Name: Mark Haptaine
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Birthday: 16 July 1978
Preferred PB: James McAvoy
Occupation: Freelance computer-and-various-other-electronic-th
Appearance: Mark has long-ish dark hair and a very earnest gaze. Old ladies are invariably interested in how he's doing - they think he's a lot younger than he actually is - and give him things he doesn't need. He's more or less average in terms of height, though with the long, strong arms and legs required for proper dancing, not overtly muscular. His feet do not look to be in particularly good shape, callused and bruised and abused as they were in college during his stint in ballet. He tends to dress casually in jeans and button-down shirt, but still looks rather nice in a lab coat, over trousers, dress shirt, and tie. Or a suit. He has long-fingered expressive hands. He shaves or doesn't, depending on how he feels - he looks quite presentable either way. More likely to smile than frown (it sets people at ease), and very often has quite goofy expressions on his face, though when he is working, his expressions are all serious.
Personality: Mark likes to be self-sufficient, and does just about everything for himself, down to raising his own food and cooking, though not for any deeply psychological tortured-past reason; he simply enjoys taking care of himself and others far more than he likes being taken care of. He has a finely-tuned sense of obligation; he never forgets a favor done to him and always pays them back in kind, though he seldom invokes favors done by him in hopes of repayment. He tends to brush off both criticism and praise from others, but is very critical of himself. He has a good memory for faces and a good memory for names - it's linking them together that causes him difficulty, and whenever confronted with a crowd of familiar faces, he more or less spends the time playing a difficult mental game of Concentration to match the relevant pieces of information. Back in college, he was neither outstandingly awkward nor incredibly smooth in social situations, but as his most recent interactions all tend to be limited to his clients, it'll be interesting to see how he reacts to actual interpersonal relations. He tends to slip random things in his pockets without quite realizing it - keys, sandwiches, screwdriver, currently in progress mini gaming console, but his bags are always meticulously and painstakingly organized.
Mark keeps two sets of music in his car while driving. One for when he is transporting others: the collection tends to consist of soothing jazz and piano music, mostly instrumental, so he can talk without too much distraction. The other is for when he is alone, and consists of the kind of music teenagers with their first cars listen to as they drive by at twice the legal speed limit with all the windows rolled down: lots of semi-rock music with guitars and a loud bass. When Mark is alone, he likes to sing along off-key, secure in the knowledge that no one, not even himself, is going to criticize him personally for doing so, any comments being limited to something like: "those darned crazy kids with their loud rock music!" Alone in the car is one of Mark's favorite places, and he has an agreement with himself not to ruminate or disparage himself while he is driving.
History: He graduated from college with a double major in Agriculture and Dance, but there is little evidence of that now, as he spends most of his time tinkering with, improving, or blowing up (and sometimes all three at once) various electronic gadgets, because that's what he's best at. What he does have to show for all his years of higher education include the greenhouse situated in his yard, the extensive gardens, and the fact that he remains in far better shape than most stereotypical computer repair experts.
His family, now living quite far away, with formerly frequent visits back and forth, was supportive in just about everything he attempted - they accepted most of his decisions once he provided explanation. It was therefore interesting how very vehemently they were against his taking a part time job as a technician for one of the leading scientists in the botanical division of the Umbrella Corporation on the strength of his agricultural science background (this was right after he graduated, before he'd discovered that he was actually good with electronics, in a way that made his not-insignificant skill with plants seem amateurish in comparison). His explanation had made sense to him; he would get to work with some of the most respected scientists in the field of botanical science while traveling the world to various UCorp locations with his patron for what seemed an astronomical wage for a just-graduated college student. In retrospect - hindsight is always 20/20 - they probably knew something he didn't, as he was forced to leave that job when he came down with what seemed like an incredibly high fever a few days after making a delivery to one of the various biochemical R&D divisions. It eventually passed, and the company quite graciously and apologetically paid for hospital fees and gave him a hefty grant sum on top of his actual wages - which he used to fund his house. As it turned out, that fever was caused because he'd been infected by the in-development T-virus, but he apparently managed to survive with nothing more serious than the fever and a complete career change after he'd left UCorp for good.
Or so he thought.
Abilities/Weapons/Accessories: Mark fights with a modified laser pointer, capable of being used as a lighter, as a surgical-precision knife for cutting things at short distances and as a sort of long-distance piercing device from afar, and, as his mother would surely exclaim, you-could-put-an-eye-out-with
Alliance: Mark is one of the lucky survivors, more-or-less completely unaffected by the virus, but is currently unaware of there being any others. He is more familiar than he wishes with the true victims who've gone completely insane, but only peripherally aware that there are people who are only partially affected by the virus. As an undocumented case, with the only evidence of him having had the T-virus a small note buried in hospital medical files, UCorp has no knowledge of him yet.
Other Information: Mark's house is built on what was once the site of a methamphetamine lab, which means he got a very large property for very very cheap, once the police were done going over the blackened shell and the sanitation workers had declared the debris free of drugs and drug-dealer body parts. He cleared and built the house himself from the ground up (and down), and included all sorts of things that just managed to pass under the radar of law-enforcement, such as the hidden bear-traps in his backyard and the underground access door, protected by a surprisingly advanced security system, complete with laser beams. Also, a moat and drawbridge, but those are mainly for show. He has a garden and greenhouse and can produce most foods for himself year-round (we eat what we can, and what we can't, we can), though he draws the line at growing commercial amounts of cereal crops - it's too much like school, and buys his flour from a supermarket when he can.
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Birthday: 16 July 1978
Preferred PB: James McAvoy
Occupation: Freelance computer-and-various-other-electronic-th
Appearance: Mark has long-ish dark hair and a very earnest gaze. Old ladies are invariably interested in how he's doing - they think he's a lot younger than he actually is - and give him things he doesn't need. He's more or less average in terms of height, though with the long, strong arms and legs required for proper dancing, not overtly muscular. His feet do not look to be in particularly good shape, callused and bruised and abused as they were in college during his stint in ballet. He tends to dress casually in jeans and button-down shirt, but still looks rather nice in a lab coat, over trousers, dress shirt, and tie. Or a suit. He has long-fingered expressive hands. He shaves or doesn't, depending on how he feels - he looks quite presentable either way. More likely to smile than frown (it sets people at ease), and very often has quite goofy expressions on his face, though when he is working, his expressions are all serious.
Personality: Mark likes to be self-sufficient, and does just about everything for himself, down to raising his own food and cooking, though not for any deeply psychological tortured-past reason; he simply enjoys taking care of himself and others far more than he likes being taken care of. He has a finely-tuned sense of obligation; he never forgets a favor done to him and always pays them back in kind, though he seldom invokes favors done by him in hopes of repayment. He tends to brush off both criticism and praise from others, but is very critical of himself. He has a good memory for faces and a good memory for names - it's linking them together that causes him difficulty, and whenever confronted with a crowd of familiar faces, he more or less spends the time playing a difficult mental game of Concentration to match the relevant pieces of information. Back in college, he was neither outstandingly awkward nor incredibly smooth in social situations, but as his most recent interactions all tend to be limited to his clients, it'll be interesting to see how he reacts to actual interpersonal relations. He tends to slip random things in his pockets without quite realizing it - keys, sandwiches, screwdriver, currently in progress mini gaming console, but his bags are always meticulously and painstakingly organized.
Mark keeps two sets of music in his car while driving. One for when he is transporting others: the collection tends to consist of soothing jazz and piano music, mostly instrumental, so he can talk without too much distraction. The other is for when he is alone, and consists of the kind of music teenagers with their first cars listen to as they drive by at twice the legal speed limit with all the windows rolled down: lots of semi-rock music with guitars and a loud bass. When Mark is alone, he likes to sing along off-key, secure in the knowledge that no one, not even himself, is going to criticize him personally for doing so, any comments being limited to something like: "those darned crazy kids with their loud rock music!" Alone in the car is one of Mark's favorite places, and he has an agreement with himself not to ruminate or disparage himself while he is driving.
History: He graduated from college with a double major in Agriculture and Dance, but there is little evidence of that now, as he spends most of his time tinkering with, improving, or blowing up (and sometimes all three at once) various electronic gadgets, because that's what he's best at. What he does have to show for all his years of higher education include the greenhouse situated in his yard, the extensive gardens, and the fact that he remains in far better shape than most stereotypical computer repair experts.
His family, now living quite far away, with formerly frequent visits back and forth, was supportive in just about everything he attempted - they accepted most of his decisions once he provided explanation. It was therefore interesting how very vehemently they were against his taking a part time job as a technician for one of the leading scientists in the botanical division of the Umbrella Corporation on the strength of his agricultural science background (this was right after he graduated, before he'd discovered that he was actually good with electronics, in a way that made his not-insignificant skill with plants seem amateurish in comparison). His explanation had made sense to him; he would get to work with some of the most respected scientists in the field of botanical science while traveling the world to various UCorp locations with his patron for what seemed an astronomical wage for a just-graduated college student. In retrospect - hindsight is always 20/20 - they probably knew something he didn't, as he was forced to leave that job when he came down with what seemed like an incredibly high fever a few days after making a delivery to one of the various biochemical R&D divisions. It eventually passed, and the company quite graciously and apologetically paid for hospital fees and gave him a hefty grant sum on top of his actual wages - which he used to fund his house. As it turned out, that fever was caused because he'd been infected by the in-development T-virus, but he apparently managed to survive with nothing more serious than the fever and a complete career change after he'd left UCorp for good.
Or so he thought.
Abilities/Weapons/Accessories: Mark fights with a modified laser pointer, capable of being used as a lighter, as a surgical-precision knife for cutting things at short distances and as a sort of long-distance piercing device from afar, and, as his mother would surely exclaim, you-could-put-an-eye-out-with
Alliance: Mark is one of the lucky survivors, more-or-less completely unaffected by the virus, but is currently unaware of there being any others. He is more familiar than he wishes with the true victims who've gone completely insane, but only peripherally aware that there are people who are only partially affected by the virus. As an undocumented case, with the only evidence of him having had the T-virus a small note buried in hospital medical files, UCorp has no knowledge of him yet.
Other Information: Mark's house is built on what was once the site of a methamphetamine lab, which means he got a very large property for very very cheap, once the police were done going over the blackened shell and the sanitation workers had declared the debris free of drugs and drug-dealer body parts. He cleared and built the house himself from the ground up (and down), and included all sorts of things that just managed to pass under the radar of law-enforcement, such as the hidden bear-traps in his backyard and the underground access door, protected by a surprisingly advanced security system, complete with laser beams. Also, a moat and drawbridge, but those are mainly for show. He has a garden and greenhouse and can produce most foods for himself year-round (we eat what we can, and what we can't, we can), though he draws the line at growing commercial amounts of cereal crops - it's too much like school, and buys his flour from a supermarket when he can.
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