SAMANTHA LOGAN & SHE/HER ⸻ i saw FINCH RIPLEY coming through the trees. the 26 year old was fleeing from FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA when they came across novac, and have sought salvation within the motel of purgatory. FINCH RIPLEY has been in town for 1.5 YEARS and has been assigned as a STABLEHAND to keep society running smoothly. no matter what, they will find something to fight for. ⸻ KAILA, SHE/HER, 30, EST, NONE.
nicknames for finch: fin, finny
BIO UNDER CUT
PRE-APOCALYPSE:
Jude and Katrina Ripley did not expect to have twins but when Katrina gave birth to their first child, a daughter who they named Bishop, the doctor announced another child was on their way. Unprepared for a second child, Katrina gave birth to another girl they would name Finch. Finch and her twin sister spent much of their childhood raising themselves. Their parents weren’t purposefully neglectful, but were flighty and often left the two on their own. They struggled financially consistently throughout childhood and relied on meals provided by the school for breakfast and lunch. Bishop developed a resentment towards their parents while Finch was more forgiving. The twins balanced each other in this way. Where Finch could be overly idealistic, Bishop was quite realistic.
When their parents were not home, which was often, the girls spent time at a neighbors house. It started at about four years old when the two girls went next door to ask for some mac and cheese mix. The Cassidy family was the sort of family one could only hope to have been born into. It was in this house that Finch would meet Rain. A boy who would go on to be, at first, her best friend then the love of her life. Rain and Finch started dating at the beginning of middle school and after that never broke up. Finch loved spending time with the Cassidy family. As a result of this, a group of four formed- Bishop, Finch, Rain, and a boy named Rafferty Wessex. Rafferty came from a more wealthy part of town but always could be found with the other three. Whether that meant him biking to them or the three biking to him. The latter option was not quite as fun considering they had to fit all three of them on one bike. Still, they made it work.
DAY 1 - YEAR 1:
Jude and Katrina happened to be home the day everything started. The twins let them know they would be at Rafe’s ski resort and left the house. In years after it happened, Finch often reflected upon how lucky they were to be at the resort when they were. Flagstaff was already isolated to begin with, but the ski resort was even more isolated. This isolation saved their lives. Their parents were not quite as lucky. Rafe’s parents were in Europe during the outbreak, so they never got official word on whether or not the couple survived. Rain’s parents were at home, just like Jude and Katrina, but they weren’t seen after that day. Finch hoped they made it out and simply were searching for their children. Finch and Bishop’s parents, however, were easy to locate. By the time they got to them, the couple were runners. Six months into things, they finally felt safe enough to venture back to their homes. They were accompanied by some older, more experienced people now living at the resort. Finch and Bishop found their parents still in their home. Both girls put down their parents, collected their belongings, and left the house never to return.
YEAR 2 + ONWARD:
A community formed at the ski lodge, a mix of tourists and people from Flagstaff. A few of the older people had some military experience that would come in handy when it came to combat related things. They took a lot of time teaching the other residents of the community. Prior to the outbreak, Finch had zero survival skills. After the outbreak, and the years onward, she had limited survival skills. Finch hardly ever left the safety of their little community for this reason. She was never one sent out on scavenging missions or patrols. The only times she left was when the four kids would sneak out, heading to the top of a ski slope.
Roughly eight years into the outbreak, every one had settled into a routine. Maybe they’d gotten a bit too comfortable. It seemed like there were less and less infected, and if you didn’t venture too far then it almost seemed like the world was normal again. For her birthday that year Rain gave her a kitten. A woman in the community had brought along her Chinchilla Persian cats and that year Rain had asked her if he could trade for a kitten. That was how they got a tiny white kitten that Finch would name Everest.
A few months later, on a particularly cold and snowy morning, three of the four decided to head up the ski slope. Bishop was off finishing up her job, so it would just be Finch, Rain, and Rafe. They left Everest sleeping in his basket and off they went. When they got to the top of the slope they noticed the huge mass of infected headed towards the lodge. Bishop, Finch thought. Then Everest. She knew she had to go back. When she voiced that, Rafe immediately told her they couldn’t. That the group was too large. He said if they went back, they would die. Finch didn’t process a word of it and instead took off down the hill. They warned as many people as they could before reaching their room. Once there, they found it empty save for the sleeping kitten in the corner. Hoping that Bishop would return whilst they were packing, they gathered their things into backpacks and added some layers for extra warmth. Bishop didn’t return, and as they were standing and debating what to do they felt the group hit. By the time they made it towards where Bishop might be, it was overwhelming. Finch turned a corner and was immediately confronted by one of the infected. A moment away from death- just as the thing’s mouth was going to latch down on her neck, Rain intervened. He grabbed it and thrust it away, getting his own arm caught in its mouth as he did so.
The rest of the infected in that area piled on Rain, leaving Finch and Rafe with no other option but to run. He had already disappeared by the time they turned away. The two made it to the top of the slope again and collapsed in exhaustion. Rafe, Finch immediately thought, had been right. Rain was dead. Bishop was not with them. They had managed to save Everest, who was sleeping inside of her jacket as if nothing had happened. The aftermath of that day haunted Finch. Rafe held Rain’s death against her. As they sat on the slope he told her that she had killed Rain, that he had warned them about this happening. She blocked everything following that out. Rain, she knew, had been her soulmate. She loved him, and now he was dead. And it was quite plain to tell that he had taken part of Rafe with him in doing so. The two were never the same after that.
Rafe and Finch arrived at Novac about six months later, and though they share a room, it is still incredibly cold between them. Finch felt like Rafe hated her, but it seemed that hate did not go far enough to let her go completely. He had made sure she reached Novac safely, and hadn’t insisted on having separate rooms when they first got there.
A year and a half later Finch has adjusted to life in Novac as well as can be expected. She misses her twin sister (who she truly believes is still alive) and Rain deeply. When she’s not working as a stablehand she can usually be found drawing. Of the two twins, Finch had always been the happy go lucky one. Bubbly and outgoing, she’d often dragged her sister along to socializing events. After Rain’s death, however, she changed quite a bit. Most people in Novac probably wouldn’t have guessed she was that type of person. Now she stays mostly quiet until she gets to know a person.
