skeleton: Shipwreck character name: Walter Perez-Morales age & birthdate: 30, May 30, 1991 gender & pronouns: male, he/him birthplace: Durango, Mexico Occupation: Journalist fc: Sean Teale
THE OCEAN Walter was born in Mexico as the second-oldest with two other siblings below him. He was uprooted from his home city, filled with gorgeous architecture but no way for his parents to find work, to south Texas, where his father found a career as a truck driver. Â At eight years old, he only spoke Spanish, but picked up English quickly at school. Â From the beginning, he had a one-track mind, and nothing really got in the way of what he wanted. Â Not his friends, not his family. Â Heâd been called selfish more than a few times, but what others considered selfishness, Walter considered to be drive and focus. Â They didnât understand. What he really enjoyed was writing. Â Walter would spend countless hours underneath his blankets writing stories and poems, but after a while they somehow grew stale, no matter how much drama he would put into them. Â He became obsessed with stories that were real, stories that affected people. Â At fourteen, he applied to the local newspaper and got a part-time job after school to get the experience under his belt, but these stories bored him. Â Why was he interviewing new teachers when he could be digging up hard truths about his town: whoâs paying off whom, large scandals, and the like. Â The editor-in-chief immediately dismissed it as the musings of a kid who didnât know what he was talking about. Â So he would wait for his chance. Â In the meantime, he knew he had to learn to be nice. Â At least, nice enough to get stories and secrets from people. After he graduated from college with his journalism degree, he immediately picked up a reporter position at the Houston Chronicle, earning a reputation for himself as someone not to be messed with. Â His hyper-focus on stories and getting his finger on the pulse hurt more than a few feelings, but to Walter, feelings came second to a good story. Â He made his career a competition, hounding anyone for information so he would get to the story first. Â The only thing he would not do for a good scoop was falsify information; it would have to be the truth, or otherwise he was just writing fiction. In his mid-twenties he met and flirted with a woman in advertising named Bianca. Â She was smart and he appreciated how she understood how important his job was to him, because her job seemed just as important to her, too. Â After a while of them dating on and off, they decided to make it official and get married, because why not? Â It would make his parents very happy to see him settle down, and she worked where he worked, so it wasnât like things would change, really. Â Well, this was a terrible decision, as after about a year of their marriage Walter was not prioritizing Bianca over his career, and she realized he never did, and so they split it off. Â They still worked in the same building though, neither one willing to quit their job, so they were just tense coworkers. Â For a while. Walter was skimming old newspaper archives at the museum in his free time, typical reporter things, when he discovered something on the front page that caught his eye. Â It seemed like a sort of scandal from someone with the same last name as one of the editors for the Chronicle. Â He got to work in his usual way; forgoing eating and sleeping to dig through articles and try to goad people for any additional information, and his research was fruitful, as he discovered that the editor was a direct descendant of this scandal. Â He knew they would never publish it. Â But it was too big of a story. Â Without really thinking of the consequences, like always, Walter published the article online with no proofreaders, and with an alias. Â But his IP address was traced back to him, and he was fired.
ON LAND Journalism was his lifeblood, and without it he felt nothing.  Walter thought himself like Icarus, flying too close to the sun.  He had to find a way to get himself back into journalism, but no large publications were taking him due to his new reputation, and he was out of options.  His last option was to turn to the small town of Portvale, remembering his cousin who lived there.  The mermaids she believed in were nonsense, and writing fiction went against everything he believed in, butâŚhe was out of options.  So, heâd try a new town and see if there was anything to dig up.
PERSONALITY Walter believes what he believes, and is not fond of listening to other peopleâs ideas. Â Instead of listening to other peopleâs perspectives, much like a journalist would, he always wrote stories with the focus about what he thought about them. Â He has a large tendency to be self-centered and single-minded. Â He thrives off the praise of others, and falls hard when he doesnât receive that. Â He thinks very highly of his writing ability and himself, and he is never wrong.
EXTRAS Pinterest // Spotify HEADCANONS -Walter is allergic to shellfish.  Whoops -When he was 10 years old he created a newspaper for the family but he got in major trouble for using up the color cartridge on the printer. -Moving to Texas, he thought it would be mostly cactuses and cowboys and he was immensely disappointed when Houston was just a city.  This didnât stop him from begging for boots and a hat and wearing them every day for a year. -His favorite movie is The Lion King. -He loves his family, sure, but he never really got close with them.  He misses out on a lot of reunions and after a while his siblings sort of stopped asking him around to things. -Enjoys warm Dr. Pepper.
















