Elliot Hayes
He/Him
24 years old
Peaceful
50 kg
Personality
He's generally a calm and easy going person, preferring to avoid conflict when he can and usually trying to find the more peaceful solution to a problem. He's friendly once he gets comfortable around someone, although first impressions can be a bit awkward due to how nervous and distracted he can get.
His mind is often all over the place, so he tends to fidget constantly, playing with whatever is nearby while talking. He'll twist something in his hand, spin it, toss it up and catch it, or roll something between his fingers. A coin or one of his self-carved little toys will usually end up in his hands without him even thinking about it. He can sometimes lose track of a conversation when his mind starts wandering, and doesn't mean to ignore people when it happens. He's not particularly loud or outgoing, but once he considers someone a friend he becomes much more open and playful. He can have a dry sense of humur and doesn't mind making fun of himself, especially when he does something stupid. He's also fairly particular about his hands and nails. He hates keeping them dirty and can become uncomfortable when he can't clean himself after working. He knows he probably washes his hands more than he needs to, but it's something he struggles to ignore .When it comes to violence, he's not someone who enjoys it or looks for fights. He'd rather run, hide or talk his way out of a dangerous situation than hurt someone. If he's forced into a situation where violence is unavoidable, he'll defend himself, but he isn't going to chase someone down just because he has the opportunity. Drugs can also be something he turns to when things become overwhelming, something he's used in the past to quiet his mind and make difficult situations more tolerable.
Overall, he's a fairly gentle person who has learned to survive without completely losing the softer parts of himself. He still wants to enjoy the little things he used to care about, even if those things are harder to find now
Appearance
He's a 24 year old guy, slim and loosk a bit feminine in appearance, standing around an average height with a lean build. Long messy blonde hair that falls ussually around his face and neck, despite looking unkept he keeps it rather clean and his skin washed, often than not there is cracks of dry skin on his knuckles from overwashing.
He is youthful looking and makes it easy to mistake him for a girl at first glance, (specially from behind with the long hair).
His height is at 5'5¨.
His eyes are blue and his skin is light, he wears loose clothes or just prefers them a few sizes too big...more cloth I guess!
Background
He was born in Tennessee around 1970, grew up with a working class family, focused a lot on wood work from his father and grandfather which then passed down to him, mostly from him helping from a young age.He found it more fun to make things rather than to play sports, so outdoors became a fun activity for him. Camping, fishing, carving and wood work became a focus for him, with music also becoming a huge thing in his life.
He eventually grew into adulthood and begun to take the woodworking more seriously, it's what he had done since young so it became easy to figure out what to do. Taking capentry jobs and working alongside other people helped him take a path in life rather than be lost wandering and wondering what to do or what education to do.Even despite liking small projects and restorations, he focused more on working his style into things and finding more joy out of finishing something quickly and making it his own thing than large projects and mass production.
(Trigger warning - Homophobia...)
During his younger years he dated a girl and genuinely did not care about it, he just felt out of place for a odd reason. Rather than confronting the feeling, he learned to keep it to himself, so hiding that part of himself became second nature. He wasn't necessarily ashamed of who he was, but he was afraid of how people might treat him if they knew... that he was attrated to men (Gay). Eventually, work brought him to Knox County, Kentucky. He had taken a temporary carpentry job in the area and expected to remain there only for a short period before returning home. Instead, on March 9th, 1993, everything he knew about the world changed.
(end of said trigger warning...)
The first thing he noticed was the pounding. At first he couldn't understand where it was coming from. Then the rifts began appearing. He had no idea what they were and initially struggled to comprehend what he was seeing. When the undead began emerging from them, his first reaction wasn't to fight or investigate. It was to get as far away from them as possible. For a brief moment he even wondered if he was hallucinating, given his previous experiences with psycedelics, but the panic of everyone around him quickly made it clear that whatever was happening was real. The following days were a blur of fear and survival. The world he had known disappeared almost overnight. He had to learn quickly that the things he once took for granted, food, shelter, electricity, safety, and other people could no longer be relied upon. He avoided large groups when possible and learned to keep his head down, conserve what he had, and make use of whatever skill he could.
During the first months he mostly focused on surviving, keeping away from anything that looked like unnecessary trouble and finding places where he could stay for a while. He quickly found that being able to work with wood was useful, helping people repair doors, shelters, furniture and whatever else needed fixing. He wasn't a fighter and never wanted to be one, so being useful became his way of making sure he wasn't just another guy. As time went on he moved between different places and people, sometimes staying for weeks or months before moving again. He learned more about the undead and how dangerous the new world could be, becoming more careful about where he went and who he trusted. He still tried to avoid violence whenever possible, but after nearly two years he wasn't nearly as shocked by it as he was when the rifts first appeared.
A lot of the things he used to enjoy became harder to find. Music was no longer something he could simply turn on whenever he wanted, and drugs became something he couldn't just find whenever he felt like it. Sitting around a fire was no longer just something he did for fun, but he still found himself enjoying those quiet moments when they happened.
His carpentry remained one of the most useful things he had. By December 1994 he had become much more accustomed to the world around him...
