First there had been the pandemic with the outbreak of COVID, then war had come as Russia invaded Ukraine, and now … July 2025 a month dreaded by astronomers as the month when the sun reached the maximum of its 11 year cycle and this peak in solar activity would indeed be the big one, an event...
Historians of today say about almost every great civilisation in human history that they themselves never knew they ended when they did. It is only in the rear view mirror we can determine when it happened. For all we know our modern civilisation could be determined by future historians to have...
Background: Widowed Eco farmer, mostly self-sustainable, with a farm in upstate New York (somewhere about half way between Rochester and Buffalo). Part survivalist, part Eco warrior. Before the death of her husband (whom she met in college) 12 years ago, and subsequently moving to the farm, she worked as a fitness coach in New York.
However she grew up on the farm which was then run by her parents. When they died in a car crash when Pippa was still in college she inherited it and rented out the farmland to the neighbours while keeping the main building as a summer house.
Background: Former hacker with identification documents for at least five different identities between which she used to switch as needed.
Some would know her as Agnes Dietrich, professional dancer and DJ at the LBTQ nightclub The Playground in New York City. Others as Miranda Stewart, owner of a small used records store on Bleecker Street. Some would know her as socialite and filthy rich heiress Noomi Thorstensson from Scandinavia, an absolute brat that seemingly refused to grow up. She was also known to some as Olivia Smith, investment broker. Some might even know her as Victor Miller, the reclusive digital 3D artist. Few knew her by her hacker name: N3m3515, to name but a few of her many identities. Only one person really knew her as Astrid Kowalski, Wren Jones 32 , her partner as of the last 10 years.
Whether Astrid Kowalski is actually her "real" name is not entirely certain. She almost never talk about her life before arriving in New York City as a 16 years old runaway (with an oddly large bank account). Her place of origin and birth date are also unknown. When and if asked about it she rarely gives the same answer twice.
Morgan Sweeney
Faction: Fossils (A.K.A The Road Warriors
Age: 27
Gender: Female
Orientation/Preference: Bisexual/Female Preference
Height: 176 cm
Background: Morgan grew up with her single mother for most of her childhood, with only irregular visits from the man she suspected was her father. That changed a week after her 16th birthday when she woke up to loud crashing noises and found her mother on the kitchen floor, badly beaten, and him sitting at the table with a cup of coffee, the morning paper calmly having a smoke. When she asked her barely conscious mother what had happened (even though it was obvious what had happened) He told her to stop poking her nose into things that did not concern her or she would be next to end up with a split lip, broken nose and two black eyes, just like her mother.
When she protested and took her phone out to call 911 he grabbed her hair (which at the time was still down to her shoulders) and using it as a handle slammed her face down on the table.
Over the next two years this became a regular occurrence. Her father moved in without asking permission and every day he abused Morgan and her mother, physically, verbally and sexually until one day Morgan stopped struggling, stopped talking back and seemed to comply and submit to his will. The abuse against her still continued but less violently.
What her father did not know was that the moment she began to comply and submit to him was the same moment she began to plot against him. Her loyalty and submission was all just an act.
Background: Wren was adopted at birth by an Old Money family in Providence RI. The family dated all the way back to the mid 17th century making them one of the oldest, and wealthiest, families in Rhode Island. This meant that Wren grew up, more or less, with a silver spoon in their back pocket, (part spoiled brat, part black sheep of the family). It opened doors for them to attend the most prestigious schools all the way from kindergarten to an unfinished major in art studies at the New York School of the Arts.
Wren is Astrid's partner of the last 10 years and the only one who know all of her identities. They were however separated from Astrid by the apocalypse as they had gone to visit their parents and adopted sister who had just had a child and in the mean time Astrid had travelled North to Buffalo to visit a sick relative, at least that was the official version. Wren did not know the exact nature of Astrid's reason for visiting the state capital.
Aoife O'Donnell
Age 19
Faction: Unaffiliated
Height: 5'5 or 165 CM
Orientation: Unknown
A young homeschooler from rural West Virginia Aoife was in Rhode Island for a horse auction, looking for a stud for her family farm. Having bought the horse she was trying to get back south when the troubles started. When the rear axle of the horse trailer broke, and with no way to get through the massive lines of cars trying to buy (or steal) gas, she decided her best option was to simply ride the horse home. Able to live off the land fairly well, she still knows that she will need more equipment and supplies to get home.
Veterinarian, often has to perform on humans too, due to lack of resources and other specialist skills. Originally from farther west, he was stranded in New York during a flight layover when the world fell apart. Managed to escape the cities and find refuge with Pippa's group, though he wants to head west to see if any of his family also survived.
When the world went to shits, Clem was just about to head home, back to her parents in the Hamptons to apologise. She'd been a spoiled brat and had finally come to realise this. Sure, they'd kept her in the choke hold of her inheritance, telling her to basically be somebody she was not, but they meant well.
Clem wasn't the ideal daughter in law, well mannered ballerina girly girl. Quite the opposite in fact. She loved cars, had done ever since she was young. More often than not she was seen sitting in the garage, watching her dad's sports cars. Then as she got older, she loved to get her hands dirty and greasy. First on cars, later on other things until she had finished what she called her special project. It was an old Airstream caravan in the backyard she had decked out with all kinds of stuff so she could live in there in case of an apocalypse. Solar panels, scavenged from some neighbours who where throwing them away. A fridge she bought for next to nothing at a pawn shop, she refurbished and got it back to work again.
And of course Christine, Clem's precious old Cadillac, named after that other famous red car. She always got the 'this isn't a Plymouth', comments to which she would always say 'no, but this one's just as deadly when I'm driving it.' There wasn't a thing on it that hadn't been touched by Clem over the years. Even the body panels at some stage had been taken off, dented out and put back together.
Two days earlier she had gotten into a fight with her parents who had basically told her to get rid of 'that junk' in the garden. There had been shouting, slamming doors and again Clem had driven off with Christine only to stay away for two nights now, leaving her parents worried sick. After having calmed down, she was ready to go home. Before she could get home though, the apocalypse struck and her post apocalypse shelter had become out of reach. It quickly became apparent that things weren't good and rumours of New York having been on lockdown left Clem stranded on the wrong side of Long Island.
In the days and weeks that followed it became more and more apparent that Clem would not see her parents or even her house again and she slowly decked out her car similar to her now out of reach Airstream, using scavenged bits of tech she could get her hands on. One day she stopped at a gas station belonging to a group who called themselves Road Warriors, aiming to get things back to where it was. Not having anywhere else to go and realising that a young woman on her own would struggle more and more out on the road, she decided to stay and join.
Name: Ajax
Faction: Road Warriors (Leader)
Age: 65
Gender: Male
Sexuality/Preference: Heterosexual
Height: 5'11"
Background: Ajax founded the Road Warriors motorcycle club with several friends decades prior to the apocalypse. Notably, he is the only surviving founding member, most of the others having died violently, suspiciously, or otherwise unexpectedly.
He maintained a very loose relationship with a prostitute he knocked up, playing the role of the absent father who visited on occasion and gave his daughter, Morgan, the barest scraps of affection. When she was 16, however, he decided to take a more active role in her life, essentially forcing his way back in and proceeding to abuse and control her and her mother. All the while, he started training Morgan, teaching her a variety of useful skills, grooming her, molding her into essentially his personal bodyguard/enforcer/assassin in a Stockholm syndrome-esque manner.
After the apocalypse, he and the gang siphoned every drop of fuel they could and stockpiled it, but they know they need to secure actual production methods to make more at some point. And so they have been continuing to scavenge what they can and are currently trying to find an oil well or refinery or other large source. WORK IN PROGRESS!
Name: Diana Snow
Faction: Activists
Age: 36
Gender: Genderfluid nonbinary, they/she pronouns
Orientation/Preference: Bisexual, attracted to women and androgynous to feminine nonbinary people.
Height: 5'7"
Backstory:
Changed the image reference for Astrid because as I started to write the starter I realised the one I had used was wearing a leather jacket and that wouldn't really fit with the ECO faction much less so with the activists attached to it.
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