* 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭𝒐𝒖𝒕 .

      ⟢            ONE      ,            BASICS .

name.     cordelia louise van der rohe.         nicknames.     none,  don’t you dare.         age.     forty-three.         birthdate.     january 7th.         hometown.     baltimore,  maryland.         gender.     cis woman.         pronouns.     she & her.         sexual & romantic orientation.     lesbian.         affiliation.     community one.         territory.     cedar grove.         positive   traits.     assertive,  competent,  decisive.         neutral   traits.     daring,  outspoken,  questioning.         negative   traits.     curt,  mean,  obsessive.

      ⟢            TWO      ,            STORY .

(  !  )   CW   :     LORE RELATED TOPICS,  OVER-EXIGENT PARENTING,  DADDY ISSUES.

born into a family of surgeons,  it wasn’t truly a surprise when you became one.   but before that,  there was a childhood,  one that looked perfectly happy and normal until you realized that being crushed by the weight of expectations wasn’t the norm for a child at all.

you never complained,  though.   how could you do it with a silver spoon tucked between your teeth ?   how could you do it when your reality was way better than several others around you ?   so you sucked it up and lived your childhood days in a household full of exigencies,  inside a legacy that always demanded more  —  you were taught from an early age to have an opinion because your voice had to matter;  that discipline was the core pillar of everything;  and that the chance to make the right first impression was one you couldn’t afford to waste.

you grew up surrounded by demands that didn’t subside with time;  on the contrary,  they became bigger,  heavier,  more brutal.   and so did you.   by the time you entered adolescence,  you were a force to be reckoned with,  excelling in everything you did—gymnastics ?   medals hung on the walls of your father's study with pride.   school ?   aced every test,  every homework.   social life ?   you were known and feared and desired just as you were supposed to be.   you were brilliant,  relentless,  and always aiming for more because there was always another expectation,  a higher one.   there was always another goal to achieve,  another record to beat,  another gold to win.   and you were always right on the edge of your seat,  ready to fight for a new accomplishment.

medical school was just the next one when the time for college came,  and you aced it as you did everything else.   however,  relentless as you have been your whole life,  you never realized how tired you were until the freedom of college showed you a different world,  a world full of perspectives and decisions that,  for the first time,  were yours to make.   hence decisions you made,  paths you chose,  and disappointment you saw in your parents’ eyes for the first time in your life when you decided to become a pediatrician instead of something else,  anything else.

but you were beyond caring at that point;  you were,  for the first time,  beyond expectations.   you have decided for yourself,  and that gave you a liberty,  an independence that felt both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.

and with it,  you ran away.

you’ll never truly know what made you do it;  you only knew it felt right  —  leaving baltimore,  leaving the household that imprisoned you for years,  and a legacy you never wanted in the first place.   you took a flight to california one morning and never looked back,  and there you started a new life.

it had been decades of doing exactly what you wanted,  and how you wanted it when the world went downhill.   as the scientist you were,  you attributed the first event as an isolated issue,  one that could be easily put under control with the right actions;  however,  when an isolated issue became multiple,  when it started to expand,  when it stopped being news on your screen and started being a problem walking down the street,  you knew something was very wrong.

you were locked behind the doors of your workplace sometime in may,  and you were safe there for a while.   but as it happened with a lot of other places,  everything collapsed after a few weeks,  and you were forced to move.   luckily,  you’ve always been an assertive woman,  one who always knew what they wanted and how she wanted it,  someone who learned early on that her voice had to be heard,  and that,  literally,  took you places.

that’s how you arrived in cedar grove,  after you saw several safe zones collapse.   you did it with a heavy heart,  a bag full of losses,  a stoic countenance,  and little faith.   why would this one stick if any of the others did ?   the thing was—you never knew how to work outside of a community,  how to survive without being useful,  how to make it without helping others;  you still don’t know to this day.   so you pitch yourself when you arrive  (  because you’re insanely good at it  ),  and you convince them,  as much as yourself,  that you’re an asset they can’t afford to lose,  that they have no idea how many lives you’ll save if they take you in.

and so you do.   every day,  from dawn to sunset,  you take care of people.   you’re not the warmest of them all,  but you care,  and you’re insanely good at things people need you to be good at  —  patching someone up,  calming a stressed parent down,  making a kid smile despite the thuds you can hear on the doors at night.

and yes,  you don’t know how long this one will last;  you don’t believe it will at all,  but for now it’s here,  and you’ll do everything in your power to make it work.

      ⟢            THREE      ,            HEADCANONS .

     i.     cordelia’s character is difficult and harsh.   she has very low tolerance and will call you on your bullshit without a second thought.   she doesn’t appreciate stupidity,  disrespect,  or overfamiliarity.   however,  she has a terribly soft side that can often be seen around kids or in private with those she cares about.      ii.     she was a pediatric surgeon and a stanford academic for decades before the outbreak,  and she still carries her most important medical journals with her.   you can find her journaling quietly from time to time,  trying to wrap her mind around what’s happening and find some answers to whatever’s attacking the world.      iii.     she still believes there’s a cure out there,  even though this belief dwindles by the day,  which makes her stupidly angry.   she hardly ever talks about this,  though,  since she considers hope to be a useless thing.      iv.     you won't see her scavenging or killing zombies because she doesn't know how to wield anything that isn't a scalpel,  but she’s brilliant and a mean cook.   she can make meals from scratch with almost anything,  so from time to time,  reluctantly,  she’ll offer to cook for the rest of the group so all of them can have a decent meal.      v.      she doesn't go out unless it is strictly necessary.   actually,  she has done it once since arriving in cedar grove,  and it was because others seemed useless at locating the specific medical supplies they were lacking.   it was one of the worst experiences of her life,  so she tries to avoid leaving the community as much as she can.      vi.     hates reading but loves to do it for kids,  so you will find her doing this,  especially when things get difficult or particularly scary.   she will gather all the kids in a safe corner,  make them as comfortable as possible,  and use her sweetest voice to read stories to them until they fall asleep or forget about the world a little.      vii.     she’s as scary with grown-ups as she is sweet with little ones.   has a perpetual resting bitch face that only breaks when she’s interacting with children,  so feel free to be surprised if you see her interacting with them because it is A Sight™.      viii.     annoyingly uptight,  mean asf,  hardcore lesbian.   despite the outbreak, she somehow still manages to look put together,  clean,  and unfazed.   is this real ?   ABSOLUTELY NOT !   she’s scared to death,  but she’d rather be thrown into a pit of zombies than admit it.      ix.     she doesn’t have much to offer when it comes to exchanges,  but she knows how to make herself useful and indispensable.   she has shown so much by taking care of everyone,  treating from a little cold to the roughest of injuries,  so i headcanon most people within community one respect her and do her favors if she needs them.      x.     oh !   she practiced gymnastics from a very early age;  her parents enrolled her in classes because they thought it would teach her discipline  (  they were right  ),  so despite not looking the part,  she’s very physically dexterous and stealthy.   sadly,  she hasn’t realized how useful this can be during an apocalypse lmao.

      ⟢            ONE      ,            BASICS .

name.     jack tian.         nicknames.     jay,  tian,  bear  ( by her foster brother only ).         age.     thirty-three.         birthdate.     november 27th.         hometown.     portland,  oregon.         gender.     demi woman.         pronouns.     she & they.         sexual & romantic orientation.     lesbian.         affiliation.     independent survivors.         territory.     ventura county.         positive traits.     charming,  even-tempered,  resourceful.         neutral traits.     mischievous,  driven,  outspoken.         negative traits.     impetuous,  wayward,  derisive.

      ⟢            TWO      ,            STORY .

(  !  )   CW   :     COMMON LORE TOPICS,  ORPHANHOOD,  A BIT OF GORE.

you never had anything to lose,  not really.   everything you knew,  since the first one of your memories,  was the cracked walls of st. claire orphanage,  the empty cross above the threshold,  the thin line formed by sister valerie’s pursed lips when you made her mad  (  and the wrinkles around her eyes when you made her laugh  ).   you only knew of second-hand clothes,  second-hand toys,  and sharing a bedroom with nine other girls.   and once you grew up and made it out of the only place you ever called home,  life didn’t get any easier.   how could it for a girl with a broken past and no future ?   so when it happens,  the outbreak of an apocalyptic virus—it doesn’t surprise you.   you’re an adult already,  out of the system for years,  and working as a martial arts trainer since you were twenty-five and you earned your black belt.   you’re so used to chaos,  to loss,  to despair,  that seeing the world going down in the flames of disgusting monsters,  fueled by humanity’s selfishness,  seems like any other day for you.   

yet it isn’t.  

the night you lost the last resemblance of normalcy you had,  you’re pulled out of your bed by his hand,  hastily,  roughly,  and the panic in his voice when he tells you   “  they’re here,  they’re everywhere,  we have to run  ”   is something you have never managed to forget,  not completely.   you only accomplish putting your boots on and throwing a hoodie over your head before a backpack is shoved into your chest,  and he’s once again pulling you towards the exit,  through the door of the first place you were able to call home because both of you had built it together.

it is gone in a heartbeat.

survival is a tricky thing,  but not a new one.   after all,  surviving is what you’ve been doing since the first breath you took,  hence getting the hand of this new reality is not a challenging task  —  you both make it in the blink of an eye,  the blood staining your hands and the entrails quelching under your foot not even making you flicker,  however,  witnessing the greed and cruelty of humans does,  and it starts filling you with a rage that warms your cheeks with fury and makes wrath simmer in the pit of your stomach.   you learn to use it as a fuel to survive,  to bury the guilt you feel when you have to choose between others and you,  when the skulls you crash and the lives you end still look too much like a human,  even when they’re not anymore.

unexpectedly,  you’re bad with weapons,  even when you try.   and you try hard,  but it never works for you.   you are sharp and daring and resourceful,  though,  your slim body fits everywhere,  and your steps are so silent you soon discover you’re able to hunt and recover things even in the most hostile of places.   he opposes at first,  of course he does,  because he has to take care of you,  but you’ve always had a fire in you,  an impetuosity that doesn’t allow people to tell you what to do,  not truly.   so he concedes,  eventually,  after screaming matches that last entire afternoons and leave you both exhausted,  after days of iced silence following them,  after pleading and stomping your foot and crossing your arms so severely —like you used to do when you were but children— that you know he’s trying not to laugh.   he concedes,  and you become a team:  he guards and lifts and waits while you put your life at risk without knowing that you’re doing it,  lack of understanding permeating your furrowed brows when you come back and he expels a relieved sigh.

(  “  what ?  ”   you ask,  bothered,  when his eyes scan you worriedly.   every time,  he mutters a simple nothing,  helping you with whatever you managed to get from your life-threatening excursion.   every time,  he ignores the way you scoff.  )

that’s how you survive,  jumping from one place to another,  from one safe zone to the next,  none of them ever feeling truly like a home.   yet it doesn’t matter,  because you don’t need one:  he is your home,  and you are his.   nonetheless,  when california comes into view two months later,  when its doors open for you,  you look at each other with complicity  —  the place is not a dream,  is not a sanctuary,  but it’s something you manage to make work.

so you stay.

      ⟢            THREE      ,            HEADCANONS .

     i.     jack has a foster brother  (  wc on main  )  that she met when she was four,  and he arrived at the orphanage.   he was a sour,  sulking kid a few years older than her,  but already a lot more experienced in the harshness of life.   despite being bothered by jack and her presence at first  (  she was very annoying,  we can’t blame him  ),  he ended up warming up to her and,  to this day,  is her fiercest protector.        ii.     a troublemaker through and through,  they find great joy in wreaking havoc despite the reality they’re living.   however,  and regardless of the mischief in their intentions,  their shenanigans are often harmless.        iii.     despite being terrible with any sort of weapon,  she always carries a pocket knife with her.   she uses it to peel and slice fruits … mostly.        iv.     they have a black and white cat called tuxedo,  they found him on the way to california a month ago,  and they’ve been inseparable since then.   jack will prioritize his needs over theirs any day.      v.     as an avid reader since the dawn of her childhood,  jack devours books voraciously,  and she’s been building a collection since the outbreak started.   every time she has the chance to scavenge,  aside from food,  her main priority is finding books.      vi.     they were a mixed martial arts trainer pre-outbreak,  and their abilities had come in handy pretty much at every turn since all of this started,  to his brother's chagrin.   they train every day at dawn to keep themselves in shape,  and to always remember what they once learned.      vii.     utterly fond of nature,  she’s always rescuing flowers and caressing plants,  even though she can’t take them home.   she dreams to have a place again one day that she can fill with greenery.      viii.     if they have the chance to get their hands on some coffee,  they take care of it with their life.   they love to have a cup very early in the morning,  black and bitter on an empty stomach.