TDE: Mange | Infected | Loner | NPC

"In each of us, two natures are at war - the good and the evil. All our lives the fight goes on between them, and one of them must conquer. But in our own hands lies the power to choose - what we want most to be we are." 
- Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

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Status updates: Mange has been spending more and more time away from his gully. Visibly falling into disarray, it appears for the most part to have been abandoned. What has happened to the hermit of the hills? Where has he gone? What has happened to the two-faced monster? 
               

                                         
Status: Infected, stage III
Name: Humphrey Name has been long since forgotten.
Nicknames: Humphy, Mange (This is a given name, for he can neither pronounce nor recall his true one.)
Age: 5 years old
Gender: Male
Breed: Mutt. 
Possibly Irish Wolfhound, Scottish Deerhound, Borzoi, and Great Dane. Genetics are highly mixed and quite inbred. Irish Wolfhound seems to be dominant.
Height: 37”, 93.98 cm at the shoulder. 
Weight: 195 lbs, 83.9 kg
Physical Build: Was once a very dashing lad, but a skin disease has damaged his fur and the infection has warped his flesh. He has a heavier build and is quite tall. Generally size would mean decreased speed, but his Manic Energy has made up for that. He is large, fast, and always hungry. His face bares a permanent balding patch, and twin scars on the edges of his mouth, giving him a permanent smile. Both ears are semi-erect and flop about; the edges are also both tattered. 
Coloration: Once a beautiful red and cream coloration (tree-branch.deviantart.com/art…), it was all changed by the infection. Dinged to a ruddy-grey, and mottled with hairless patches, he is no longer the handsome chap he once was. His once handsome bright yellow-green eyes have now been tinged with blood, blood that will eventual discolor his eyes fully.
Bonus: Mange tries to take care of himself as best as can, or at least take care of what is left of him. He is usually fairly clean aside from some dust or a little dirt. His scent is often tainted by the bitter plants that guard the entrance to his tunnel though, giving him an unusual odor that is both distinctive and masking.
Scars/Imperfections:
Split Tongue: Split in a literal fight to the death with one of his siblings as a pup.
Smile Scars: Drawn with jagged glass by his mother.
Tattered Ears: Self inflicted after he was disowned by his mother.
Back Scar: Y-shaped and lays between his shoulders. Got during a fight with Raiders while protecting Ruse.

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Rank: Loner 
He has lived alone for over three years, and as the infection riddled his body this caused him to go rather mad. He does not actively avoid others, but his unaffiliated hermit-like existence has left him rather alone. His birth in ground zero has left Mange highly exposed to radiation, and his Mother-can, though in a much lower dosage, has continued the assault. Small tumors spread throughout his brain and worsened and grew with exposure. Because of this he has on and off headaches.
Main Effects
- Inflamed/Bloodshot Eyes [scleras and iris]
- Irritable [very susceptible to annoying sounds]
- Bleeding From Mouth [mixes with drool]
- Heightened Temperate & Heart/Breathing Rate [he runs a bit hotter and breathes a bit heavier]
- Vomiting [primarily nausea at clean smells/air]
- Hypervigilance [slight]
- Paranoia [slight]
- Impervious To Pain [only to minor wounds]
- Personality Changes [triggers Mange to became psycho-bonkers-crazy]
Side Effects
-Manic Energy [very energetic. Loved running madly about, and babbling his head off]
-Drooling [due to oral bleeding, his drool is mostly blood]
-Stuttering [especially pronounced in words that he cannot pronounce properly, ex: words containing S's]
-Rapid speech [most frequently paired with when he has a triggered personality change]
-Delusions/Illusions [mother-can]

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Likes:
‘Friends’: pretty much anyone who wins his loyalties.
Overcast Days
Jokes or riddles, too bad he can neither tell them nor reply!
Licking and collecting rocks. If you are special, he might show you his collection!
Small life. Flowers, butterflies, beetles, they all will be looked after.
Dislikes:
Extreme weather. Prefers temperate. 
Bright lights
Sarcasm 
Unorganized things. Everything has a place, and heavens forbid if you mess it up!
Water in excess. It could flood the gully and sweep away Mange's treasures!

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Personality: [Crazy][Loyal][Eager to Please][Forgetful][Organized][Instinctual][Quick Temper]
Crazy: Mange is mad. Quite mad. Alone for years with nothing but his infected mind, he has created his own incomprehensible language out of mumbles and babbles. He rants and raves to himself, and even laughs uncontrollably at times. He has begun to have minor delusions, causing him to see and hear things and voices that do not actually exist. So far they have all been pleasant ones, that he enjoys babbling at. NEVER underestimate Mange's intelligence. Sure he is insane, but sometimes it is the mad who see things the most clearly. Mange sees things as they truly are, no guises, no illusions. Being left alone with nothing but your thoughts can do a lot to a mind. Mange has moments of cognitive thought as well as moments of pure insanity, depends on the day. 
Forgetful: Mange does not remember the names of his past, nor many of the events. But that does not matter, because he cannot speak of them anyway. He still vaguely recalls the faces of his mother and siblings, and if presented with one may remember them. The more of an impact that one makes on him, the more he is likely to 
Quick Temper: Quick to anger, but also quick to manic and quick to depressive. Not so much mood swings, as his emotions are more triggered by the world around him. His anger is generally set off by some sort of hidden trigger. He is not always easy to enrage, but the second you rub him just the right way you get an explosion of pure primal rage on your hands.
Eager to Please: This ties in with his loyalty. If a dog has gained his loyalty, he will do everything in his power to please them. From kind words to small tidbits, Mange will go out of his way to make those that make him happy feel happy. This also ties into his "mommy issues" where he certainly tries to gain the approval of others.
Loyal: Because he cannot give orders, Mange was born to take them. He is very easy to please, and as long as he is taken care of will willingly follow and do the bidding of another dog. When one earns Mange's loyalty it is generally earned for as long as he can remember you, unless something is done to grossly displease him.
Instinctual: Mange is an oddball. He doesn't have much going on in the upper-thought levels: Mange isn't one to sit around and ponder life's quandaries. Still, the boy is smart. Street smart. He relies on his feelings of a dog or situation to rely on what to do, making his actions rather hard to predict. He just goes with the flow. This does in no way mean that the boy is not smart in his own right. He is surprisingly clever and can see through most guises, so it is best to keep honest around him. Apart from them, he has a limited memory. If not interacted with by the same person often, after a few months they fade from his memory. But that is alright, as he is easily won over. 
Organized: Mange like collecting things that please him, bones, rocks, shiny things, and each one had a place in his home. He will lose his shit if one is out of place. 

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History: Please note that I am not listing specific names because Mange can neither say nor remember them, and also hold no familial affiliations anyway. 
Born in a small colony of Eaters, Mange never knew that his life was odd. His people were survivors, nomads, and above all family. I do not mean this metaphorically, they were all literally related. They believed that breeding outside the family would increase the chances of sickness, so slowly the pack shrank and became more and more inbred over time until it finally consisted of just he and his mother/sister, his father/grandfather, his grandmother, and his bizarre siblings. Born mentally unstable, he and his siblings were all off from the start. But that was alright, because so were the rest of him. Before the age of one, his two grandparents had died leaving him, his mother, and his siblings alone. She and the stronger pups killed and ate two of the weaker ones. In the struggle, Mange had his tongue bitten and split.

Unable to talk normally, he learned to communicate primarily through body language now. At about this time, he first started showing signs of infection, but so did his mother. In her unhealthier state, she quickly became more pronounced, reaching manic levels fast. Laughing uncontrollably at times, she would encourage her children to join in on the joke! It was just him and two other siblings at this time, but as the oldest and largest, Mange became her pride and joy. In her twisted state, she encouraged the mute boy to kill off his siblings, because it would just be so funny! When he didn’t, she got angry and attacked him, ravaging his face. He now bears two permanent, smile-like scars on his face; giving him a twisted grin at all times.

Disgusted, she abandoned him and his siblings in the night. Rather than stay in the remaining half of Littleton [Map Area 10], the nearly ten month old went his own way. He found an abandoned and rather safe drainage tunnel and chose it as his home. Left alone with his infection, his inbred mind quickly unraveled. He no longer remembers names from his past, including his own, but vaguely recalls faces. His infection quickly progressed as he ate his infected wastelanders, gained wounds early on, and breathed in the air unfiltered.

Ch.2: Currently due to more frequent interactions with canines in a social manner, Mange has been forced to actually use his brain. New acquaintances, thoughts, and even feelings have been bombarding the boy. Forced to think, he has also been forced to remember. This brings up the dilemma: how much of his faded memory is truly gone, and how much is perhaps just repressed? Strange thoughts and memories have been bubbling to the surface more and more now, and he is far from okay. He has been speaking more as well, and it seems that his lisp is primarily psychosomatic. 

Ch. 3: ???!?

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Physical Strengths: [Very Large size][Very Strong][Quite energetic]
Mental Strengths: [Good at Following orders][Passionate][Instinctual]
Physical Flaws/Weaknesses: [Skin Condition][Doesn't know own strength][Lowered Dexterity]
Mental Flaws/Weaknesses: [Speaks with heavy lisp][Inbred, has some mental flaws][Always hungry, will eat just about anything and anyone]

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Relationships: 
Hate
Dislike/distrust
Unsure/Acquaintance 
 Positive Acquaintance
 Friend
 Loyalty To, Trusted
 Highly Trusted, Highly Loyal 
Crush
 Platonic Love
 Romantic Love
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 Alive/Healthy
 Alive/Infected
 Dead
? Unknown
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 Male
  Female
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() Ajax | Raider Chief |  | ? | ???
Though he swore that we used to know each other, Mange cannot remember. He made Mange remember some rather unsavory things as well...
() Kavron | Scrapper |  | ? | Wildfire-Tama 
Mange baffled by this one. He swears that he is a dog but yet he has a strange face and smells weird... ?????
() Ruse | Eater |  | ? | SyncTheMutantJackal 

Where to start... she was the first person who I spoke to in years, who I opened up to. Mange unsure of these new feelings... could this be friendship? 

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RP Example: 
“Ehhehehehehehehe!” 
The sound rolled out from the depths of the old drainage tube, echoing madly like some ethereal being of Hell.
“Ehehehehe-hahaha!”
The laughter continued madly, the chilling sound not settling quite right. It sounded off, not normal. Even for the twisted voice of a wastelander it seemed off. From the depths of the tunnel came a large, hulking figure at the end. Standing some twenty feet off of the ground, he loomed ominously over the empty basin below. He leaned out, still cackling madly. Now the source of the strangeness could be seen. His split tongue lolled as the sound escaped his jaws. Suddenly he stopped, but the echoes continued on eerily. The form began to mutter darkly to himself, a incomprehensible sound that made not a lick of sense.
With another laugh at whatever it was he said, he lazily scratched at his side, sending a puff of fur cascading into the wind and out of the tunnel. 
“Frrrrrr. F-frrrrd?” he struggle to say, face crinkling in the effort, bloody saliva dribbling from his maw, “Frrrrrd?”
As his scarred face split into a wide, bloody grin, it was then obvious what he was saying, and that you were to be the object of it: Food.

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Living Quarters: Lives in an old drainage pipe. The far end is raised and has long since collapsed, the near end juts out over a dried-out waterbed that only fills in when it rains. Water no longer flows through the pipe, and it is rather hard to get up into it. It is fairly impossible unless you know the trick, and somehow Mange has retained that knowledge while losing most everything else. The tunnel may get a little damp, but never floods. It is located some 20 ft off the ground when standing in the basin below. When approached from above (on top of the tunnel/higher land), it is impossible to get into the tube. The basin has gradually sloping sides leading up to the crest of the hill. But because the tube just out into the basin, the closest it is from either side is no fewer than ten feet away (and in no way close to the entrance.) The only way to enter the tunnel is from a further away entrance. This is located in the hilly area due East of the Crumbling Overpass [near Map Area 2.] 
NOTE: Most other infected avoid his area because "A" a giant bloodthirtsy crazed monster lives there and "B" they don't know how to get him out of his tube. Raiders bothered him at first, but it eventually became a mutual hatred and they struck up an unofficial you don't bother us we don't bother you deal. Since Mange is primarily a scavenger, he is fine with Raiders hunting around him as long as they don't come into his gully and is even more okay with any leftovers they leave behind. Some foolish younger ones may sometimes come to steal his skulls or mess up his rock piles, but if they come in a group of three or less they are not all going to return home.

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Gas Mask: None, he was born in the wastelands. I doubt he understands the concept, anyway. He has thought that that is what Eden dogs' faces look like.

Mother-Can: An irradiated can carried with Mange from his home at ground zero. The more time spent around this can and it's unknown contents, the worse Mange's condition has become. Fur loss and loss of cognizance are defining symptoms seen in Mange.

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Mange©
Coloration was gotten from
Their Dark Eden©