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Player;
Character;
CHARACTER NAME: Lucas (Luke) Saenz
AGE: 27
CANON: Original (Same OC-verse as Ian Fowler)
CANON POINT: 2020, 6 months post-arrival at Crater Lake settlement
BACKGROUND/HISTORY: Luke Saenz was born in Oakland, CA to Julia Saenz, daughter of Bina Saenz, with a father of no particular import or influence. While Julia embraced maternal life for the first five-to-ten years, when her twin daughters came along, her fortitude dwindled and fell to a dark period that would stretch far into the future, leaving the children's grandmother, Bina, to raise them primarily. Luke at 17, Bina contracted severe liver disease and the responsibility to raise his now 3 younger siblings fell to him. He managed to secure a scholarship at Berkeley, but with rising tuition and wealth gap, even that wasn't enough to keep him in secondary education. Thanks to an engineering adjunct professor, Ian Fowler, the rules around work-study TA scholarships were fudged, and kept Luke in classes for a couple more years. But, the hits keep on comin' and don't stop comin'. Bina's treatments rise in expense, and Luke enlists in the Army for grants to keep his family afloat. After two years of military service: Aliens.
The Judge - an intergalactic, imperialist race that traverses from one system to the next, passing judgement on 'primitive' races of resource-rich planets, weighing the virtue of a species against their sins, often deeming them undeserving of their natural riches. As expected, humanity failed this judgement, and the extermination began. Monolithic ships crash down, crumbling cities beneath them (infrastructure, homes, people, animals and all), which would be processed in labor camps into usable minerals. Humans were given the option: submit and enter labor camps, or be exterminated. Luke, his sisters, and Ian chose to run, though Bina would be lost in the initial culling of the Oakland area. Deserting his military post, Luke stole a Humvee full of supplies and took off into the wilderness.
The first group of survivors they joined with were an unsavory folk, but respected Luke's military experience and Ian's engineering prowess. Relations were tense, often conflicting, and one extreme situation brought them to a brush with the Judge. In order to save Ian and his siblings, Luke threw himself on a Judge weapon, absorbing the near fatal impact. In recovery, they learned the semi-organic technology had somewhat fused with his biology, granting him abilities to absorb, generate, and nullify electric charges. As tensions escalated and conflict among the group of survivors intensified, the stress and desperation to protect his loved ones drove Luke to use these abilities inhumanely and take to particularly brutal torture, interrogation and punishment. After some heart-to-hearts with Ian, and a mutiny from the group, they parted from this initial group and traveled as their own unit - Luke, his 3 siblings, and Ian. On the road to Crater Lake National Park, they meet with a woman named Nia with the same destination. After negotiations, they agree to form an alliance and build a self-sufficient settlement, in a remote zone far from Judge invasion. Here, they found a community, adapting to their new reality and the encroaching doom of their world.
PREVIOUS GAME HISTORY: N/A
PERSONALITY: Luke learned how to act as caretaker and comforter early in life, consequently, placing himself second to the wellbeing of his family. Being resilient, he believes it his responsibility to care for others before himself, especially his dependents - his siblings. Loyalty and family has become the cornerstone of his purpose, identity shaped around filling the void his parents left behind, once his grandmother wasn’t physically able to. Raised around women, femininity isn’t a weakness in Luke’s eyes, and he’s fairly secure in his masculinity, though vulnerability remains difficult. It’s a need to remain unshaken for his siblings, after the invasion, when terrifying situations necessitate a stable figure for his kids to trust for protection.
Childhood in Oakland meant witnessing violence at an early age, incurring nightmares, Luke now becomes distant, restless and jumpy in situations that feel unsafe, acting overbearing and protective. When scared, stressed or angry, he’ll slip into an unnerving calm, fiercely focused, but detached. With a "get it done, freak out later" mentality, Luke’ll do near anything to reach an end goal. Military life brings more intensity, edged on ruthlessness. If non-family is insistent on doing something he deems stupid, Luke would rather drop them than waste time trying to pacify. Survival of his family trumps all.
Bizarrely, Luke’s come to thrive in the end times. With the tedious, superfluous societal and financial bullshit gone, everyone's on relatively equal footing (in that they're all screwed). While he’d prefer peace and security for all, let’s be real - American culture sucked.
Luke's quick to judge and doesn't tend to waffle on character judgments. It takes a lot to earn respect or trust from him. He fears letting the wrong people in, with history of abandonment, he’s slow to expand his circle. Life has been an ongoing game of survival (varying levels of literal), and Luke’s all about that hustle, but he isn’t immune from the effects of trauma. Addiction’s run in his family, and narcotics are his poison. Despite time spent in rehab, he carries a destructive weakness for indulging vices and deep self-loathing for mistakes made while dependent on drugs that fundamentally alter his character while chained to them. Self-forgiveness is a struggle, one that often projects as a reluctance to forgive others.
Otherwise, Luke’s rather friendly and gregarious, if shallowly. If a person doesn’t fall into a category he holds a predisposed bias against (the rich, bad students, irresponsible parents, White People Acting Like White People, negligent car owners), he’ll claim no judgment. With those he loves, Luke’s happy to act silly and foolish to improve moods or distract from sorrow. He doesn’t hold much regard for how he’s perceived by others, more concerned with what impact he has, what he’s able to accomplish, and how well he serves those he loves. Imaginative and eccentric, Luke often comes off as a strung out stoner, but doesn’t mind it. He likes being underestimated/written off, many things become easier when you’re being ignored.
SUITABILITY:
Luke's life hasn't been easy, even before the aliens touched down and kicked off the end of the world. Growing up in Oakland meant constantly watching your (and your family's) back, and time spent in the military only built on those skills. Once the Judge came for Earth and deemed the human race undeserving of the life and resources they possessed, that foundation became Luke's saving grace. While he is far from the poster boy for stability under pressure, he is capable of functioning through it, and that'll be what keeps his head above the water here as well.
ABILITIES/SKILLS:
✦ Engineering (mechanical): Luke was able to progress into his senior year of education at Berkeley, majoring in Mechanical Engineering, before he was forced to enlist in the military for financial/familial reasons. Prior to withdrawing, he was at the top of his class, often participating in Graduate projects and acting as TA for Ian Fowler's courses.
✦ Academics, Mathematics, Physics: Despite his relatively low access to high quality education (until Ian at Berkeley), Luke has a natural affinity for mathematics and sciences. He understands concepts quickly and enjoys exercising creative means to apply them to problem solving and adapting to environmental/circumstantial issues
✦ Mechanic: Luke's uncle ran an auto-mechanic garage in Oakland that Luke spent most of his youth at as a sort of low budget daycare. It's where he initially grew his love for mechanical engineering and complex machinery.
✦ Biotech Alien Electricity Powers: Once upon a time, in a split-second bad decision, Luke stuck his hand into a Judge weapon he knew nothing about in order to stop it from going off on some loved ones. He lived through the encounter (barely), but also integrated somewhat with the partly organic tech. He now hosts an ability to absorb, manipulate, and neutralize electrical charges. However, this power does give him frequent migraines, often leaves him feeling restless and jumpy, Luke has a lot of fidgeting and ticks to deal with that excess energy, often seeks over-stimulation.
✦ Nature Survival/Foraging: Having to live on the run and keep away from the cities that would attract the most attention from the Judge, Luke gained much experience in living on the land, scavenging for food and shelter, and building rudimentary tools, weapons and clothes.
✦ Babysitting: He raised 3 girls. He got this. He's bought so many packets of overnight maxi pads, mediated many a borrowed crop top dispute.
✦ Weed Farming: Everyone needs hobbies, ok, even in the end times.
INVENTORY:
⇢ Military grade assault rifle made from high durability plastic
⇢ Ammunition (a couple extra magazines for the assault rifle)
⇢ Picture of his whole family (Luke, Cara, Danny, Lana, Julia, Bina, Uncle Elan)
⇢ Jury-rigged megaphone
⇢ Holographic DisneyLand fanny pack stuffed full of A++ weed
Samples;
Character;
CHARACTER NAME: Lucas (Luke) Saenz
AGE: 27
CANON: Original (Same OC-verse as Ian Fowler)
CANON POINT: 2020, 6 months post-arrival at Crater Lake settlement
BACKGROUND/HISTORY: Luke Saenz was born in Oakland, CA to Julia Saenz, daughter of Bina Saenz, with a father of no particular import or influence. While Julia embraced maternal life for the first five-to-ten years, when her twin daughters came along, her fortitude dwindled and fell to a dark period that would stretch far into the future, leaving the children's grandmother, Bina, to raise them primarily. Luke at 17, Bina contracted severe liver disease and the responsibility to raise his now 3 younger siblings fell to him. He managed to secure a scholarship at Berkeley, but with rising tuition and wealth gap, even that wasn't enough to keep him in secondary education. Thanks to an engineering adjunct professor, Ian Fowler, the rules around work-study TA scholarships were fudged, and kept Luke in classes for a couple more years. But, the hits keep on comin' and don't stop comin'. Bina's treatments rise in expense, and Luke enlists in the Army for grants to keep his family afloat. After two years of military service: Aliens.
The Judge - an intergalactic, imperialist race that traverses from one system to the next, passing judgement on 'primitive' races of resource-rich planets, weighing the virtue of a species against their sins, often deeming them undeserving of their natural riches. As expected, humanity failed this judgement, and the extermination began. Monolithic ships crash down, crumbling cities beneath them (infrastructure, homes, people, animals and all), which would be processed in labor camps into usable minerals. Humans were given the option: submit and enter labor camps, or be exterminated. Luke, his sisters, and Ian chose to run, though Bina would be lost in the initial culling of the Oakland area. Deserting his military post, Luke stole a Humvee full of supplies and took off into the wilderness.
The first group of survivors they joined with were an unsavory folk, but respected Luke's military experience and Ian's engineering prowess. Relations were tense, often conflicting, and one extreme situation brought them to a brush with the Judge. In order to save Ian and his siblings, Luke threw himself on a Judge weapon, absorbing the near fatal impact. In recovery, they learned the semi-organic technology had somewhat fused with his biology, granting him abilities to absorb, generate, and nullify electric charges. As tensions escalated and conflict among the group of survivors intensified, the stress and desperation to protect his loved ones drove Luke to use these abilities inhumanely and take to particularly brutal torture, interrogation and punishment. After some heart-to-hearts with Ian, and a mutiny from the group, they parted from this initial group and traveled as their own unit - Luke, his 3 siblings, and Ian. On the road to Crater Lake National Park, they meet with a woman named Nia with the same destination. After negotiations, they agree to form an alliance and build a self-sufficient settlement, in a remote zone far from Judge invasion. Here, they found a community, adapting to their new reality and the encroaching doom of their world.
PREVIOUS GAME HISTORY: N/A
PERSONALITY: Luke learned how to act as caretaker and comforter early in life, consequently, placing himself second to the wellbeing of his family. Being resilient, he believes it his responsibility to care for others before himself, especially his dependents - his siblings. Loyalty and family has become the cornerstone of his purpose, identity shaped around filling the void his parents left behind, once his grandmother wasn’t physically able to. Raised around women, femininity isn’t a weakness in Luke’s eyes, and he’s fairly secure in his masculinity, though vulnerability remains difficult. It’s a need to remain unshaken for his siblings, after the invasion, when terrifying situations necessitate a stable figure for his kids to trust for protection.
Childhood in Oakland meant witnessing violence at an early age, incurring nightmares, Luke now becomes distant, restless and jumpy in situations that feel unsafe, acting overbearing and protective. When scared, stressed or angry, he’ll slip into an unnerving calm, fiercely focused, but detached. With a "get it done, freak out later" mentality, Luke’ll do near anything to reach an end goal. Military life brings more intensity, edged on ruthlessness. If non-family is insistent on doing something he deems stupid, Luke would rather drop them than waste time trying to pacify. Survival of his family trumps all.
Bizarrely, Luke’s come to thrive in the end times. With the tedious, superfluous societal and financial bullshit gone, everyone's on relatively equal footing (in that they're all screwed). While he’d prefer peace and security for all, let’s be real - American culture sucked.
Luke's quick to judge and doesn't tend to waffle on character judgments. It takes a lot to earn respect or trust from him. He fears letting the wrong people in, with history of abandonment, he’s slow to expand his circle. Life has been an ongoing game of survival (varying levels of literal), and Luke’s all about that hustle, but he isn’t immune from the effects of trauma. Addiction’s run in his family, and narcotics are his poison. Despite time spent in rehab, he carries a destructive weakness for indulging vices and deep self-loathing for mistakes made while dependent on drugs that fundamentally alter his character while chained to them. Self-forgiveness is a struggle, one that often projects as a reluctance to forgive others.
Otherwise, Luke’s rather friendly and gregarious, if shallowly. If a person doesn’t fall into a category he holds a predisposed bias against (the rich, bad students, irresponsible parents, White People Acting Like White People, negligent car owners), he’ll claim no judgment. With those he loves, Luke’s happy to act silly and foolish to improve moods or distract from sorrow. He doesn’t hold much regard for how he’s perceived by others, more concerned with what impact he has, what he’s able to accomplish, and how well he serves those he loves. Imaginative and eccentric, Luke often comes off as a strung out stoner, but doesn’t mind it. He likes being underestimated/written off, many things become easier when you’re being ignored.
SUITABILITY:
Luke's life hasn't been easy, even before the aliens touched down and kicked off the end of the world. Growing up in Oakland meant constantly watching your (and your family's) back, and time spent in the military only built on those skills. Once the Judge came for Earth and deemed the human race undeserving of the life and resources they possessed, that foundation became Luke's saving grace. While he is far from the poster boy for stability under pressure, he is capable of functioning through it, and that'll be what keeps his head above the water here as well.
ABILITIES/SKILLS:
✦ Engineering (mechanical): Luke was able to progress into his senior year of education at Berkeley, majoring in Mechanical Engineering, before he was forced to enlist in the military for financial/familial reasons. Prior to withdrawing, he was at the top of his class, often participating in Graduate projects and acting as TA for Ian Fowler's courses.
✦ Academics, Mathematics, Physics: Despite his relatively low access to high quality education (until Ian at Berkeley), Luke has a natural affinity for mathematics and sciences. He understands concepts quickly and enjoys exercising creative means to apply them to problem solving and adapting to environmental/circumstantial issues
✦ Mechanic: Luke's uncle ran an auto-mechanic garage in Oakland that Luke spent most of his youth at as a sort of low budget daycare. It's where he initially grew his love for mechanical engineering and complex machinery.
✦ Biotech Alien Electricity Powers: Once upon a time, in a split-second bad decision, Luke stuck his hand into a Judge weapon he knew nothing about in order to stop it from going off on some loved ones. He lived through the encounter (barely), but also integrated somewhat with the partly organic tech. He now hosts an ability to absorb, manipulate, and neutralize electrical charges. However, this power does give him frequent migraines, often leaves him feeling restless and jumpy, Luke has a lot of fidgeting and ticks to deal with that excess energy, often seeks over-stimulation.
✦ Nature Survival/Foraging: Having to live on the run and keep away from the cities that would attract the most attention from the Judge, Luke gained much experience in living on the land, scavenging for food and shelter, and building rudimentary tools, weapons and clothes.
✦ Babysitting: He raised 3 girls. He got this. He's bought so many packets of overnight maxi pads, mediated many a borrowed crop top dispute.
✦ Weed Farming: Everyone needs hobbies, ok, even in the end times.
INVENTORY:
⇢ Military grade assault rifle made from high durability plastic
⇢ Ammunition (a couple extra magazines for the assault rifle)
⇢ Picture of his whole family (Luke, Cara, Danny, Lana, Julia, Bina, Uncle Elan)
⇢ Jury-rigged megaphone
⇢ Holographic DisneyLand fanny pack stuffed full of A++ weed
