Percival Jonathan Carter

"Percy" is actually his nickname; call him by Percival and he will deck you straight up.

29

He/Him

Haven City Salvager

Benjamin Eidem

6 FT

Thin, but well muscled

Blue

Dirty Blonde

Tends to keep it a tiny bit longer than a traditional short cut, but it curls, so he doesn't let it get much longer than that.

No

Percy is incredibly uncaring about clothes. Clothes are things that are worn to prevent you from getting torn to shreds on jagged pieces of metal or to protect against the elements, or attacks from crazed malformed demonic entities. They are to serve a purpose and are to be worn until they fall apart and then replaced.

That being said, he has exactly two outfits: his yellow-orange work overalls and the underclothes he wears beneath, and on the rare days that he is not working or scrapping, a plain t-shirt and jeans. He also has a variant on his plain t-shirt which is just a long-sleeved plain shirt, for when it's cold. Formalwear would be, a plain t-shirt and jeans that are less scuffed or stained than the rest.

He has multiple sets of both of his exactly two outfits, and cycles through them for wash days and to try to keep things from wearing as quickly.

His arms and legs are covered in nicks and bumps and dents, all thin scars and divots, and his hands are much the same thanks to a life spent digging and pulling at often sharp objects and the occasional slip of a tool. He has been blessed that the marks and scars have never been very deep or very serious. And that he keeps up to date on tetanus shots.

In another life, Percy would have been a typical farmer's son - rural country boy growing up amidst fields and backwoods raised by a tightknit, small town community. He's too young to really remember the family farm, acres upon acres somewhere in the Midwest United States - he was about 7 years old when the Rapture first began. Just old enough to remember the world as it was, but in flashes of disjointed memory, snapshots of a polaroid. Playing in the creek that ran behind the farmhouse, 'driving' the tractor in the fields, helping tend to chickens and roughhousing with the farm dogs; the sprawling school building that held kindergarten through fifth grade, the giant playground at recess.

He is old enough to be scarred by the first wave of Armageddon. Old enough to remember his mother's death. Old enough to remember the falling stars in the night sky, fields and forests and rivers aflame. The breaking of humanity, the scattering. Pilgrimages to the haven cities as the world outside turned to ash and dust.

Too young to understand why.

Still, raised by a widowed single father who could only do his best and growing up entrenched in a different kind of tightknit community hasn't done much to rid Percy of that rural country boy imprinted into his earliest memories. He is loud, brazen, hot-headed and determined no matter what or who might be in his path. He's a tough guy smartass whose mouth gets ahead of him, a man raised to whip out snarky remarks and use his fists at a moment's notice.

He doesn't like to sit still - he likes to work with his hands, take things apart and see how they tick, put things back together again. He likes to help, first and foremost. He's always been a problem-solver, the person you turn to when your pipes leak or need help carrying furniture upstairs.

He cares a great deal for those around him, but little about himself. Pain is just a price of living. He is a dutiful partner and a worrier (though concealed by wise cracks and gallows humor), but the same concerns he shows for others he neglects to show to himself. He'll yell at someone for working themselves too hard while half in the grave himself.

Quiet, stillness, contemplation, that's never been his style. Silence drives him crazy, inaction makes him miserable. His temper tends to flare hot and fast when he takes offense, although it can be tamped out just as quick. He's hard-headed, stubborn to a point of frustration. He doesn't like to be wrong. He doesn't like to give up. He's not the type to apologize unless the other party does first - although he will show his apology in other ways if he can.

Nico, coffee, his workshop, anything mechanical or metal,

Silence, the Church, evangelicals, reading, being alone

• can construct and deconstruct basically anything he can get his hands on


• is the go-to guy for coming up with creative solutions to problems; give him some coffee and some time and he can come up with mostly plausible and workable answers most of the time


• is also the go-to guy for assistance with dangerous situations, i.e. "Hey Percy, we need someone to haul this heavy wire up to the top of his building by scaling this pole with nothing but this pulley and harness system" and Percy would shrug and do it

• is definitely a hoarder


• can't sew for shit


• can't cook for shit, either
  (domesticity has never been Percy's strong suit, clearly)


• can't really drive; while he understands heavy machinery on a technical level, there's never been any need for such a skill within the haven city for the jobs he's done. At best he knows how to fix the sleds and transporters they use to haul in salvage from the wastelands outside the city borders, and he can drive them in emergency situations if something terrible were to happen while they were out. Otherwise it's not something Percy concerns himself with.

Homosexual, and Percy has been out since he was about 16.

Percy is a member of the community as much as anyone else. His father's reputation notwithstanding, his connection to the Starlings and his own friendly disposition (if not exactly a sunny one) has earned him the love and appreciation of his friends and that gentle, exasperated headshake love of "that boy" from neighbors and community leaders the way aunts and uncles love their nephew. He's always been known as sweet and helpful, if not also mischievous and a bit of a troublemaker.

That being said, Percy has plenty of friends and even more connections. He's on a friendly basis with all of their neighbors, a good friend as well as coworker to most of his salvage team, and has made it his business to be just as involved with Nico's guard station and higher ups as Nico himself is. (And no, it wasn't just because he was trying to stay in their good graces when he was living with Nico illegally in the barracks before they got their place together.)

He knows that his refusal to attend to the Church or their beliefs is a sore spot among the more fanatical of their district and he would be more loved if he would be involved... but there's not much he can do about a lack of belief. He does tend to keep his personal beliefs to himself and doesn't disparage the Church or the Archangels within earshot of anyone who may matter, preferring to joke away or dodge around the issue, but it doesn't matter; it's well known who raised him and what his attitude is. That tends to put him on the shit list of the more rabid evangelicals who would have the whole city bowing down to the Archangel and nose buried into whatever counts as the holy texts these days.

He also has his fair share of enemies; although Percy isn't the type to hold grudges and is willing to forgive and forget if the other party is contrite and willing to do the same. That being said, his mouth and his temper have gotten into trouble several times. He hates the types that don't pull their share or try to take advantage of others, bullies and thieves and the like.

Percy is wholly devoted to Nico. He would consider them "married" if that was a topic that was important to either of them. Their love story is disgustingly sweet, and one Percy is fond to talk about if and when it would most make Nico blush. He calls him 'Nic' most often, as well as various other pet names when he's allowed.

His love languages are words of affirmation and acts of service, which is a surprise to no one, given that's how he is with most everyone he loves or cares about. That being said, Percy is also more of a jealous and possessive type. He doesn't like to share, and he doesn't like people who cross lines or boundaries.

Nico is not his first lover; although there weren't many and none are important enough to even be mentioned these days. It's been years since Percy has even thought about another person. Nico's been a constant presence in his life since they were teens; he can't conceive of a world that doesn't have him in it.

Father - Isaac Carter; deceased. Percy called him "Pops" and his "old man"
Mother - Nicole Carter; deceased

Percy is all alone, at this point. His mother died in the Rapture, so he was raised by his father. No siblings, his father never remarried. There may be an aunt somewhere in one of the other cities, but Percy has no memories of her from after the Rapture.

Percy has been close friends with the Starling family since he was 12. They are the family that Percy and his dad never had. Nico and Percy were close as boys, both being raised by single parent fathers, and that friendship turned into best friends and then turned into lovers. Percy has lived with Nico since his old man passed when Percy was in his early 20s.

He considers Magnolia to be his sister in every way but blood, even without considering the sister-in-law connection through Nico. That being said, their relationship is anything but the loving and doting one she shares with her actual brother. They are opposites, they annoy each other endlessly. Magnolia insists on calling him "Percival" and constantly preaches at him; Percy calls her "Mags" in retaliation and harasses her in a big brother way that Nico could never bring himself to do. Still, he loves her, and supports her and Nico as best he can.

Percy's general dislike of the Church comes from his father. His family had not been particularly religious prior to the Rapture, but afterwards, with his wife dead and the world plunged into Armageddon, his father decried all forms of organized religion. He stayed only in the good graces of the Haven City enough to not be declared a heretic and cast out into the wastes (or picked up by Satanists) mostly because he was a farmer and carpenter by trade, and they needed him.

Percy has never been as extreme in beliefs as his father, but he has never worshipped the Archangels and hasn't been inside a Church since he was a teenager; the few times he went with Nico out of solidarity for Magnolia until he gave that idea up. The Starlings being a military family and well-known devotees eased his father's reputation for being anti-Church on him growing up, and Percy has mostly been left to his own devices these days.