friends would regularly come over for meals, paying Forrest to cook extra portions for them.

Pistol skills: Forrest is a decent shooter, possessing a relatively high accuracy with a pistol for a civilian.

Language: Although his family is monolingual, Forrest learned German in high school, and as such, can converse comfortably in it.

Stiff morals: Forrest is the quintessential Lawful Good, and believes that society can only function if grounded on sound moral principles and values. As such, although he is close friends with Natalia and Stanley, he does not approve of Natalia’s rebellious, questioning attitude and Stanley’s happy-go-lucky pragmatism. While this isn’t inherently bad, people of such a disposition tend to be rather confused and lost in a lawless, post apocalyptic world where morals can often take second place to survival.

Neuroticism: Owing perhaps to his rather rough upbringing, Forrest is plagued with a persistent sense of paranoia, and is constantly worrying not just about people who are out to sabotage him and his friends, but also that he may be behaving in a way that is alienating him from those to whom he is close.

REASON/ROLE IN CONVOY
- Cargo/Protection: Forrest did not initially intend to embark on a convoy journey, but upon meeting up with Natalia and Stanley, he opted to join his old friends on a trip, serving as an assistant to Natalia and a business consultant of sorts.

GEAR/BELONGINGS
- Revolver (x1)
- Revolver ammunition (x40 rounds)
- Pepper spray (x1 tube)
- Hand sanitiser (x1 tube)
- Spare thumb drive (x1)
- Steam iron (x1)
- Victorinox Swiss Army Knife (x1)

BIOGRAPHY
Forrest Peter Strong was born the youngest of three children on 7 August 2015 to an affluent family living in the suburban area of St Louis, Missouri. His father, Mervin Strong, was a half-black half-white financier working under Wells Fargo, and his mother, Emily Alexandra Liew, was an English Literature professor of Chinese and black descent. From young, he was raised in a very strict home environment by his father, who expected all his children to perform exceptionally and surpass his career success (Forrest, as it turned out, would be the only one to fall short of this; his eldest brother James Strong became general manager of an MNC at the young age of 30, and fled the US the moment news of the virus broke; while his second brother, Denver Strong, ran for office, and would have been sworn in were it not for his death by the virus).

Suffering under his father’s materialistic yet militaristic parenting style, Forrest developed both a rigid moral compass that dictated his every action, as well as an intense drive to surpass his father such that he could, ironically, spite him. From young, he performed brilliantly in school and spend many hours studying, though this did not deter him from occasionally playing at the nearby park, where he became acquainted with Natalia Zhelezkina and Stanley Hwang.

Upon graduating top of his cohort in high school, Forrest obtained a scholarship to study economics at Columbia University; for the next four years, he lived in New York, and studied while simultaneously attending internship after internship at various companies so as to gain more industry experience. He received news of the virus’ spread as it happened, but did not worry much for his parents, as he maintained regular contact with them up until he finished his degree.

Upon graduating summa cum laude, Forrest opted to return to his home city for a while, only to find that it had been largely ravaged by the virus; neither his parents nor his brothers were anywhere to be found, and for some reason, despite his parents’ high profile, he could not find out just what had happened to them. Unbeknownst to Forrest, he himself was immune to the virus.

Unwilling to stay much longer in St Louis, Forrest set out in search for people with whom he could travel out west on a convoy, eventually chancing upon his old childhood acquaintances Stanley Hwang and Natalia Zhelezkina, the latter of which happened to be in possession of a ridiculously large quantity of Tylenol.

~+~+~+~+~

VEHICLE TYPE
Car

MODEL
Toyota WISH (seven seater)

FUEL SOURCE
Electric

ROLE IN CONVOY
Cargo - transporting 2,000 packages of Tylenol

MODIFICATIONS
Engine: the previous owner of the car (i.e. Natalia’s father), being obsessed with saving fuel, had had the car souped up with hybrid batteries and a solar panel. This turned out to be very useful later on, when fuel started to become scarce; the car virtually runs without any fuel.

IMAGE/DESCRIPTION
Natalia’s Toyota WISH (license plate number: DKU2014 (California)) is a seven-seater gunmetal 5-door station wagon from 2017, rather uninteresting except for the bulky solar panel apparatus on the roof and a faded bumper sticker on the back of the car (just under the Toyota logo, where the missing “WISH” model name should be) that reads “ANY FUNCTIONING ADULT - 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION”. The car is in generally good condition, except for some very noticeable scratches on the left side and a deep gash in the backrest of the shotgun seat (which Forrest, who always sits in the shotgun seat, covers up with a massage bead chair cover).

The car is packed to the brim with boxes of Tylenol; in the back row, which has had the seats removed to create a bigger boot space, there are eight large cubical cardboard boxes filled with 200 48-caplet Tylenol packages, a suitcase filled with the trio’s clothes, a large plastic box for the group’s portable electric stove and another box stacked next to it with canned food and instant rice and noodles.

The middle row seat near the door is broken, and as such, is where the trio keeps their backpacks. Only one seat is available; having established the middle row as his dominion, Stanley keeps his wushu swords in the aisle, which is covered by half of a dark green Russian carpet. He also keeps his comfort object- a fuzzy grey stuffed rabbit, which he hugs to sleep at night- on top of the broken seat.

In the front of the car, Natalia hangs a turquoise arrowhead and a stuffed banana keychain from the rear-view mirror. The glove compartment is where the trio keeps their important documents and relevant ID; in addition, the glove compartment also contains an additional six boxes of Tylenol.

[Pax Nerdvana]

NAME
Natalia Afanasiyevna Zhelezkina
Наталия Афанасьевна Железкина

AKA “NatZ” (“Nat Zee”)

SEX
Female

AGE
26 (born 15 May, 2012)

IMAGE/DESCRIPTION
- Height: 171cm (5ft 6in)
- Weight: 58kg (127lbs)
- Eye colour: blue
- Hair colour: silver

Natalia is a slim young lady with distinctly Slavic facial features, with a pair of striking blue eyes that delivers an intense gaze and silk-like silver hair styled in an undercut a-la Tilda Swinton (which she sometimes ties into a man bun of sorts) which, coupled with her high cheekbones and typical Russian square jaw, gives her a rather butch look. She has a missing upper incisor, from an incident when she was 14 (she crashed violently into a lamppost while running up a hill); over the years, Natalia has developed a bizarre habit of lodging the butt end of her cigarette in the gap, which she calls her ”chimney”.

Being short-sighted, Natalia also wears a pair of horn-rimmed glasses with Transition lenses.

She usually dresses in simple, casual clothing, consisting of skinny jeans and a casual, unisex polo tee, sometimes with a windbreaker and/or a light blue baseball cap. For the past two years, she has worn a pair of well-worn, rather ratty Onitsuka Tigers, which are of the Bruce Lee black-on-yellow colour scheme.

Natalia has “ПИЗДЕЦ” (a Russian profanity roughly translated as “goddamnit”) tattooed on her right wrist; by her own admission, she got the tattoo when she went through an edgy rebel phase at the age of 17, and regrets it.

SKILLS/WEAKNESSES
Driving: Despite not possessing a license, Natalia is a skilled driver, having learnt driving techniques from observing her father and from playing around with his car in her free time; after setting off with a convoy, she has amassed a significant amount of driving experience. To the amazement of others, Natalia is able to execute a perfect parallel parking.

Language: Natalia is fluent in English and Russian, and can haggle in both languages.

Asthma: Suffering from asthma, Natalia carries three inhalers with her at all times, and is limited in the amount of physical activity she can do (to her irritation, as she is fond of playing frisbee). This is not helped by the fact that she smokes, if only occasionally.

Language: As she was raised speaking both Russian and English at home, Natalia has a habit of code switching during conversations, which leaves those who don’t speak Russian struggling to understand what she is saying.

Snark: Though her snarky demeanour and frequent use of sarcasm is well known among her friends, who consider it an endearing idiosyncrasy of hers, Natalia sometimes comes off as a cold, unapproachable individual.

REASON/ROLE IN CONVOY
- Cargo: Having come into possession of a very large quantity of Tylenol through a series of events partially out of control, Natalia plans to sell it all off for a profit; after all, headaches were not likely to go away even in the event of apocalypse, and there was only so much Tylenol a person (or three) could use in a lifetime.

GEAR/BELONGINGS
- Mevius-brand cigarettes (x2 boxes of 24 cigarettes)
- Victorinox Swiss Army Knife (x1)
- White driving gloves (x1 pair)
- Breath spray (x1 tube) (also functions as a pepper spray substitute)
- Blue inhaler (x1)
- Purple inhaler (x1)
- Brown inhaler (x1)

BIOGRAPHY
Natalia Afanasiyevna Zhelezkina was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on 15 May 2012. Her father, Afanasy Anatolyevich Zhelezkin, was a second-generation Russian immigrant working as an orthopaedic nurse in a local hospital, and her mother, Rosalind Redford, was a drama and ballet teacher. She grew up in a relatively comfortable inland suburban area, around which there was a field and a park, in which Natalia played a lot when she was young. It was in the park area that she was to be acquainted with the two with whom she would end up joining a convoy, after the virus.

She attended a local high school and vocational college, graduating with a diploma in interior design at the age of 23. She worked for a time at a local furniture company, until the outbreak of the virus in 2036, which killed her boss first.

Her father was the next to be infected, seeing as he worked in a hospital; he was forced to stay at home and, complaining of debilitating headaches, took large amounts of Tylenol on top of a laundry list of other medications. At roughly the same time, a pharmaceutical distributor nearby had abandoned its warehouse, leaving behind, among other things, a very large stockpile of freshly-produced Tylenol, of which Natalia got hold of a very large amount. Just two months later, however, Afanasy Zhelezkin died, and Rosalind Redford, though immune to the disease, jumped into the sea out of grief on New Year’s Day of 2038, leaving Natalia Zhelezkina alone with 2,000 boxes of Tylenol that still had at least six years left till expiry.

Unwilling to pass softly into the night, Natalia removed the backseats of her father’s Toyota WISH, loaded it up with the Tylenol she had taken from the warehouse, and set up camp in the field she had grown up playing with, while trying to figure out what to do. Here, she was joined by two of her childhood friends: Stanley Hwang and Forrest Strong, both of whom were immune to the disease, lost their families, and were also looking for a subsequent course of action.

Thus, the three pooled their resources (consisting almost entirely of Natalia’s Tylenol stockpile) and joined a convoy set for Oregon.

~+~+~+~+~

NAME
Stanley Hwang Ja-myung
黃子銘 / 황자명

SEX
Male

AGE
20 (born 11 December 2018)

IMAGE/DESCRIPTION
- Height: 170cm (5ft 6in)
- Weight: 64kg (141lbs)
- Eye colour: amber
- Hair colour: black

Stanley is a Korean boy of 20 years possessing youthful, neotenous facial features, with a coppery skin tone and a head of thick black hair that Natalia likens to “an electrocuted mop”. His eyes, which are rather large compared to other Asians, are of a light-brown, amber colour, and possess a somewhat sleepy quality to them.

Standing at just 170cm, Stanley is the shortest of the trio, which becomes especially apparent considering that Natalia, who is just one centimetre taller than him, often styles her hair in an undercut, the long portion of which she combs upwards with pomade, making her look taller than she actually is. Nevertheless, Stanley has a lean, toned figure, which has drawn the eye of a few girls before, though he has, to date, rejected all advances made on him by girls, for a few reasons.

For the most part, Stanley prefers comfort over style, which is reflected in his choice of clothing; he is always seen wearing a T-shirt with tracksuit pants, sometimes with a hoodie if the weather is cold, coupled with either a pair of lime-green Ipanema flip flops or a pair of black Budo Saga martial arts shoes. He also occasionally wears a straw hat identical to the one worn by the main character of One Piece. Often, he will roll up one leg of his trousers, as is common in the wushu community; he describes the feeling as being “like sticking one leg out of the blanket”.

(There is a picture on the internet of Stanley at the age of 17, competing for the last time in a citywide competition; he is seen wearing a silk costume that fades from white at the top to red at the bottom, with a crimson phoenix design embroidered intricately to the back. For some reason, it is one of the first pictures shown when one searches for “wushu” on Google in the US, though his face is not visible. Stanley has since pawned the costume.)

Whenever he is assigned to guard the car by Natalia, Stanley will also carry one of his swords in its case, slinging it across his shoulder; the weapon case is just a simple black cover with the flag of the People’s Republic of China at the top.

SKILLS/WEAKNESSES
Language: Stanley is fluent in English and Korean; unlike Natalia, however, he is not equally fluent in the two, as he was raised speaking English only, for the most part. As a result, he does not code switch, and can only haggle in English.

Agility: Having practiced wushu competitively since he was 11, Stanley has very high levels of physical agility and flexibility, possessing the ability to execute a wide range of acrobatic jumps of high difficulty, and is even able to land in a split.

Cooking: As a result of living with infirm grandparents for the later part of his childhood, Stanley had to learn how to cook; he is a moderately skilled cook, and can whip up simple meals on demand.

Photosensitive epilepsy: Stanley suffers from PSE, and has to take great pains to avoid any potential triggers (including vehicle headlamps); consequently, he does not ever watch movies.

Withdrawn: Though he does not suffer from any antisocial disorder or anything along those lines, Stanley is highly introverted, and often prefers to daydream or read alone in his free time. As a result, like Natalia, many perceive Stanley to be rather unapproachable, though for very different reasons.

Insecurity: Stanley perpetually worries that he may not be good enough, though he tends not to discuss his inner feelings. This insecurity is a double edged sword; on one hand, it drives him to train harder, but on the other hand, it causes him to have a persistent, latent anxiety that means he can never fully relax.

REASON/ROLE IN CONVOY
- Protection: Unlike Natalia, Stanley has little motivation to leave St Louis other than to seek a change in environment. Nevertheless, he does help Natalia to watch her cargo whenever they set up camp, ensuring no other members of the convoy attempt to steal their Tylenol.

GEAR/BELONGINGS
- Competition-grade jian (x2)
- iPhone (x1): his phone is six years old, and since the onset of the virus, has not been able to receive signals. He keeps it for the sole purpose of listening to music. He charges it using an outlet in the front of the car.
- Can opener (x1)
- VPA tablets for epilepsy (x2 boxes of 40 tablets)
- Picture of him and his three remaining grandparents at his high school graduation, in a picture frame (x1)
- Stuffed animal (x1)

BIOGRAPHY
Stanley Hwang Ja-myung was born on 11 December 2018, a third-generation Korean-American whose grandparents were North Korean defectors. His parents were killed in a car accident when he was six months old, and as such, he was raised by his maternal grandparents. His grandfather, a tai chi master, encouraged Stanley to learn wushu; as such, from the age of 8, he began to attend lessons with a former Taiwanese national team coach in the park near his house. It was at this park that Stanley became acquainted with Natalia Zhelezkina and Forrest Strong, with whom he would later embark on a journey; being rather shy and withdrawn, however, he only became loosely acquainted with them at first, communicating little except for casual small talk.

At the age of 11, just before completing elementary school, Stanley expressed an interest in joining competitions; initially hesitant due to his photosensitive epilepsy, the coach eventually decided to train him competitively, after Stanley’s doctor gave the green light for him to compete. At 16, one year after his grandfather died, Stanley won a statewide competition, and was offered to join the American national team; he declined, opting to stay behind to take care of his widowed grandmother. She, too, died two years later at the ripe old age of 89, having lived long enough to see her grandson graduate from high school.

Barely a month after her death, news of the virus began to spread, taking the lives of Stanley’s wushu coach, his other two grandparents, and a significant number of other people to boot. He, however, turned out to be immune, and as such, made a living for himself by delivering meals to the housebound members of his community.

By 2038, it was clear that the St Louis community had dwindled beyond salvage; as such, seeing as virtually all of the survivors were already making plans to leave, Stanley did so too, heading first to the park where he’d attended trainings; there, he met first with Forrest Strong, whom he’d talked to on a few occasions, and then with Natalia Zhelezkina, who had a car and, for some reason, a thousand boxes of Tylenol.

~+~+~+~+~

NAME
Forrest Peter Strong
AKA “FPS”

SEX
Male

AGE
23 (born 7 August 2015)

IMAGE/DESCRIPTION
- Height: 178cm (5ft 8in)
- Weight: 68kg (150lbs)
- Eye colour: brown
- Hair colour: none

Of the trio, Forrest is the most conscious of his appearance, and takes great effort to groom himself even after the onset of the virus’ destruction. He brushes his teeth three times a day, using less water to gargle when clean water is in short supply, and irons his clothes with a steam iron before wearing them. He sported an afro until he was 19, at which point he opted to shave clean bald; occasionally, he chooses to sport a moustache, which gives him a rather swarthy appearance especially coupled with his strong jaw and his well-built, muscular frame.

His usual attire consists of a smart casual buttoned-up shirt with well-pressed khaki trousers. He wears a pair of Adidas Superstar sneakers, which he cleans every two months, along with long black dress socks.

SKILLS/WEAKNESSES
Economic skill: Forrest holds a degree in economics, and as such, holds the highest qualifications of the trio. Though nobody cares about degrees in the post-virus world, Forrest’s knowledge of economics has given him a huge edge when it comes to understanding trade, demand, and supply in the post-apocalyptic world.

Cooking: During his university fraternity days, Forrest was known as “The Gordon Ramsay of Alpha Sigma Mu”. A talented cook, his friends would regularly come over for meals, paying Forrest to cook extra portions for them.

Pistol skills: Forrest is a decent shooter, possessing a relatively high accuracy with a pistol for a civilian.

Language: Although his family is monolingual, Forrest learned German in high school, and as such, can converse comfortably in it.

Stiff morals: Forrest is the quintessential Lawful Good, and believes that society can only function if grounded on sound moral principles and values. As such, although he is close friends with Natalia and Stanley, he does not approve of Natalia’s rebellious, questioning attitude and Stanley’s happy-go-lucky pragmatism. While this isn’t inherently bad, people of such a disposition tend to be rather confused and lost in a lawless, post apocalyptic world where morals can often take second place to survival.

Neuroticism: Owing perhaps to his rather rough upbringing, Forrest is plagued with a persistent sense of paranoia, and is constantly worrying not just about people who are out to sabotage him and his friends, but also that he may be behaving in a way that is alienating him from those to whom he is close.

REASON/ROLE IN CONVOY
- Cargo/Protection: Forrest did not initially intend to embark on a convoy journey, but upon meeting up with Natalia and Stanley, he opted to join his old friends on a trip, serving as an assistant to Natalia and a business consultant of sorts.

GEAR/BELONGINGS
- Revolver (x1)
- Revolver ammunition (x40 rounds)
- Pepper spray (x1 tube)
- Hand sanitiser (x1 tube)
- Spare thumb drive (x1)
- Steam iron (x1)
- Victorinox Swiss Army Knife (x1)

BIOGRAPHY
Forrest Peter Strong was born the youngest of three children on 7 August 2015 to an affluent family living in the suburban area of St Louis, Missouri. His father, Mervin Strong, was a half-black half-white financier working under Wells Fargo, and his mother, Emily Alexandra Liew, was an English Literature professor of Chinese and black descent. From young, he was raised in a very strict home environment by his father, who expected all his children to perform exceptionally and surpass his career success (Forrest, as it turned out, would be the only one to fall short of this; his eldest brother James Strong became general manager of an MNC at the young age of 30, and fled the US the moment news of the virus broke; while his second brother, Denver Strong, ran for office, and would have been sworn in were it not for his death by the virus).

Suffering under his father’s materialistic yet militaristic parenting style, Forrest developed both a rigid moral compass that dictated his every action, as well as an intense drive to surpass his father such that he could, ironically, spite him. From young, he performed brilliantly in school and spend many hours studying, though this did not deter him from occasionally playing at the nearby park, where he became acquainted with Natalia Zhelezkina and Stanley Hwang.

Upon graduating top of his cohort in high school, Forrest obtained a scholarship to study economics at Columbia University; for the next four years, he lived in New York, and studied while simultaneously attending internship after internship at various companies so as to gain more industry experience. He received news of the virus’ spread as it happened, but did not worry much for his parents, as he maintained regular contact with them up until he finished his degree.

Upon graduating summa cum laude, Forrest opted to return to his home city for a while, only to find that it had been largely ravaged by the virus; neither his parents nor his brothers were anywhere to be found, and for some reason, despite his parents’ high profile, he could not find out just what had happened to them. Unbeknownst to Forrest, he himself was immune to the virus.

Unwilling to stay much longer in St Louis, Forrest set out in search for people with whom he could travel out west on a convoy, eventually chancing upon his old childhood acquaintances Stanley Hwang and Natalia Zhelezkina, the latter of which happened to be in possession of a ridiculously large quantity of Tylenol.

~+~+~+~+~

VEHICLE TYPE
Car

MODEL
Toyota WISH (seven seater)

FUEL SOURCE
Electric

ROLE IN CONVOY
Cargo - transporting 2,000 packages of Tylenol

MODIFICATIONS
Engine: the previous owner of the car (i.e. Natalia’s father), being obsessed with saving fuel, had had the car souped up with hybrid batteries and a solar panel. This turned out to be very useful later on, when fuel started to become scarce; the car virtually runs without any fuel.

IMAGE/DESCRIPTION
Natalia’s Toyota WISH (license plate number: DKU2014 (California)) is a seven-seater gunmetal 5-door station wagon from 2017, rather uninteresting except for the bulky solar panel apparatus on the roof and a faded bumper sticker on the back of the car (just under the Toyota logo, where the missing “WISH” model name should be) that reads “ANY FUNCTIONING ADULT - 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION”. The car is in generally good condition, except for some very noticeable scratches on the left side and a deep gash in the backrest of the shotgun seat (which Forrest, who always sits in the shotgun seat, covers up with a massage bead chair cover).

The car is packed to the brim with boxes of Tylenol; in the back row, which has had the seats removed to create a bigger boot space, there are eight large cubical cardboard boxes filled with 200 48-caplet Tylenol packages, a suitcase filled with the trio’s clothes, a large plastic box for the group’s portable electric stove and another box stacked next to it with canned food and instant rice and noodles.

The middle row seat near the door is broken, and as such, is where the trio keeps their backpacks. Only one seat is available; having established the middle row as his dominion, Stanley keeps his wushu swords in the aisle, which is covered by half of a dark green Russian carpet. He also keeps his comfort object- a fuzzy grey stuffed rabbit, which he hugs to sleep at night- on top of the broken seat.

In the front of the car, Natalia hangs a turquoise arrowhead and a stuffed banana keychain from the rear-view mirror. The glove compartment is where the trio keeps their important documents and relevant ID; in addition, the glove compartment also contains an additional six boxes of Tylenol.

Accepted.

[Ihury]

Accepted.

Spasibo

[Pax Nerdvana]

Accepted.

Spasibo

I am updating the roster now.

[Ihury]

Spasibo

I am updating the roster now.

Nice. How many players do we need to begin?

[Pax Nerdvana]

I am updating the roster now.

Nice. How many players do we need to begin?

I'm thinking at least 4/5 players.

[Ihury]

Nice. How many players do we need to begin?

I'm thinking at least 4/5 players.

Aight, sounds good. In the meantime, I'll go fret over the finer details of things.

[Pax Nerdvana]

I'm thinking at least 4/5 players.

Aight, sounds good. In the meantime, I'll go fret over the finer details of things.

Sounds like a plan.

[Pax Nerdvana]

A lot of it would probably be food as well.

There would also probably be a small male shipment

Did you mean mail?

[Ihury]

There would also probably be a small male shipment

Did you mean mail?

Personally I wouldn't mind a male shipment myself

[Flarbinia]

I doubt that anyone is going to be using money outside the cities, so the shipment might be lighter upon arrival than it was when the convoy left.

A lot of it would probably be food as well.

Speaking of money, the convoy will most likely be paid in ration cards.

[Ihury]

A lot of it would probably be food as well.

Speaking of money, the convoy will most likely be paid in ration cards.

In a similar vein, I imagine there’s got to be some people who draft and enforce rules regarding the use of those cards. In other words, a convoy police of sorts.

[Pax Nerdvana]

Speaking of money, the convoy will most likely be paid in ration cards.

In a similar vein, I imagine there’s got to be some people who draft and enforce rules regarding the use of those cards. In other words, a convoy police of sorts.

Both of those ideas would make sense.

[Danceria]

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