Post by Arthur Kirkland on Apr 17, 2011 3:54:45 GMT -8
(Kidnap the Sandy Claws.)
OOC
Player Name: Clara
Player Age: 18
Instant Messengers: [MSN] eatmybloodyscones@hotmail.com
IC
Nation: England
Name: Arthur Kirkland
Vault of Origin: Vault 13 [Lansing, Michigan]
Age: 24
DoB: April 23
Sex: Male
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 125 lbs
Appearance:
The feature that people probably notice first and remember the most about Arthur is his eyebrows. They're thick and prominent, couplying with his English accent to give a not-so-subtle hint at his heritage. Below those brows, however, is a pair of vivid green eyes, accentuated by thick lashes. His blonde hair is unruly at best, no matter how many times he brushes it. He's naturally a rather lean sort of man, lanky at worst. However, due to the war and the consequences of it, he's become even thinner than a male his age ought to be. (But then again, isn’t everyone?)
Caravan: N/A
Position in Caravan: N/A
Town: Reno, Nevada (Also known as Gomorrah)
Job: Weapons repair, specializing in guns
Pet: None.
Personality: Deny it all you want, but Arthur is - and always has been - a gentleman. He places great importance on propriety, and will not hesitate to correct others should they be overly rambunctious. To aid him in doing this is a rather sharp tongue, which is constantly loaded with sarcastic quips and sharp comments. Still, he is courteous when need be - even when it's unnecessary to mind his manners, because he doesn't believe such moments exist -, and places emphasis on the need for chivalry.
Because of his preference for such outdated customs and mannerisms, he is often compared to an old man. He enjoys staying home to curl up on his favorite armchair with a cup of tea in one hand, and his favorite book in the other... which brings us to Arthur's often hidden love for all that is romantic. Few people know this, but deep inside, Arthur has always been a huge romantic. It's blatant in his choice of favourite books, which include, but are not limited to, Wuthering Heights, A Tale of Two Cities, Pride and Prejudice, and Jane Eyre.
Despite his literature preference and tendency to act like a gentleman, it doesn't take long for most people to figure out that Arthur has quite a terrible temper - and that it doesn't take much to trigger it. Once angered, his language becomes much coarser than it usually is, and he tends to be more liberal with his curses.
As he is easily angered, he finds himself conflicted with many, many people. Unfortunately, once someone gets onto Arthur's bad side, they're likely to remain there for a while. He has a tendency to carry grudges for quite a long time. Coupled with this are his severe trust issues, which may or may not be part of the reason why he is so hard to get along with. He'll be polite and play nice, but that doesn't mean he will readily believe everything you do and say. In fact, he's likely to doubt some of the nicer things people tell him, if only because he just isn't used to it.
This being said, should Arthur ever be confronted with an issue he can't solve through his intelligence and wit (that is, more emotional matters), he'll likely turn to denial. If he's lonely, for example, he'll likely convince himself that he doesn't actually feel that way. This phase doesn't last too long, though, and he's quick to move on to mocking himself to make himself feel better. In short, Arthur has a rather pessimistic attitude, and will likely be found saying 'it's impossible' more than 'it's possible'.
All this combined make him a very hard person to befriend... and thus, he doesn't have many people he's close with. There's only a limited number of people that he truly cares about in return, though he's in constant denial of this concern. Though he tries to act as if his lack of companions don't bother him, deep inside, it's one of the biggest troubles on his mind. Yes, he enjoys his times of peace and quiet, and yes, he does have his mythical companions (that no one else can really see), but sometimes, he desires for something more. No matter how much he denies it (both to others and himself), Arthur gets lonely rather easily.
Arthur in general actually seems like quite a melancholy man, especially because he dwells more in the past than think about the present, or the future. He may seem as a rather pitiable sort of man due to all this, but hardly anyone knows this side of him. He usually maintains a domineering, strong persona in front of others, and oftentimes paints himself as a heartless person due to his sharp words and rather prickly personality. Arthur doesn't mind this at all, because it keeps people away from the more sensitive parts of himself.
That's actually a very complicated part of Arthur Kirkland. He desires companionship, but fears abandonment to the point where he will try to keep himself from getting close to anyone. He figures that, if there's no one he's close to, then he wouldn't have to suffer the pain of being abandoned. This inevitably leads to loneliness - something he's learned to deal with, but also something that causes him much distress when there's no one around. But, he also figures that being lonely is much better than being brokenhearted.
Beneath everything, though, Arthur really does have a compassionate heart. Unlike some people, though, he keeps it well-hidden and protected, rather than wearing it on his sleeve. It takes a very, very long time to reach that side of him, though, because he'll always be afraid that he'll be abandoned and left brokenhearted. This gentler side is arguably his 'true' side, the one he keeps hidden away because he fears getting mocked or hurt. He's learned over the years that only pain can come from openly displaying your emotions, and so he tries to keep his gentleness hidden.
Don't be fooled by these sides of him, though, because like every human being, Arthur has multiple layers that make him a very complicated man. One layer that can hardly be forgotten is his more cunning side, one that is emphasized by his sharp mind and tactical ability. His actions are well-planned and executed with nothing less than perfection, and isn't afraid to be the only one standing in the face of an enemy.
He'll also do some regrettable things in order to protect his pride, and finds it difficult to ask others for help. It's only when he can't get any more desperate that he begins inching towards a chosen few for help, as his competitive side strengthens his hatred for losing.
Unfortunately for him, this pride of his is often wounded when he gets drunk. Old habits die hard, after all, and England is certainly no exception. Despite claiming to have left his days as a delinquent far behind, he still carries with him a love for alcoholic beverages. It's his lack of tolerance that gets him drunk before quite a few others, and thus leads to embarrassing situations that often depress him when he sobers up and remembers. When he's inebriated, he'll turn into a bitter, violent delinquent. However, this just goes to show that, underneath it all, he's still very capable of being a merciless rebel when need be.
A bit of nihilism wouldn’t hurt anyone, right?
Strengths:
☆Sharp wit
☆Resourceful
☆Staying calm in bad situations
☆Can think on his feet
☆Capable strategist
☆Self-sufficient
☆Determination
☆Very logical
☆Leadership
Weaknesses:
★Can't swim
★Children
★Pessimist
★Handles rejection poorly
★Misplaces things easily
★Self-expression
★Doesn't trust people easily; Paranoia
★Temper
★Pride
★Alcohol
★Self-deprecating
Equipment/Weapons: Arthur is a cautious man. He has with him at all times two Browning Hi-Power L9A1 pistols, as well as a good amount of extra cartridges for the guns. However, for safety’s sake, he carries with him two knives, a Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife and a Bowie knife. As for regular equipment, he carries very little on himself, preferring to travel light and have only the bare necessities. To him, this includes items such as a lighter (only half-full of gas), a small blanket, a Grohmann #101 Standard Skinner knife (for skinning animals), and, of course, a slightly worn copy of Pride and Prejudice.
History: Thirty years ago, on one of the very few ships that made the voyage from England to America, Jane Evans and Henry Kirkland met. Jane was sweet, gentle, and adhered strictly to tradition, while Henry was dynamic, quick-tempered, and a bit of a nihilist. He was nine years her senior and an utter rebel, but also the love of her life. She was sickly and almost boring, but he treasured her more than anything.
They were married as soon as the boat hit shore, and went to live in Vault 13 with some of Henry’s ‘relatives’, the O’Connors. While Jane immediately suffered from homesickness and had trouble adjusting to her new surroundings and family, Henry fit right in and quickly succumbed to his wanderlust. He was gone for often months at a time, but never failed to bring back gifts of food, clothes, and books for Jane to enjoy.
However, Jane never really settled and grew comfortable with the O’Connors until she made her first friend, Shannon. The two women bonded relatively quickly, and it wasn’t long before they became as close as sisters.
It wasn’t until Shannon gave birth to two lovely ginger-haired twins, Conner and Erin, that Jane began to play with the idea of having children. However, the idea was gone as soon as it came. Henry would undoubtedly reject the proposal, and claim that it would be just another thing tying him down to one place. So, Jane just contented herself with helping Shannon raise the two children, and treating them as if they were her own.
Unfortunately, when the twins were about five, the O’Connors decided to leave Vault 13 for greener pastures. Henry and Jane decided to stay. It was during this time that Jane finally decided to try and ask for a child, if only to keep her company now that Shannon and the twins were gone. Unfortunately, just as she expected, Henry refused… not because he didn’t want to be tied down to one place – that had happened as soon as he married Jane; wherever she was, he’d be drawn to, no matter how far he travelled –, but because he was afraid of fatherhood. He wasn’t ready to be a child’s role model, and so pushed the topic far away.
Henry agreed to having children an entire eight years after the O’Connors moved, after he came home unexpectedly early to find his wife crying. It hit him, then, just how unhappy and lonely she’d been, and not even his fears were enough to help him with his guilt.
They had a child, a healthy, albeit skinny, baby boy, the following year. Jane named him Arthur, after the legendary king of Camelot.
Now, if there was one thing that the happy couple had in common, it had to be their love of literature. They read to their son daily, even when Arthur was too young to understand them, beginning with fairytales and slowly transitioning into great classics such as Crime and Punishment and Wuthering Heights when the boy grew older.
Jane and Henry made sure to raise him like a proper Englishman. He attained their accent, having spent time with only them and thus adopting their way of speech, and knew England’s culture and history like the back of his hand. In fact, he seemed to be more of a boy taken straight out of England years before the war, rather than a boy born years after it.
When Henry was out satisfying his wanderlust (though he made it a point to come back much faster now, and was only gone for a few weeks in contrast to the months he used to be gone), Jane took the opportunity to tell him many stories. She told him about her life in London, how she met and fell in love with Henry, and, most importantly, the best and quite probably only friend she’d ever had, Shannon. She told him about the twins, too, and how she wished to see them now that they were probably much older and grown up. Arthur would remember these stories until he was a fully-grown adult.
While Jane taught Arthur the more sentimental values of life, Henry taught him the more practical aspects of it. He taught his son how to barter, how to assemble, disassemble, and shoot a gun, how to fight, how to defend himself, and how to survive in the wild. But, most important of all, he taught Arthur about life outside of Vault 13.
It didn’t take long for the couple to discover that Arthur inherited his father’s wanderlust. It started with small trips, at first, where Arthur would just dawdle along the edges of Vault 13 for a day or so, and then come back home. However, as Arthur grew older and more rebellious, he began traveling further, even with Jane’s constant pleas for him to stay at home.
Arthur wanted to experience the world his father had seen. Unfortunately for him, his haughty attitude landed him in trouble the first few times he encountered people who weren’t scared off by his slightly nihilistic and cruel behavior. He came to adjust to it quickly, though, half in thanks to his naturally sharp wit, and half in thanks to his father’s teachings.
Though he didn’t realize it at first, Arthur soon realized that whenever he traveled, he looked for two things. One was any word on a pair of ginger-haired twins and the Irish Wolfhounds they raised, while the other was for… well, companionship. And although he failed to find the former, he ended up finding the latter in none other than Elizabeth Tudor.
Elizabeth Tudor was a girl who’d also made the pricey and arduous journey from England, and was now fending for herself after her mother died and father more or less disowned her. It wasn’t love at first sight, but it was most definitely friendship at first glance. They both pulled each other in with the pure strength of their personalities, and soon became inseparable. Arthur came to dread the moments he had to actually go back to Vault 13, where his mother and sometimes father were waiting, and spent almost all his free time with her.
It wasn’t until they fought off a small pack of bandits on their way to Vault 13 (together; Arthur was hell-bent on introducing Elizabeth to his parents) that they first (accidentally) kissed. It’d led to much confusion at first, but eventually, they both agreed that what existed between them wasn’t just mere friendship anymore. Arthur now had another reason to bring Elizabeth home.
They were just 40 miles away from Lansing, Michigan when Elizabeth began showing signs of radiation poisoning. It wasn’t until they were 10 miles away from the vault that she died because of it. Arthur was nothing short of devastated, and nearly went delirious from grief. He carried Elizabeth’s body home, but by then, it was a rancid corpse that hardly resembled the girl he’d loved so dearly.
Arthur buried her in the most scenic place he could find in the area, and remained heartbroken for years. He stayed home, now, wanderlust suppressed by grief and fear of meeting and losing someone again. Jane actually found herself encouraging her son to begin exploring once more, only to be met with one-word answers that usually consisted of a simple ‘no’.
During this time, Arthur spent his time reading books and learning about guns from his father, who was all too happy to teach as a means of distraction. He didn’t stop sulking until Henry, understanding but tired of his son’s behavior, dragged the boy out of the vault, gave him his usual pack of weapons and supplies, and refused to let him in until a good two weeks passed. Thus, Arthur was left with no other choice than to begin exploring the lands around Vault 13 once more.
Contrary to Jane’s concerns, it actually did him some good. Though Arthur was plenty more cautious than he was before, he came to recover and act more like his old self again. The only major difference was that he’d matured some, now, and was less of a rebellious punk and more of a mature, refined Englishman that Jane had always wanted him to be.
When Arthur became 23, he found himself all the way in Reno, Nevada. Rather than leave the town like he had with so many others, however, he actually decided to stay. The town needed his skills in weapons repair, particularly when it came to guns, and Arthur was happy to provide it at the cost of food, clothes, and permanent lodging.
Writing Sample: It was barely noon on a bright, cloudless Wednesday. Arthur glanced at the clock before returning his attention back to his book, a worn copy of A Tale of Two Cities that he’d read countless times in the past. And then, right on cue, a tall, burly man with a grand beard stepped into the building, just as the minute hand struck the 30 minute mark.
“Hello, Arthur,” the man greeted, approaching the counter with a nice, friendly smile.
Arthur, in response, marked his current page and put the book away. “Good day, Mister Johnson,” he replied, fetching a beautiful, if a bit worn, pistol – a Glock 39 – off a nearby shelf and holding it out for the man to take. “I added some underwater spring cups as requested, and changed the ILS.”
The man took the gun, and his grin widened. “So I won’t have to go all the way to Austria, eh?”
“I doubt you’ll be able to find a working factory that can produce another lock,” Arthur said in response, lips quirked up in a small, amused smile. “But yes, you won’t have to step foot out of Gomorrah.”
“Great!” the man cheered ecstatically, immediately placing the gun in its holster. He then dug through his bag, fishing out a book and a few bags of tea before placing them on the counter. “Here you go; Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, and some bags of… I don’t know, to be honest. But tea is tea, and I did what I could.”
Arthur picked up both items, gently placing the book above his copy of A Tale of Two Cities before taking a brief whiff of the teabags. “It’s orange pekoe; brilliant. Thank you.”
The man nodded, zipping up his bag again before turning around to leave. “Nah, thank you, Arthur, for fixin’ my gun. See you around!”
The blonde nodded, carefully wrapping the tea bags in some paper towels before picking up the copy of the Merchant of Venice. He already had this, but… an extra copy of a book never hurt anyone.
OOC
Player Name: Clara
Player Age: 18
Instant Messengers: [MSN] eatmybloodyscones@hotmail.com
IC
Nation: England
Name: Arthur Kirkland
Vault of Origin: Vault 13 [Lansing, Michigan]
Age: 24
DoB: April 23
Sex: Male
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 125 lbs
Appearance:
The feature that people probably notice first and remember the most about Arthur is his eyebrows. They're thick and prominent, couplying with his English accent to give a not-so-subtle hint at his heritage. Below those brows, however, is a pair of vivid green eyes, accentuated by thick lashes. His blonde hair is unruly at best, no matter how many times he brushes it. He's naturally a rather lean sort of man, lanky at worst. However, due to the war and the consequences of it, he's become even thinner than a male his age ought to be. (But then again, isn’t everyone?)
Caravan: N/A
Position in Caravan: N/A
Town: Reno, Nevada (Also known as Gomorrah)
Job: Weapons repair, specializing in guns
Pet: None.
Personality: Deny it all you want, but Arthur is - and always has been - a gentleman. He places great importance on propriety, and will not hesitate to correct others should they be overly rambunctious. To aid him in doing this is a rather sharp tongue, which is constantly loaded with sarcastic quips and sharp comments. Still, he is courteous when need be - even when it's unnecessary to mind his manners, because he doesn't believe such moments exist -, and places emphasis on the need for chivalry.
Because of his preference for such outdated customs and mannerisms, he is often compared to an old man. He enjoys staying home to curl up on his favorite armchair with a cup of tea in one hand, and his favorite book in the other... which brings us to Arthur's often hidden love for all that is romantic. Few people know this, but deep inside, Arthur has always been a huge romantic. It's blatant in his choice of favourite books, which include, but are not limited to, Wuthering Heights, A Tale of Two Cities, Pride and Prejudice, and Jane Eyre.
Despite his literature preference and tendency to act like a gentleman, it doesn't take long for most people to figure out that Arthur has quite a terrible temper - and that it doesn't take much to trigger it. Once angered, his language becomes much coarser than it usually is, and he tends to be more liberal with his curses.
As he is easily angered, he finds himself conflicted with many, many people. Unfortunately, once someone gets onto Arthur's bad side, they're likely to remain there for a while. He has a tendency to carry grudges for quite a long time. Coupled with this are his severe trust issues, which may or may not be part of the reason why he is so hard to get along with. He'll be polite and play nice, but that doesn't mean he will readily believe everything you do and say. In fact, he's likely to doubt some of the nicer things people tell him, if only because he just isn't used to it.
This being said, should Arthur ever be confronted with an issue he can't solve through his intelligence and wit (that is, more emotional matters), he'll likely turn to denial. If he's lonely, for example, he'll likely convince himself that he doesn't actually feel that way. This phase doesn't last too long, though, and he's quick to move on to mocking himself to make himself feel better. In short, Arthur has a rather pessimistic attitude, and will likely be found saying 'it's impossible' more than 'it's possible'.
All this combined make him a very hard person to befriend... and thus, he doesn't have many people he's close with. There's only a limited number of people that he truly cares about in return, though he's in constant denial of this concern. Though he tries to act as if his lack of companions don't bother him, deep inside, it's one of the biggest troubles on his mind. Yes, he enjoys his times of peace and quiet, and yes, he does have his mythical companions (that no one else can really see), but sometimes, he desires for something more. No matter how much he denies it (both to others and himself), Arthur gets lonely rather easily.
Arthur in general actually seems like quite a melancholy man, especially because he dwells more in the past than think about the present, or the future. He may seem as a rather pitiable sort of man due to all this, but hardly anyone knows this side of him. He usually maintains a domineering, strong persona in front of others, and oftentimes paints himself as a heartless person due to his sharp words and rather prickly personality. Arthur doesn't mind this at all, because it keeps people away from the more sensitive parts of himself.
That's actually a very complicated part of Arthur Kirkland. He desires companionship, but fears abandonment to the point where he will try to keep himself from getting close to anyone. He figures that, if there's no one he's close to, then he wouldn't have to suffer the pain of being abandoned. This inevitably leads to loneliness - something he's learned to deal with, but also something that causes him much distress when there's no one around. But, he also figures that being lonely is much better than being brokenhearted.
Beneath everything, though, Arthur really does have a compassionate heart. Unlike some people, though, he keeps it well-hidden and protected, rather than wearing it on his sleeve. It takes a very, very long time to reach that side of him, though, because he'll always be afraid that he'll be abandoned and left brokenhearted. This gentler side is arguably his 'true' side, the one he keeps hidden away because he fears getting mocked or hurt. He's learned over the years that only pain can come from openly displaying your emotions, and so he tries to keep his gentleness hidden.
Don't be fooled by these sides of him, though, because like every human being, Arthur has multiple layers that make him a very complicated man. One layer that can hardly be forgotten is his more cunning side, one that is emphasized by his sharp mind and tactical ability. His actions are well-planned and executed with nothing less than perfection, and isn't afraid to be the only one standing in the face of an enemy.
He'll also do some regrettable things in order to protect his pride, and finds it difficult to ask others for help. It's only when he can't get any more desperate that he begins inching towards a chosen few for help, as his competitive side strengthens his hatred for losing.
Unfortunately for him, this pride of his is often wounded when he gets drunk. Old habits die hard, after all, and England is certainly no exception. Despite claiming to have left his days as a delinquent far behind, he still carries with him a love for alcoholic beverages. It's his lack of tolerance that gets him drunk before quite a few others, and thus leads to embarrassing situations that often depress him when he sobers up and remembers. When he's inebriated, he'll turn into a bitter, violent delinquent. However, this just goes to show that, underneath it all, he's still very capable of being a merciless rebel when need be.
A bit of nihilism wouldn’t hurt anyone, right?
Strengths:
☆Sharp wit
☆Resourceful
☆Staying calm in bad situations
☆Can think on his feet
☆Capable strategist
☆Self-sufficient
☆Determination
☆Very logical
☆Leadership
Weaknesses:
★Can't swim
★Children
★Pessimist
★Handles rejection poorly
★Misplaces things easily
★Self-expression
★Doesn't trust people easily; Paranoia
★Temper
★Pride
★Alcohol
★Self-deprecating
Equipment/Weapons: Arthur is a cautious man. He has with him at all times two Browning Hi-Power L9A1 pistols, as well as a good amount of extra cartridges for the guns. However, for safety’s sake, he carries with him two knives, a Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife and a Bowie knife. As for regular equipment, he carries very little on himself, preferring to travel light and have only the bare necessities. To him, this includes items such as a lighter (only half-full of gas), a small blanket, a Grohmann #101 Standard Skinner knife (for skinning animals), and, of course, a slightly worn copy of Pride and Prejudice.
History: Thirty years ago, on one of the very few ships that made the voyage from England to America, Jane Evans and Henry Kirkland met. Jane was sweet, gentle, and adhered strictly to tradition, while Henry was dynamic, quick-tempered, and a bit of a nihilist. He was nine years her senior and an utter rebel, but also the love of her life. She was sickly and almost boring, but he treasured her more than anything.
They were married as soon as the boat hit shore, and went to live in Vault 13 with some of Henry’s ‘relatives’, the O’Connors. While Jane immediately suffered from homesickness and had trouble adjusting to her new surroundings and family, Henry fit right in and quickly succumbed to his wanderlust. He was gone for often months at a time, but never failed to bring back gifts of food, clothes, and books for Jane to enjoy.
However, Jane never really settled and grew comfortable with the O’Connors until she made her first friend, Shannon. The two women bonded relatively quickly, and it wasn’t long before they became as close as sisters.
It wasn’t until Shannon gave birth to two lovely ginger-haired twins, Conner and Erin, that Jane began to play with the idea of having children. However, the idea was gone as soon as it came. Henry would undoubtedly reject the proposal, and claim that it would be just another thing tying him down to one place. So, Jane just contented herself with helping Shannon raise the two children, and treating them as if they were her own.
Unfortunately, when the twins were about five, the O’Connors decided to leave Vault 13 for greener pastures. Henry and Jane decided to stay. It was during this time that Jane finally decided to try and ask for a child, if only to keep her company now that Shannon and the twins were gone. Unfortunately, just as she expected, Henry refused… not because he didn’t want to be tied down to one place – that had happened as soon as he married Jane; wherever she was, he’d be drawn to, no matter how far he travelled –, but because he was afraid of fatherhood. He wasn’t ready to be a child’s role model, and so pushed the topic far away.
Henry agreed to having children an entire eight years after the O’Connors moved, after he came home unexpectedly early to find his wife crying. It hit him, then, just how unhappy and lonely she’d been, and not even his fears were enough to help him with his guilt.
They had a child, a healthy, albeit skinny, baby boy, the following year. Jane named him Arthur, after the legendary king of Camelot.
Now, if there was one thing that the happy couple had in common, it had to be their love of literature. They read to their son daily, even when Arthur was too young to understand them, beginning with fairytales and slowly transitioning into great classics such as Crime and Punishment and Wuthering Heights when the boy grew older.
Jane and Henry made sure to raise him like a proper Englishman. He attained their accent, having spent time with only them and thus adopting their way of speech, and knew England’s culture and history like the back of his hand. In fact, he seemed to be more of a boy taken straight out of England years before the war, rather than a boy born years after it.
When Henry was out satisfying his wanderlust (though he made it a point to come back much faster now, and was only gone for a few weeks in contrast to the months he used to be gone), Jane took the opportunity to tell him many stories. She told him about her life in London, how she met and fell in love with Henry, and, most importantly, the best and quite probably only friend she’d ever had, Shannon. She told him about the twins, too, and how she wished to see them now that they were probably much older and grown up. Arthur would remember these stories until he was a fully-grown adult.
While Jane taught Arthur the more sentimental values of life, Henry taught him the more practical aspects of it. He taught his son how to barter, how to assemble, disassemble, and shoot a gun, how to fight, how to defend himself, and how to survive in the wild. But, most important of all, he taught Arthur about life outside of Vault 13.
It didn’t take long for the couple to discover that Arthur inherited his father’s wanderlust. It started with small trips, at first, where Arthur would just dawdle along the edges of Vault 13 for a day or so, and then come back home. However, as Arthur grew older and more rebellious, he began traveling further, even with Jane’s constant pleas for him to stay at home.
Arthur wanted to experience the world his father had seen. Unfortunately for him, his haughty attitude landed him in trouble the first few times he encountered people who weren’t scared off by his slightly nihilistic and cruel behavior. He came to adjust to it quickly, though, half in thanks to his naturally sharp wit, and half in thanks to his father’s teachings.
Though he didn’t realize it at first, Arthur soon realized that whenever he traveled, he looked for two things. One was any word on a pair of ginger-haired twins and the Irish Wolfhounds they raised, while the other was for… well, companionship. And although he failed to find the former, he ended up finding the latter in none other than Elizabeth Tudor.
Elizabeth Tudor was a girl who’d also made the pricey and arduous journey from England, and was now fending for herself after her mother died and father more or less disowned her. It wasn’t love at first sight, but it was most definitely friendship at first glance. They both pulled each other in with the pure strength of their personalities, and soon became inseparable. Arthur came to dread the moments he had to actually go back to Vault 13, where his mother and sometimes father were waiting, and spent almost all his free time with her.
It wasn’t until they fought off a small pack of bandits on their way to Vault 13 (together; Arthur was hell-bent on introducing Elizabeth to his parents) that they first (accidentally) kissed. It’d led to much confusion at first, but eventually, they both agreed that what existed between them wasn’t just mere friendship anymore. Arthur now had another reason to bring Elizabeth home.
They were just 40 miles away from Lansing, Michigan when Elizabeth began showing signs of radiation poisoning. It wasn’t until they were 10 miles away from the vault that she died because of it. Arthur was nothing short of devastated, and nearly went delirious from grief. He carried Elizabeth’s body home, but by then, it was a rancid corpse that hardly resembled the girl he’d loved so dearly.
Arthur buried her in the most scenic place he could find in the area, and remained heartbroken for years. He stayed home, now, wanderlust suppressed by grief and fear of meeting and losing someone again. Jane actually found herself encouraging her son to begin exploring once more, only to be met with one-word answers that usually consisted of a simple ‘no’.
During this time, Arthur spent his time reading books and learning about guns from his father, who was all too happy to teach as a means of distraction. He didn’t stop sulking until Henry, understanding but tired of his son’s behavior, dragged the boy out of the vault, gave him his usual pack of weapons and supplies, and refused to let him in until a good two weeks passed. Thus, Arthur was left with no other choice than to begin exploring the lands around Vault 13 once more.
Contrary to Jane’s concerns, it actually did him some good. Though Arthur was plenty more cautious than he was before, he came to recover and act more like his old self again. The only major difference was that he’d matured some, now, and was less of a rebellious punk and more of a mature, refined Englishman that Jane had always wanted him to be.
When Arthur became 23, he found himself all the way in Reno, Nevada. Rather than leave the town like he had with so many others, however, he actually decided to stay. The town needed his skills in weapons repair, particularly when it came to guns, and Arthur was happy to provide it at the cost of food, clothes, and permanent lodging.
Writing Sample: It was barely noon on a bright, cloudless Wednesday. Arthur glanced at the clock before returning his attention back to his book, a worn copy of A Tale of Two Cities that he’d read countless times in the past. And then, right on cue, a tall, burly man with a grand beard stepped into the building, just as the minute hand struck the 30 minute mark.
“Hello, Arthur,” the man greeted, approaching the counter with a nice, friendly smile.
Arthur, in response, marked his current page and put the book away. “Good day, Mister Johnson,” he replied, fetching a beautiful, if a bit worn, pistol – a Glock 39 – off a nearby shelf and holding it out for the man to take. “I added some underwater spring cups as requested, and changed the ILS.”
The man took the gun, and his grin widened. “So I won’t have to go all the way to Austria, eh?”
“I doubt you’ll be able to find a working factory that can produce another lock,” Arthur said in response, lips quirked up in a small, amused smile. “But yes, you won’t have to step foot out of Gomorrah.”
“Great!” the man cheered ecstatically, immediately placing the gun in its holster. He then dug through his bag, fishing out a book and a few bags of tea before placing them on the counter. “Here you go; Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, and some bags of… I don’t know, to be honest. But tea is tea, and I did what I could.”
Arthur picked up both items, gently placing the book above his copy of A Tale of Two Cities before taking a brief whiff of the teabags. “It’s orange pekoe; brilliant. Thank you.”
The man nodded, zipping up his bag again before turning around to leave. “Nah, thank you, Arthur, for fixin’ my gun. See you around!”
The blonde nodded, carefully wrapping the tea bags in some paper towels before picking up the copy of the Merchant of Venice. He already had this, but… an extra copy of a book never hurt anyone.
