Name:
Maricela O. Lee
Nickname:
Mari
Race:
African American
Age:
31
Home Territory:
Eden
Profession:
Trade Supervisor
Description:
Mari had always been tall for her age. When she was younger, her limbs were lanky and got in the way of even walking. As the years stretched on, she grew into her body and now stands at just under six feet tall. Dark grey eyes peer out from her dark brow, keen and watchful. Her springy curls fall just to her shoulder, often tied back with a bandanna or tamed underneath of her favorite baseball cap. A single white scar cuts across her collarbone, the only visible mark that the apocalypse has left on her. It's often hidden behind her thick overcoats or leather jackets, a precaution she always takes if she's going outside of the town limits.
Personality:
Mari has been told on numerous occasions that she has a resting bitch face, making her seem unapproachable and distant. Which is accurate. She much prefers the company of Graceland's horses and a few quiet individuals to any large gatherings of people. Whenever Graceland has a dance or celebration, she tends to be standing awkwardly on the outskirts. One part due to the fact that she doesn't like socialization and mainly due to the fact that she can't dance to save her life. While distant, she is anything but quiet. She has her opinions and isn't afraid to voice them without sugarcoating her words. The only thing that can break her hardened, described by some as bitchy, exterior, is unwarranted affection. She doesn't typically do 'feelings' and keeps her flings private and short.
Bio:
Mari had the perfect life. Well, at age ten, she thought that it was perfect. She had a younger brother to play video games with and a baby brother to coo over. When she wasn't at the shabby little school that the city of Savannah Georgia couldn't bother to give proper funding, she was playing her Gameboy while her mother tended to the garden. While it was old and out-of-date, it was the best that they could afford and she loved leaning over it for hours on end. They didn't have an abundance of wealthy, but they had enough to put food on the table and a roof over their head. It didn't matter that it was a shabby roof, especially when they'd decorate it with small arts and crafts. When her father would come home from a long day at work, they'd spend hours playing a makeshift game of baseball in the backyard with bags of sand as their bases and a glove that she and her brother shared. She still has memories of long evenings when they'd sit on the porch and watch the sun set, the buzz of the radio in the background and the smell of her mother's cooking in the air. It was perfect.
Until it wasn't.
It was hurricane season and the report had told them to evacuate multiple times. Their father, while a kind-hearted man, was set in his ways. He believed that the storm would miss their town and everything would be fine. They didn't have the funds to travel anyway, so the best option was to wait it out. Unfortunately, he was wrong. The storm hit the coast at full force and their whole town was submerged within hours. The storm tore the house apart, flooding the single-level home and forcing them onto the roof. The night was a blur, a nightmare that she couldn't wake up from. She only remembered clutching her baby brother, Mihn, to her chest as the waves splashed onto their roof. By some miracle, rescue services came during a lull in the storm and got Mari and her brothers off of the roof. However, as rescue services went back for their parents, they only found a collapsed roof.
The siblings were put in the foster system, any other family unwilling or unable to take them in.
Mari was used to taking care of her brothers, even before they were place in an orphanage. As the oldest in the bunch, she learned quickly how to toughen up even as she tried to process the passing of her parents. She did her best to be there for her brothers when they needed to talk about it, but never fully processed the incident herself. The foster home that they were eventually sent to was overcrowded, under-furnished, and under-funded. The two foster parents did their best to provide for the children, but there was only so much that they could do. Once Mari, Mika, and Mihn entered the system, they were soon lost in the wave of paperwork with no hope of being adopted together. She still found time to play her Gameboy, often finding herself reluctantly sharing it when she brought it out.
She supposed it was a blessing in disguise that nobody wanted to adopt them, as they refused to be separated. When the apocalypse started, Mari didn't have parents to lose, adopted or otherwise. All she had were a six-year-old and a fourteen-year-old brother to take care of.
Their foster mother, Eliza, managed to get them and two other children out of the city and into the countryside after her husband was lost to a horde of zombies. They settled with a small group that would eventually form Eden. It took nearly two years before the community was finally formed. Two years of scrounging for food, learning how to kill zombies, and trying to make sure that Mihn had a relatively normal childhood. Thankfully, Eliza was around to make sure that he was properly fed and taken care of while Mari and Mika went out with a small group of survivors to try and find whatever supplies that they could. One particular expedition was cut short by bandits that tried to kill them and take their things. Losing two members and gaining a thin white scar across her collarbone, this became Mari's first lesson in the shifted moralities of the world.
As most things for the Lee family, the semblance peace and stability didn't last. While Eden formed on the outskirts of her old home town and began to trade across the nation, tensions began to rise between the growing farming community and Charcity. Eliza and Mihn had been working in one of the fields when the electric fence was sabotaged, allowing a group of zombies to break through and attack them. Mari arrived just in time to pry a zombie off of Mihn while Eliza was lost in the pack of undead. To her horror, his shoulder was bloody from a deep bite.
She snuck him back to their tiny barracks and kept the bite covered and sewed it up to the best of her ability. She and Mika agreed to keep it a secret until he actually turned, as neither of them could bring themselves to actually kill their little brother. But to their confusion, he never turned. The thirteen year old boy didn't understand why Mari was so serious as she told him that nobody could ever know. There were horror stories of those rare survivors who were immune being carted off to a lab, and she did her best to instill that fear in him.
Afraid that the community would discover it and sell him out for supplies, she and her brothers packed up their things and left.
Eventually they settled in Graceland where Mari found herself creating unwanted bonds with a few of the community members. Mika and Mihn were more than happy to make new friends, but Mari found her own circle limited to a handful of people. It wasn't that she didn't trust them, it was mainly because she was a bitch. At times, she still found herself taking out her Gameboy that had long since broken and thinking about how the world used to be. She often questioned if the world was actually better before the apocalypse, as she found herself smiling much more in Graceland as she ever did at the orphanage or the foster home.
But Graceland seemed okay to have her bitchy nature as she made sure traders got to and from other communities safely. For eight years, she was content. But as previously stated, nothing stayed like that for long.
Now Mihn is missing and it's her mission to bring him home.
Pack:
Mari typically keeps only the essentials in her bag. This includes a few packages of dried meat and fruits, a full canteen of water, matches, a small sewing kit, two knives, a change of underclothes, and a revolver that only has three bullets. If it's a longer journey, she'll stuff a thin blanket in as well. The only non-essential item that she carries is her Gameboy which has become a token of good luck for her.
Strapped to the outside of her bag is her weapon of choice, which is a wooden baseball bat with two shivs jammed into the top. She's gone through about three of these since she figured out that she liked to fight with it, but typically is able to get her hands on another one or ask someone whose good at woodworking to make her another one.
Skills:
- Close-Ranged Combat
- Horse Handling
- Sewing
Strengths:
- Leadership
- Physical Strength
- Analytical Thinking
Weaknesses:
- Diplomacy
- Ranged Combat
- Teamwork
Romanceable:
Yes [Homosexual]
Art:
Credit to
ARTIST
