birth name Christopher Vandervent birth date October 29, 1979 PLACE OF BIRTH Denver, Colorado previous occupation pop culture writer relationship status Married (Wife is Deceased) parents Jonathan Vandervent
   (Father, Deceased)
Leah Vandervent
   (Mother, Deceased)
siblings Leliana Vandervent
   (Sister, Alive)
past serious relationships Katherine Vandervent
   (Wife, Deceased)

out of character
played by Jake Gyllenhaal

contact Insanejournal

timezone Eastern Standard, varied availability.

writing Third person, past tense, storybook. Prefer FTB.

preferences Threading and customs exclusive.

layout credit ~hillstrom, edits by ~ary. Do not remove!

Before The Outbreak Chris Vandervent was born on October 29, 1977 to two pretty dedicated parents in Denver, Colorado. His mother was a newspaper editor, and his father was a scientist, and the two of them had strong ideas on what they wanted their son to become. His mother wanted Chris to become a big reporter for the state, and maybe even go into politics. His father wanted him to become a bio-engineer, and to hopefully work for NASA. Chris didn't want to do any of these things. He wanted to be a pirate. But once he got past his idiotic way of viewing things, Chris grew up and realized that the best way to make a living was to find out what he was good at. But he was young, he had time to figure things out.

Chris never viewed himself to be the type to fall in love at first sight, but when he met Katherine Michaels in high school, he certainly fell for her a bit. She seemed to do all the same extracurricular activities that he did, and the two were soon paired up in the Robotics Club. Their friendship was a rather unlikely one - she was the beautiful geek-chic girl that all the guys wanted, and he wasn't exactly a looker. Hell, he was unable to get laid until college when he finally outgrew his awkward stage. But Katherine and Chris became close friends, and she even humored him and went to both their junior and senior proms together.

High school came and went, and college did too, with Katherine and Chris once again attending the same school. He didn't realize he had feelings for Katherine until their last year of college - he had been slow on the uptake, and had tried dating a few people throughout college, but most of the girls left him because they were jealous of his friendship with Katherine. One drunken night of movies and dinner, Chris confessed his feelings for Katherine, thinking they'd be shrugged off, but instead was surprised when his answer was her lips on his. Graduation was coming up, and both were looking for the future, looking for jobs, and looking to see where their relationship could go. They had years of friendship, nothing could go wrong, right? They had the foundation, they were good to go.

Unfortunately, their relationship ended two months after graduation - while Chris had yet to get a job with his English writing degree, Katherine had gotten a job in New York, and she was moving there. Reluctant to let the relationship and their friendship die off, they attempted to do a long distance relationship that just didn't seem to work out. The more they tried, the more they got frustrated - he didn't have the money to fly out to see her, and she didn't have the time to come home to see him. It brought a strain on their friendship and ruined their relationship and about a year after she moved away, the two lost touch.

It took Chris a little bit to move on, but he eventually did. Getting a job at a local magazine, he started to write opinion pieces on the world and the music he had become obsessed with growing up. Relying mostly on the Seattle music scene, and the places he visited as a kid, he soon was getting acclaim. Spin Magazine came calling, and the agreement was made.

His work for Spin Magazine brought him across the country. Traveling around and meeting celebrities, Chris found that his work was better if he worked alone. If he was alone. He dated around for a few years, never really satisfied and never really finding someone he could be with until he ran into Katherine again. She was now a budding Realtor who had just moved to Manhattan, and he was in the market for a new home. The first house she brought him to, he decided he wanted immediately, and asked if she came with the sale. They would be married the next year.

Life after marriage was the best that life could ever be, and soon Katherine and Chris decided they wanted to start a family – and they wanted to move back home to do it. Chris managed to work out an arrangement with is job, and because of that, the two were able to move back home. His sister Leliana moved into their new home in Denver, near their parents, to help out with the arrival of Chris' first child and to help Katherine prepare herself.

Everything in life was perfect, but everything changed the moment the outbreak started.

After The Outbreak In early August 2015, an 8-month pregnant Katherine had gone to the doctor, with Chris going with her. She had recently come down with a flu of some sort, so they wanted to make sure she would be okay. Oddly enough, it had come around the same time that a dog had bitten her ankle, but they had thought nothing of it. As they got to the hospital, it seemed that they were more packed than usual, and Chris' sister Leliana (a doctor at the Denver Hospital) came out to meet them to tell them just how busy they had been. Doing a favor to Chris, Leliana agreed to meet with Katherine and Chris at home, to treat her at home.

Later that evening, Katherine started to feel worse, and complained about the bite on her ankle hurting. She lifted up her pants to show Chris, and he gasped at how horrible the bite had become, it almost seemed to be like something out of a zombie movie, but there was no way that was true. Zombies weren't real. He immediately called Leliana, who came over as fast as she could, their parents in tow, to see what was going on.

Chris helped Leliana the best he could to help get the infection out of Katherine, but there was nothing they could do without being in a hospital environment. The wound was wrapped and Katherine went to bed, and Chris stayed downstairs with Leliana, talking about how worried he was.

As the two siblings talked late into the night, there was a sound and a scream upstairs. The siblings ran upstairs to see their mother and father standing in the room with Katherine, who was lifeless on the bed. "She's not breathing", their mother was crying, she was holding onto Katherine's hand tight, and their father had a hand on his wife's shoulders. Chris didn't have a chance to react though, as Katherine's eyes seemed to open, and when they did, she looked...unnatural.

She lunged up out of bed and immediately went for Chris' mother's neck, biting her and taking a huge chuck out of her neck. Chaos erupted, as their father tried to pull Katherine away, and Katherine attacked him as well. Thinking their mother was dead was too much to ask for, as she seemed to rise from the dead as well. Leilana stood in shock, but Chris had seen enough horror movies to know what was going on. He pulled her out of the upstairs bedroom and shut the door behind them, screaming at her to help him put something in front of the door. He had to find a gun.

They moved a dresser over the door and the screaming behind the door was almost too much for them to handle, as Chris was crying uncontrollably, not exactly sure what was going on. Outside the house on the street, it was as if the apocalypse had happened. Houses were on fire, people were running screaming, and people who looked less than alive were attacking and eating other people. Something was wrong.

Finding his gun, Chris loaded it and ran back up to the bedroom, where Leilana was screaming. "I'm going to open the door, and if they get me you need to run. You need to take what you can, and you need to run, do you hear me?" She nodded, and they pushed the door open. Chris went into the room and Leilana grabbed a chair and broke of the leg of it and followed her brother in, and together they fought off Katherine and their parents. They might have taken out their confusion and anger out on the three undead before them a little too much, as Chris unloaded on what used to be his wife and mother, and Leilana took down their father. As much as it killed him to do so, as he sobbed in agony, he shot through his wife's stomach as well.

The siblings left the room and blocked it off and immediately started to grab everything they could find – it wasn't safe here, not anymore. They managed to escape the house and get into their cars, and drove as fast as they could away from their neighborhood, taking the back roads into a neighboring town, to find her fiancee.

Unfortunately, finding Leilana's fiancee ended up poorly, and the two siblings ended up contining on their own, trying to find a way to survive. Eventually they found their way to meet up with other survivors and once they were allowed in, they have done whatever they could to help keep the area safe, trying to help out with their various skills.

For Chris, he's almost delusional as to how this is all turning out. He's finding that he's far more useful in the life after the outbreak, but that doesn't mean he isn't looking back on his old life and wishing that it was the same. The due date of his first child come and gone, Chris is trying to avoid shutting down completely, and is doing his best to keep on going, keeping his fears to himself. Eventually that may blow up in his face, but for now...he's doing what he can to survive. Now that he's met up with more survivors, he's proving he is an asset and is making allies and connections, anything he can to stay alive.

Inventory
Clothing (Currently Wearing) ♦ (1) Wornout Leather Jacket
♦ (1) Pair of socks
♦ (1) Pair of Underwear
♦ (1) T-shirt
♦ (1) Pair of jeans
♦ (1) Pair of boots
Backpack ♦ (1) North Face Heckler backpack (Stolen) with:
    » (1) Moleskin Journal
    » (1) Tape recorder
    » (1) Package of AA Batteries
    » (2) Small first aid kits, stolen
    » (1) Fleece blanket, stolen
    » (1) Utili-Key 6-in-1 Tool
    » (1) Swiss Army Knife
    » (1) Photograph of his family

Skills, Strengths, & Weaknesses
Robotics/Engineering Knows how to hotwire a car, and jerry rig various technology to benefit him and those with him. This is helpful for stealing cars. Basic First Aid Thanks to learning from his sister, who is a nurse, Chris is very capable on how to dress wound and take care of it, and often helps those out in emergencies. Handgun Proficiency He's not amazing with a gun, but he knows how to aim and fire. It's helped so far. Fishing Due to his childhood and fishing with his father all the time, he's a pretty decent fisher. Writing Seemingly not an important skill, but Chris keeps a log of everything abnormal that he's seen since the outbreak started. Crossbow Proficiency Thanks to years of archery, he knows what he's doing with a bow. Organziational/Leadership Is a natural born leader, and is more than willing to help step up and make the hard choices if they're needed. He does not put up a fight if something is asked of him though, as he is trying to do what is best for the many and not what is best for the few. Quick Tempered Chris has gone through a lot to get to where he is today - and because of that, he sometimes acts out when he thinks he's going about doing the right thing and someone tells him otherwise. He's done some things he didn't want to have to do to survive, and he's desperate to prove his worth to the other survivors. Ex-Smoker Chris was a smoker for ten years. He's recently quit cold turkey out of knowing he needed to survive more than he needed the next cigarette. But sometimes he gets a bit cranky not having a cigarette - but even when one is offered, he declines immediately. Dweller Chris dwells on the past and how he could have saved his wife and their unborn child, but knows she wouldn't want him thinking like that. Of course, this doesnt stop him, and sometimes he can get lost in thought.