Cross

Name: Cross

Gender: Male

Species: Coyote/German Shepherd

Age: 1½

Human Equivalent: 15

Background: Cross’ mother was killed by a hunter when he was only a few weeks old. He was found by Mrs. Landerlan and her children who begged to keep him. Thus Cross was adopted into the Landerlan family. He was a few months old when he was taken from his human family and brought to the facility. Cross tends to purposely block out those unhappy times, so not much is known of what happened to him there. He tags along with Thanatos seeing him as a pack member and friend. His current objective is to seek out and rejoin his human family.

Appearance: Cross is about average height for a fifteen-year-old human with golden tanned skin, and multi-colored, shaggy hair ranging from dark brown, to black, to gold, to tan. This hair color mimics his fur color when in coydog (coyote-mix) form. His eyes cross over in his human form, remaining the same golden-yellow along with a purple line that wraps around his arm down to his elbow. He prefers to wear the orange shirt that he “found” after escaping the facility and always has a football on him, one of his favorite things in the world to play with.

Personality: Cross is very carefree and willing to try almost anything. At times this behavior causes people to think he’s naïve or stupid but he’s far from it. He possesses the coyote trademark of intelligence and mischief, often landing himself into some bad predicaments, and he easily succumbs to trickery from humans when food is involved. He proudly claims that he’s half coyote and half German Shepherd though he doesn’t understand the complications that come with being half coyote when it comes to humans, particularly ranchers. Whenever the facility is mentioned he becomes quiet. If a question is directed his way on the subject he pretends not to know what is being talked about. He’s shown himself to be a great fighter, often using his intelligence to get out of a situation, though when cornered he panics and acts without thinking first.

Profile: Audrey

Name: “Aunt” Audrey Hooper

Gender: Female

Species: Human

Age: 63

Job: Paramedic (retired), Volunteer at local Halfway House

Background: Audrey was the second child of her parents, the first being a three-years older son called Terrance. When Audrey was still in high school Terrence left home- every now and again he would call his family and tell them he was fine, he claimed to have an important and exciting job which required a lot of travel- and he never gave them any contact information for him. Audrey became a paramedic and worked that way for many years- until one day she found her brother out on a call. He’d become homeless and was dying of a drug overdose. He literally lived down the street and she never knew. Outraged and heartsore that such a thing could happen, Audrey began to volunteer at the local halfway house in hopes of preventing such a tragedy from repeating. She has since retired from being a paramedic, and operates her house as an extension of Chance House, allowing the homeless to sleep there when the shelter is full and housing some of their supplies. This is why, although Audrey claims that her house is the shelter, Jenny is the only person staying with her.

Appearance: Audrey is about 5’3, with skin the color of milk chocolate and crinkly black hair that’s heavily threaded with gray- she usually keeps her hair put up in a crown of braids. Her eyes are warm brown, and she prefers loose comfortable housedresses for indoors, and jeans with a brown jacket for out-doors. It doesn’t come up in the story, but Audrey was considered to be quite a looker in her younger years.

Personality: Audrey is warm and caring- she never actually had a family of her own, but sees the reflection of what her family might have looked like in every face that she helps. She has a strong sense of justice and believes that chances should be given as long as people are willing to take them. Her sense of justice, therefore, does not often coincide directly with the Law, which is why she has yet to report Jenny to the authorities. A big part of her outreach to the homeless is based upon mutual respect- a thing which has gotten her into trouble a few times, as she is almost always willing to respect the choices made by her charges over what society dictates as right.

Profile, Jenny

Name: Jenny

Gender: Female

Species: Virginia Opossum

Age: 3 months

Human Equivalent: 11

Background: Jenny is very young, and hadn’t been at the facility for very long when the escape occurred. She’s unsure what happened to her mother, though she knows that at one point they lived in the wild, her memories of the capture are hampered by her young age- her memory didn’t really develop until she was injected with the “people virus” so she’s not at all sure about what happened prior to that. Currently, Jenny is living at a halfway house with a woman called Audrey and learning more about humans.

Appearance: Jenny is fairly short, about 4’3 or so, with lightly tanned skin and waist-length pale brown hair and dark brown eyes. Her carry-over mark is three pink dots beneath her left eye, as well as pink fingers and toes. Jenny adores the pink hoodie given to her by Audrey, and refuses to get rid of it.

Personality: Jenny is fairly innocent and unsure of what to do most of the time- when she gets scared she has a tendency to faint in hopes of escaping whatever is happening. Since Audrey has told her this is unhealthy Jenny has been trying harder not to pass out in dangerous situations. She has the potential to be quite brave. Jenny’s feelings about the other animals mostly are relief and acceptance- she’s still quite used to being taken care of and is quite eager to join another family. Her biggest worry aside from them getting caught, is them splitting up.

Profile, Robyn

Name: Robyn Goodman

Gender: Female

Species: Human

Age: 23

Job: Police Officer

Background: Robyn grew up in an average middle-class family, but was a noted overachiever in school- so much so that even during high school she was studying and preparing for going into the police force- which has always been her dream. Her dedication has led to her being the youngest officer on the force- though it’s easy to forget that when viewing her interactions with her co-workers, who have helped her learn to take it easy. Robyn lives alone, but calls her parents every Saturday to let them know how she’s doing. Robyn met Gary during officer training and has since become quite good friends with both him and his girlfriend, Melanie. Every now and again Gary will try to set her up with one of his friends in a blind date that is always spectacular in it’s horrendousness- other than that, her life is fairly normal.

Appearance: Robyn is about average height, 5’8, with pale skin and blonde hair, which is constantly pulled back into a ponytail. Her eyes are green, and she is most often to be found wearing either her black police uniform or a pair of jeans and a dark long-sleeved shirt.

Personality: Robyn has been noted for being dedicated to her work, and it’s common knowledge that she’s the youngest officer on the force. More time spent with the force has given her a sense of humor that was distinctly lacking in her high school and college days. She’s well-known for mentioning Murphy’s Law at any given moment- but was quite surprised when that law took on a new meaning as her own definition of fact and fiction was horribly skewed. She’s more than a little curious about the experimental animals, even if they do seem to giver her a headache, and the universe seems to be conspiring to keep her in the loop.

Profile, Turin

Name: Turin

Gender: Male

Species: Black Billed Magpie

Age: 2 years

Human Equivalent: 21

Background: Turin was captured by the experimental facility when he was 1 year old, and had just determined Mira as his mate. They never had a chance to produce any eggs. Turin was captured along with his brother, who is nameless at this point in time, and died at some point during their captivity. Since magpies are social birds, Turin feels strange and ostracized now that his flock has rejected him. He’s fairly lucky though- since he lived free for a year around humans (magpies generally live close to humans) he can blend among them fairly well.

Appearance:Turin makes for a tall human male, 6’5 or so, he has pale skin a messy black hair that alternately flops forward into his eyes and sticks up in the back. This carries over from his magpie form, in which he has never been able to get the feathers on the back of his head to lie flat the way that they should. His eyes in both forms are a vivid red-orange, which can be quite disconcerting to those not expecting it. His carry-over mark is on his arms, which are black from shoulder to knuckle, except for a thick band of white which stretches diagonally across them above his elbow. Turin prefers sleeveless shirts- sleeves make him feel restricted and unable to fly- even though this preference leaves his arms plainly visible.

Personality: Turin is bitter and suspicious of almost everyone. His curse is that he’s smart enough to know that he’ll never be accepted back into his flock, but hopeful enough to try anyway. He’s very opposed to what he is now, and would rather stay in his animal form if he can. As for his feelings on the other animals… he’s willing to stay with them to a certain degree, as a sort of replacement flock, but especially in the beginning, he will be the first to threaten to leave if he thinks something is going wrong. Since Jenny is so young, and he never got to have any chicks of his own, he’s slowly becoming protective of her… but don’t expect him to be nice. Magpies are tricksters, and Turin’s bitterness has severely warped his sense of humor.