Omar Edwardo Torres

name meaning:
omar - "flourishing; long-lived"
edwardo - "wealthy guard"
torres - "towers"
nickname - eddy but he hates being called this since it was a nickname from Anthony

gender:
cisgender male
(he/him)

age:
24

birthday:
September 22, 1994

sexual orientation:
demisexual biromantic

ethnicity:
Hispanic/Latino

nationality:
American
(born in America although his parents were both immigrants from Mexico)

appearance:
face claim - Marlon Teixeira
brown eyes but one of them has a nasty scar over it (it was made blind from injury in combat); brown almost caramel-like curly hair; stubble on his face although he tries to shave; scars all over his body as if someone took a cigarette and burned him repeatedly from a downpour of acid rain that had hurt him during his second month outside of his bunker. luckily, those are his only scars clearly visible. the rest are emotional. Omar usually trades out of baggy pants or skirts on a particularly hot day as well as old tee-shirts he'll find or a hoodie or two. he has worn the same pair of old, white Nikes for the past few months. all the clothes he owns are typically a bit dirty or torn and he carries what clothes he isn't wearing in a duffle bag that slings tightly over his shoulder/behind his back.

personality:
before being drafted into the war, Omar was known by family and friends as a very loving and kind man. He was always respectful, even towards people who didn't like him or who he didn't like, and rarely was one to talk behind their backs. The young man took life slow and cherished it- he saw beauty in everything around him and loved living. A simple thing that some took for granted. Eddy looked towards the future with hope and love in his eyes and he wanted nothing more than to grasp ahold of whatever life gave him. He wanted to explore, to experiment, to see things, to try things. However, after being drafted, he saw a lot of things he wished he never saw. He had never wanted to be drafted, but as an immigrant and not wanting his family to be deported, he was sent off to fight. When he finally came back, it was only after he had injured his left leg from an ambush that occurred. Yet the Omar his family and friends had known before the war was gone. All that was left was a shell where Omar had been. His nature is distant and even cruel sometimes, causing many people to shy away from him as he seems to no longer have any regard for other's feelings. However, deep down, buried beneath the layers of walls inside him, his heart is the same as it was before he was sent off to war. He really does care- he cares so so much about those around him. But Omar is afraid- terrified. That's all he knows how to feel nowadays. He knows the war is over and can't harm him anymore, but it feels as though it is always with him. Everywhere he goes outside of his home reminds him of the things he's seen, the people he once knew. Part of him wants to scream about it to the entire world around them for everyone and every creature to know, but he remains silent and secluded wherever he goes. The last thing Omar wants to do is get too close to someone and scare them away or lose them like he lost Anthony. So he stays where he stayed before the war and where he sometimes wonders if he'll stay forever.

strengths -
physically built and a strong close combat fighter; has an eye for spotting people or things; knows how to live off of nature and alone very well; neat and tidy with his space and things

weaknesses -
his attitude for sure; stubborn and doesn't easily accept or ask for help; his left leg will occasionally jam up or give out due to his injury from the war; occasional insomnia

mutations -
after that acid rain hit him, his skin has become rough almost like leather across his arms and back where most of the rain hit him along with part of his head where his hair won't grow back. this leather-like mutated skin is waterproof as well as fireproof but the unmutated skin directly surrounding it is fragile and can easily get cuts, bruises, or burns. definitely not fun. wishes he had some ointment of some kind to help the sensitive aspects of his skin.

languages -
Spanish (first language); English (second language);
can speak both fluently but is better at reading and writing in English rather than Spanish since he had more practice for English reading/writing in school

backstory -
before the war, Omar lived with his immigrant parents in a suburban city where he was born and raised, fluent in both Spanish and English from a young age. he had a pretty normal childhood, his parents working their hardest so he'd have the best education and food and clothes that they could easily afford. however, feeling a bit of a gap between his Hispanic roots and his roots in America, Omar always wanted to go out and explore the world but he never expected to achieve that dream of exploration by being drafted into the third world war. wanting his parents to be able to keep their home and small business (they ran a tamale shop in their neighborhood that had gained popularity), Omar willingly went with the draft even though he opposed the war. there, he met Anthony, another immigrant draftee who he ended up falling for. Anthony kept his head above water during the war and fighting- however, things went bad during a failed ambush and Anthony was killed in front of Omar, who could meanwhile do nothing as he had gotten an awful injury nearby from some hidden barbed wire in the ground that had tied itself around his left leg. as he had desperately tried to get himself untangled, Anthony had attempted to run to him and help him out only to get killed. Omar blames himself for Anthony's death even though he couldn't have done anything to change what had occurred considering no one knew that barbed wire was there. Omar has never talked about Anthony with anyone back home and as he recovered from his badly infected injury, the war got worse. It was one fateful day that the nuke got dropped not far from Omar and his parent's home where Omar was still recovering. His parents were working at the tamale shop which luckily had a bunker built beneath it and Omar quickly got into the one beneath their house. they had been stocking up food in both bunkers luckily but unluckily for Omar's parents, their bunker door had been damaged by a bad storm a couple of days ago and the lock didn't work. so when the nuke's wave of pressure went through the neighborhood, it blew the door off its hinges, the atomic blast killing his parents. he didn't know until he left his own bunker and went to check on them about a week later. now, Omar travels on his own from empty city to city where he tries his best to live off of what he can scrap up, not wanting to travel with anyone else for fear of losing them as well.

word on the street -
as a commonly known wanderer around the nearby cities and suburbs, rumor has it around the areas he's typically traveled between that Omar once killed a group of hijackers and steals from settlers. there's also been the rumor that at some point he either was or is an alcoholic.
do you believe these rumors?

companions - none

inventory -
I sort of talked about how he carries around his clothes in a duffle bag but he also has a backpack where he'll keep food, lighters he finds, matches, bandages, as well as his water cantine and his weapons. what these consist of are a few constantly sharp pocket knives, throwing knives, and a small shotgun that's loaded but always on safety. he's never used it and doesn't want to... guns are a large trigger for his PTSD.

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omar's playlist/music taste: 

burning pile - Mother Mother

sex on fire - Kings of Leon

basket case - Green Day

cloud 9 - beach bunny

haunt me (x3) - teen suicide

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misc -

- will sometimes have 'episodes' where reality between the war and his trauma collides with the present and he might not realize he isn't under attack or trying to fight someone during the moment. the episodes typically aren't too long, the longest having only lasted about 2 minutes, but they're unpleasant enough for Omar that he hates every second of them.
- the form of PTSD he has is called complex PTSD
- don't call him Eddy. he'll be pissed at you for life most likely.
- doesn't seem to talk too often around people he's with and seems to have an aura of being mad at the world
- secretly has a soft spot for helping people but would never give that away

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Some folks inherit star-spangled eyes
They send you down to war
And when you ask 'em, "How much should we give?"
They only answer, "More, more, more"
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no military son, son
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no fortunate one, one

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