Aberrant: Dead Rising - James DeBeer

[Courier]

Name: James DeBeer

Status: PC (Nova).

Aberrations: None

James DeBeer is 25 years old. Before the world went mad he was a fireman. He liked to drink, lift weights, fight in bars, and mime. Being a fireman is one part pure adrenaline combined with three parts preparation and nine parts boredom. One of the older firemen got him to join a barbershop quartet, and then taught him to be a mime. It was entertaining to the children, annoyed and entertained his co-workers and family, but more importantly it passed the time.

Then the world ended. To make a long story short those dead things swarmed him and the rest of the crew and then he was fighting them off with a blackly glowing sword. He and four others survived, but one of them had gotten bitten and when he converted he bit another. The two other surviving members of the crew are in a different community, there were some differences of opinion at the end there.

Currently James lives in a mall complex "community" with other survivors. He’s out and about a little too often to let him be the leader, but he is well connected. With his powers he's been able to loot parts of the city, function as “mailman” to other enclaves, and fight off the zombies in hand to hand combat without too many problems and his resources and community connections reflect this. Much to some people’s annoyance a pair of attractive “sisters” are “sharing” him. Before the plague they were SCA gals and it looks like the world is headed back to the 17th century. Even more ironically a sword is one of the more effective ways to fight these zombie things, James has lost track of how many axes he’s broken.

Powers: James is strong, can jump for miles, and is hard to hurt. He’s been bitten or shot dozens of times without having his skin broken. How this relates to his general “tuning up” he doesn't know. James can also call a “sword" into existence that “burns blackly”. Although unbreakable, the sword does less damage than a “real” sword or ax, and keeping it around while in combat is tiring.

,,

Appearance: Standing at exactly 6 foot and weighing 220 pounds, James was always a pretty rugged specimen. He has brown hair, brown eyes, square jaw… and the build of someone who works out with an ax a lot. Transformation didn’t change his appearance at all but he has gotten more charismatic.

In the field he wears re-enforced leather clothing, while he still has his fireman’s outfit it’s mostly too bulky to be useful considering James' toughness.

EDIT: James has a history of Body-Building and the muscles to match (5 dots in Might).

[Courier]

James’ Followers:

Name: Jillian Johnson

Previous Occupation: Blacksmith / Knight

Status: NPC (baseline)

Background: JoAnna and Jillian are both 2nd generation SCA and they have the exact same birth date. They got taken to the same meetings and events for years and ended up calling themselves "sisters".

Jillian was taught blacksmithing by her father (he'd wanted a boy). Before the end of the world, strength meant everything to her. She became a knight mostly to demonstrate that despite her Barbie doll looks she was stronger and better than any man. Then the world ended.

She and some of her fellow knights armored up, faced, and failed to stop the zombies. She wasn't strong enough to stop them, the survivors had to run. She wasn't even strong enough to stop an infected child from eating his baby brother. In her opinion she did a lot of growing up that day and is now more in touch with reality and what's important in life.

With the benefit of hindsight and perfect knowledge, the children would have survived if they’d been immune to the plague and/or had bulletproof skin. Alternatively if James had been there he would have been strong enough to stop them. Humanity is close to going under. Survival comes first. Most of the people still running around survived more by chance more than skill. That makes it clear with whom to ally and who should be siring the next generation.

Appearance: Jillian is a tall, well built blue-eyed blond in her early 20's. Most people find it hard to see past the sexy "Barbie" doll stereotype to the muscles on top of muscles. Jillian normally wears very functional clothing.

EDIT: 8 Style Dice against men (i.e. App 4, Style 2, Sexy Merit) (was 7). She also has 7 (was 6) dice in Might.

Name: JoAnna Harrison

Previous Occupation: Magician

Status: NPC (baseline)

Background: JoAnna and Jillian are both 2nd generation SCA and they have the exact same birth date. They got taken to the same meetings and events for years and ended up calling themselves "sisters".

JoAnna has always enjoyed being the center of attention. Her parents dressed her up like a princess when she was small. She turned to stage magic to keep the spotlight when she got older. She was getting ready for "the big time" when the world fell apart. She fled to the SCA's 'last stand', then she and some others fled away from it.

This brave new world she's found herself in has no magic or entertainment profession, although if she's any judge it has "for Real" magic. Everything considered, she's happy with her current situation. As James "business manager" she has attention and influence. The enclave has resources, including two doctors and two nurses James saved by leaping onto a hospital roof.

She hooked up with James for multiple reasons. First, it was obvious he was going to be the center of attention, and if you can't beat them, join them. Neither James, nor Jillian has a head for business and/or trading, so her running the business helps everyone. For one example of many, James needs someone to run things during his frequent absences. There were other advantages, with the break down in law and order, "my boyfriend will kill you" is much more impressive than a "no". Better still, if science is right then James probably has a mutated version of the zombie plague. If myth is right then he's some kind of a god. In either case the "magic" might be contagious.

Appearance: JoAnna is a stunningly attractive green-eyed brunet in her early 20's (9 style dice against men). She normally dresses to attract attention.

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[Courier]

James’ New Followers:

Name: Helen Jackie Davidson

Nature: Survivor (previously somewhere between Traditionalist and Judge)

Previous Occupation: Vet

Status: NPC (baseline)

Appearance: Before the guards burned her face off, Helen was a tall alluring blue eyed blond with a great figure in her mid twenties. Now she hides her figure and wears her scarred face openly. Style = 8, 10 against men.

http://www.aliasparfil2001.com/photos/saison%205/Rachel-Gibson02.jpg

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http://www.ganda.me/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/rachel_nichols.jpg

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Background: Helen grew up in a large family with poor but devout Mormon parents. From them she learned the dual, sometimes conflicting lessons that tradition becomes tradition because it works, and that worship of god is no substitute for being pragmatic. There are slight rule changes, but in the larger sense the obvious moves are usually correct and the more things change, the more they remain the same. What this meant in practice was that hard work pays off and wasted chances do not.

Helen wasn’t the smartest in her class, but the ‘smarter’ students had parents who allowed TVs and didn’t insist on studying every night, she had the best grades. Helen was the prettiest, but it wasn’t hard to see that for every rich model/actress there are a thousand poor ones, but for every rich doctor there is another rich doctor. Helen's life plan went for realism rather than the long shot. She also realized early on if she wanted a serious education she’d have to fund it herself. Title 9 made that easy, she skipped the junk food and run track every day, ending up with a great body and a great education.

At some point Helen realized while Doctors earn more money than Vets, they also start with 6 or 7 digit debt loads because they spend 10 years longer in school. Normally becoming a Vet takes 8 years; Through AP credits and the like she did it in 6 and then found a job not that far from home.

When the world ended, her community and her family were better placed to survive than most. Rural rather than urban, lots of guns around by city standards, she even had the traditional Mormon three month supply of food on hand. It wasn’t enough. Half her family died the first week. Her boyfriend was bitten on day 7. Three months later she’d lost most of her remaining family and friends through various mishaps when yet another disaster struck.

She, her new boy friend, her remaining sister, and two others were moving a herd of animals to what they hoped would be a safer location when they stopped at a prison, and ended up slaves. Her boyfriend was forced to fight barehanded against a zombie in gladiatorial combat and ‘won’ at the cost of being infected.

The jackass guards selected her for special treatment, both because of her looks and her skills. After the guards had taken over they’d killed any inmate with serious medical problems. They’d also lost all of their medical personal to desertion or the plague. They desperately needed someone to provide medical care.

One of the guards claimed her as his own. The next day she drugged him. Then with him fully able to feel and hear but unable to move or scream, she explained that “first do no harm” wasn’t part of the Veterinarian Oath. She demonstrated that Vets have different skills and different attitudes towards their patients by castrating him.

The other guards beat her up (which she’d expected). They decided they needed her a little too much to kill her (which she also expected), then they burned the right half of her face off (which she hadn’t). They also told her if she ever stepped out of line again they’d do the same to her younger sister.

For months now she's been in constant pain which prevents her from sleeping, thinking, or feeling much. She lives from day to day and hour to hour and in her spare time worries about her sister who is still somewhere in this hell pit somewhere. The urgent medical task that the guards needed her for was mostly abortions. She's told them she doesn't think she can 'fix' the other inmates without killing them under these conditions.

In Helen’s view, it looks like everyone got it wrong. There was no ‘rapture’ (or everyone was unworthy) and the apocalypse came anyway. Tradition… doesn’t give lots of clues for what happens after the apocalypse (well, other than 'eye for an eye'), and she’s a little focused on staying alive right now to worry about it. If the really old books are right, then we’re now back at the time of heroes, prophets, miracles, and plagues. She really would have preferred a flood, but God didn’t ask for her input and she doesn’t expect he will. The reality is what the reality is.

[Courier]

James New Follower:

Name: Janella ("Jan") María García (maiden name)

Age: 21

Nature: Survivor (previously Follower)

Occupation: School teacher

Status: NPC (baseline)

Appearance: With dark hair, dark eyes, and a permanent sun tan, Janella is of mixed race and under different conditions looked like she could win a Miss Universe contest. More recently she's dressed to avoid attention, especially from men. http://www.vtc.vn/newsimage/original/vtc/vtc_7064_valerieDominguez.jpg Style = 10, 12 against men.

Background: Janella is the daughter of a former Miss Columbia and a Columbian banker (meaning he owned banks) 40 years her senior. Growing up in a rich, overly protective household, she matured into a stunningly attractive and naive woman.

A year ago her life was profoundly altered by two events. First, her father died, leaving most of the money to his first wife’s children who disliked her mother and by proxy, her. Second, she met Prince Charming, who swept her off her feet and married her. For several months things were wonderful with her rich American husband who, despite his faults, loved her.

Then she found out they weren’t spending his money, they were burning through hers. She separated from her evil, manipulative, bastard of a husband and took stock of her life. Her rat of a ‘husband’ had burned through her trust fund, and her employable skills basically came down to a degree in education. While she enjoyed and was good at teaching, in Columbia that would have been a huge step down from what she was used to.

However in America, being a teacher meant joining the middle class, not the lower one, so she talked to a lawyer, worked things out, and on Z-day was on her way to her husband’s place of work with divorce papers. Separated from his wife’s money, Joshua was working in a woman’s prison. Now Janella thanks God every day she told Josh she was there to see him without saying why. The end of the world was plain enough by the time they met that she told him she was there to “be with her husband” and was trying to save her marriage.

Now she’s in hell. To survive Janella’s gotten a lot stealthier to hide from the people that should be hidden from. She’s also become good at lying to people. She tells her husband she loves him and understands that ‘he has needs’ and she tells the other guards Josh would kill them if they touched her. She knows very well that Josh is Evil with a capital “E”, she thought that before z-day and is less than surprised at the depths to which he’s fallen. Sometimes she thinks of poisoning him and escaping, but she’s appallingly ill suited to survive on her own in this world and she knows it. Frequently she hangs out (i.e. hides) in the medical wing of the prison with Helen pretending to be useful, and hoping none of the guards come.