Adélie Rana Ospanov

Basic information
Current year: 2023

Age: 22

Appearance: Adélie's frame can only be described as 'bony' with very sharp corners to her face. Her hair is remarkably thin and she has bright blue-green eyes, with skin that's just dark enough for them to look unusual, like they don't exactly belong in her face. Her eyes are mostly hidden behind her glasses anyway.

Music:


 * Eurus - The Oh Hellos
 * Allemande - Roomful of Teeth
 * Are You Satisfied? - Marina

Background
[TW murder] Adélie's parents very much had their hands full when she was born. Why they decided to have a second child when their first was such a whirlwind is a mystery to everyone, but luckily for them, Adélie was her brother's polar opposite in almost every way. From an early age she loved to read, learn and experiment with the world around her, although she sometimes isolated herself from other children as a result. Since her brother was also isolated, though for completely different reasons, the two grew up fiercely close, even if they sent the other to hospital once or twice. Their parents were run absolutely ragged by the pair of them, but by the time they were reaching high school age, there seemed to be some improvement.

This was all ruined by the brutal murder of their parents, right in front of their faces. In defence of his sister, Robin killed their assailant but was then convicted of murder and sent to a juvenile prison. Adélie, at only twelve, was given over to a foster family who insisted that she shouldn't see her brother, that he was a criminal, and she was better than that.

This didn't stop her. Adélie believed in family, and that was what Robin was. Between absconding on adventures to the various prisons her brother was moved to, she busied herself with studying. She had already jumped three years of school before her parents death and had absolutely no intention of going back on it. By fifteen she had graduated and got herself a place on a microbiology course in a prestigious university. She used this as a convenient excuse to escape her foster family and gain maybe too much independence for a fifteen year old, but she got through it, and as her peers in age began to start university, she had already graduated. This left her at something of a loss until she got a job in a lab, working with infectious diseases.

That year was a huge learning experience for her, because it wasn't just about science anymore--this was about people, something Adélie was unfamiliar with, but like always, was willing to learn. After a year she left the lab to pursue a PhD in immunology.

In 2023, the zombie virus broke out in North America and the rest of the world watched horrified as the entire country was destroyed. Suddenly Adélie's area of study was no longer a niche scientific area. Having been mocked and looked down on for years, suddenly her knowledge and skills became some of the most valuable in the world. Around the same time, the court confirmed that Robin would be temporarily released from prison at the beginning of September, in an attempt to rehabilitate him. Adélie panicked. She loved her brother, but the reality was that prison had changed him, and his transition back into society would not be an easy one, if he made it at all. So when the British army began to beg for volunteers to step right into the nightmare that was America, she took her chance, and was on the next plane.

She was among one of the only people in her field to do so, which presented her with an immense amount of work. It was made more stressful when her childhood friend and brother, neither of whom where meant to be anywhere near America, appeared and started bickering on her doorstep. Even worse was the Cleaner, a divisive serial killer who was expected by most of the army to be identified by Adélie. When she was, no one believed her. Despite all this, months into her time in America, Adélie finally began to make some progress on a cure.

This was a huge relief until one of her test subjects got loose and infected her. Accepting her fate, Adélie documented her symptoms and reactions to various experimental medications to help her successor, until the army decided they should put her out of her misery and her brother intervened, unable to accept his sister's death. While hidden outside the safe zone, Adélie managed something amazing—she survived the zombie virus. But the culture of fear surrounding the virus meant that no one was prepared to listen to her.

Not long later, the safe zone was infiltrated by the infected and Adélie was forced to flee with Kat and Mamun. They decided to go via the mountains to Canada in order to make it to the areas of the continent that weren't overrun by the virus, but while in the mountains they lost Kat, who instructed them to keep going and that she would follow. Now Adélie is travelling through Canada with a man she doesn't particularly like, trying not to die from the deadly virus that still affects her, avoiding the infected, and even more dangerous, the survivors.

Robin
All her childhood  Adélie was hounded by the chaotic presence of her older brother. He was the polar opposite of her quiet and orderly personality, the fire to her ice. He constantly messed up her things, sang annoying songs until he went hoarse, all manner of avenues to annoy the ever living shit out of her. All it seemed to do was give Adélie a mountain of patience. Every now and then, she snapped, usually without apology. But even when it left him permanently scarred, Robin found it hilarious, so it all worked out in the end.

Having grown up with such an intrusive chaotic entity around at every moment, it was a lot to adjust to when Robin went to prison. Despite being a quiet girl, Adélie quickly realised she couldn't stand it. She had to—it's not as if she had any other friends, after all—but it grated at her in a way she hadn't thought was possible. Her two foster siblings weren't silent, but they weren't Robin. Her brother came with a level of chaos only she knew how to tolerate, and she missed it.

She missed it more as they grew up and became more distant. In their late teens, she wondered if they would end up estranged. It wasn't something she mentioned to Robin, but she was afraid, afraid of losing the last member of her family. When she was nineteen, Robin got into a fight and ended up in a coma. She was told it was likely he would die. For Adélie, this felt like the bad news she'd been waiting for, and she resigned herself to a lonely life.

Until a month later, miraculously, Robin woke up. It shocked her how ecstatic she was to have him back, and when she went to visit him in hospital they had a long talk, and finally it felt like they were siblings again. She had a little slice of chaos in the life that had been perfectly orderly.

The only problem was that in getting closer with her brother again, Adélie began to realise how well and truly prison had traumatised him. Robin had a lot of problems that no one seemed to be helping him with and she knew she wasn't enough to help him. He needed outside help, and that was something he was adamant against having. When he was preparing to be released, Adélie became more afraid. He would be relying on her. It would be her job to help him readjust. And even though she loved him, she wasn't up to the task. Not by herself.

Maybe running away wasn't the best way to deal with that, but it was a way, and she took it. Of course, now she has to deal with the prospect of Robin dying in an apocalyptic America, but who could have seen that coming?

Quotes
"Robin, if you don't swear to keep your head down in whichever hellhole they send you next, I will put you back in a coma myself."

"And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples...and you can't fight against God, Adélie. You can't put the soul back into the dead."

"Viruses are just like humans, except smaller and stupider. In your case, just smaller."

"I fear my brother about as much as you hate your girlfriend."