WASHBOURNE, Rhys

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[style= text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase;]RHYS NATHANIEL WASHBOURNE

This application is currently complete. My name is Alpacas and I'm seventeen years old.

NAME: Rhys Nathaniel Washbourne
AGE: 33
GENDER: Male
BIRTHDAY: 27 October 1979
OCCUPATION: Hunter

PLAYBY: Riccardo Scamarcio

MOTHER: Bianca Washbourne (55, Missing)
FATHER Gerry Washbourne (52, Missing)
BROTHERS:
Garrett Washbourne (34, Missing)
Trent Washbourne (32, Deceased)
Aiden Washbourne (19, Missing)
SISTERS: N/A
SPOUSE: N/A
CHILDREN: N/A
EXTENDED FAMILY:
Quinn Harper (8, missing)

You know how some people just have ‘one of those faces’? Rhys is definitely one of those people, if by ‘one of those faces’ you mean ‘one of those faces that just inexplicably attracts a drunken person’s fist,’ that is. It’s not that he’s so beautiful, you just get an irresistible urge to disfigure his face - neither is his face so ugly you just want to violently shove it out of your sight. It’s just that his face seems to have twisted itself into a perpetual state of frown and glare, making people think that this here is a guy who’s got a problem with you. That is, after all, what you get when you put a set of expressive eyebrows on a man who barely shows any emotions at all; what is really a calm, focused disposition could easily be mistaken as angry and provoking. Set against an olive skin, and a mop of curly dark hair, his bright green eyes, which never seem to cease looking so weary and so distant, are just as unwelcoming, and perhaps even as unsettling, as the man himself.

Of course, Rhys isn’t exactly the kind of guy you would punch if you were sober. Nevermind that he is clearly very fit and athletic; though his muscles are very toned, he’s not buff enough to look like the quintessential supervillain henchman. Standing at an incredible 6’4”, however, his height more than makes up for the kind of appearance that may intimidate a lot of people.

Fashion-wise, Rhys isn’t really very picky about what to wear; when it comes to clothes, he is all for comfort and practicality, which, to his amusement, had a tendency to annoy his more stylish brother. Washed-out flannel shirts, worn-out jackets, and cargo pants are usually what you can find in his wardrobe, though Garrett’s been known to sneak a few dress shirts and waistcoats here and there into Rhys’ stuff. Not that the latter ever used them. They’re still there with him, though.

When you have two amazingly charismatic brothers, and another one who’s nothing short of an overachiever, life as a quiet, average loner gets a little difficult. Well, perhaps it isn’t entirely accurate to call Rhys a loner - before the pandemic hit, he was almost always with his brothers, after all - though he definitely spent most of his time being pushed away into the background. Surprisingly enough, even though he’s arguably the one most ignored, he is also the most emotionally stable of the three older Washbourne brothers. In a way, Rhys contentedly basks in the complete lack of attention he is given, more than happy to observe people from afar. When he absolutely has to socialise with other people, though, he usually appears disinterested and maybe even irritable, talking in short and straightforward phrases; this, however, is really just a manifestation of a lack of social skills, stemming from the fact that it was his brothers who usually did the talking for him. While he appears serious and detached most of the time, his sense of humour - dry bordering on cynical and dark - slips through from time to time, though when it does, people usually have a tough time figuring out whether he’s joking or not.

As a response to his older brother’s creative yet oft-reckless way of thinking, Rhys was often the voice of reason among a pack of boys who wanted to live a life of thrills, was the rock everyone could lean on, though this would often lead to several arguments with his brothers because he was being ‘too safe’ or ‘too boring’ again. True, Rhys was often too serious and linear-minded for his brothers’ taste, though this enabled him to be patient enough to take responsibility for the well-being of his siblings, and generally to just make sure the three of them don’t fall into such deep crap they would suffocate in it. In fact, Rhys had learnt to become patient and passive enough that though you don’t ever really see him smile, you never see him get angry either.

Rhys likes cooking a lot, since measuring things and cutting them into tiny, identical cubes calms him down and helps him concentrate. When that doesn’t work (or when he just doesn’t have the necessary ingredients to prepare something, because, let’s face it, a zombie apocalypse is hardly a time for gourmet meals), he usually tries to tidy things up around the place. When even that doesn’t work, he grabs his favourite rifle and tries to shoot things from as far away as possible, because his sharpshooting skills reassure him that he’s not entirely useless yet.

Old-fashioned as he is, Rhys has a penchant for most things vintage and classic, especially for movies from the 20’s to the 60’s (he has a particular fondness for the young Paulette Goddard - just ask him; in half an hour, he’ll start talking more than he usually does in three days); however, as electricity is now but a precious and scarce commodity, he’s taken to simply listening to music on a barely working iPod he’d found a few weeks back. Nowadays, he can often be seen just sitting near the guard post, reading whatever novel he’d recently found; he really couldn’t care less if the book was by Stephenie Meyer, or if it was by Leo Tolstoy. Forgetting this world existed, and escaping into a story, any story, is enough to bring him some sort of consolation.

Like the rest of the Washbourne family, Rhys is fiercely loyal to and protective of his loved ones, and would do almost anything to ensure his family’s safety. His family and his team are his first priority, and, if the situation called for it, he would willingly abandon his morals for the sake of those he loved. He knows this, of course, and while he never really did mind it before the pandemic, he’s become a little bit more cautious about letting people get close to him. For a man who likes and thrives on consistency, this is, perhaps, the biggest paradox of Rhys Washbourne: he is utterly terrified of being alone, but, at the same, he cannot fathom the thought of losing someone he loves, so much that he doesn’t want to love anyone at all.

NATIONALITY: British

Born to a lower-class Scottish-Italian family, Rhys is the second of the infamous Washbourne trio. Not that the brothers went around painting the town red, mind you; gaining popularity or notoriety in a small, quaint Scottish town is fairly easy, after all, and with brothers as free-spirited and charming as Garrett and Trent, it was only a matter of time until almost everyone in town knew who you were.

As they grew older, the first three of the Washbourne brothers became known for more than just the pranks they pulled; they had grown to be excellent athletes, all three considered invaluable to their school’s football team. At that point, they had become the quintessential jocks; arrogant and immensely popular bullies who got into all sorts of trouble. Not that all the douchebaggery and cockiness were completely unwarranted. Garrett and Rhys had enough skill and recognition to considered for athletic scholarships, but were ultimately not accepted when the whole football team had been caught in possession of drugs.

For the three of them, this marked the beginning of a temporary fork in the road; Garrett and Trent had left school altogether to start working, knowing they wouldn’t be able to afford going to a university without a scholarship, and Rhys decided to enlist in the army, eventually volunteering in the SAS as a sniper. Seven years after they had parted, the three brothers were reunited once more.

About a month after Rhys had been enlisted, Trent and Garrett had moved to Glasgow, abandoning the small town life to the bustle of a big city. Perhaps they had come looking for the adventure and the thrill that Eyemouth just couldn’t offer, but, ultimately, the big city had shut them down instead. And they just couldn’t function as normal people there. Eventually, they had devolved into a life of crime; Garrett became a con artist, and Trent became a petty thief.

Initially, upon finding out, Rhys had expressed disgust over the actions of his brothers, having thought they were all past their childhood shenanigans. Only three weeks after that happened, though, Rhys had, begrudgingly, come back to join his brothers. He didn’t like admitting it, but he was as enticed by the thrill of the battlefield as he was terrified by it, and more than anything, he missed it. Longed for it, even. Eventually, he acted as the team’s muscle, watching out for any signs of physical threat as Garrett distracted the mark, and Trent stole from them.

For about a year and a half, the boys had a successful run, moving from one mark to the next, lucky enough to not have been caught even once - until, of course, they met Ms. Katherine Wolcott, a mysterious American woman who seemed to know her way around the criminal world better than the boys did. The brothers ended up working for her, even if, to Garrett’s annoyance, she was a bit selective about the ‘cases’ they took; still, she paid well (well enough that the brothers were regularly able to send their youngest brother, Aiden, some study allowance), kept them safe, and let them travel the world with her; that was more than what anyone could ever ask for. It was at this time that Rhys went from being the muscle to Katherine’s, the team’s sniper and mastermind, spotter; the two had eventually become so in sync that they grew to be a formidable sniper team.

Two years after they met Katherine, they had picked up Karen Pearson, a genius runaway who eventually became the team’s hacker. Without fail, the team continued to go on ‘missions’ for six more years, right until they had arrived in Manhattan a couple of months before the zombie outbreak. Katherine and Garrett were in a very heated argument, and Garrett left, without notice, the very next day (Rhys would later find out two days before the outbreak that Garrett had gone to Pennsylvania to find his daughter). The two fighting with one another wasn’t exactly anything new, but this particular one seemed to have a genuinely strong effect on their leader. When Garrett hadn’t showed up in weeks, Katherine ended up handing the rest of her team plane tickets to their respective home countries. She, too, disappeared the very next day.

Of course, the rest of the team never did end up leaving. To this day, Rhys doesn’t know if that had been the right move: if they had gone home, perhaps he’d be with his family right now. Perhaps Trent would still be alive.

On the day of the outbreak, the team - or what was left of it, anyway - had just arrived in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The chaos of it all - the panic in the streets, people being butchered mercilessly, the never-ending sound of gunfire across the city - overwhelmed Rhys, who could only stand there, in the middle of it all, as the tragedy unfolded. The only thing that made him return to his senses was when Trent had shoved him out of the way of an attacking zombie, saving Rhys’s life but ultimately giving up his own. Still shocked, Rhys followed as Karen ordered him to get back in the car; from then on, the two had travelled from place to place, scavenging for supplies, and looking for any signs of Katherine or Garrett. Eventually, a few weeks later, they settled down in Henley Falls, where Rhys became a hunter, practically living at the guard post, eyes scanning for any newcomers whose face might bring him any semblance of hope or recognition.