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syoddeye · 3 months

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Hermit

updated 2024/04/22 COD OC biz below. goofed the image resolution; will redo later.

Name: Avery C. Spence

Callsign: Hermit (formerly Yellowstone)

Age: 36

Gender: AFAB; non-binary

Sexuality: Declined

Pronouns: They/them, he/him

Description

Hermit is 5'10" (178 cm) and weighs ~160 lbs. (77 kg). They have slightly wider shoulders but an overall straighter silhouette they purposely style (as much as one can in uniform) to minimize any curvature.

Their hair is naturally dark brown, and they keep it buzzed. It's a personal preference and out of practicality. Their eyes are a lighter shade of brown than their hair, and their eyebrows are thick. On the left side of their nose is an old piercing scar.

They have their fair share of scars, but the most prominent ones are on their hands. Their knuckles and palms are covered in old and newer scars. Due to their work, they have thick calluses on the webbing between their thumb and pointer fingers and their palms from handling weaponry and tools. They are self-conscious about their hands and refrain from touching people with their bare skin.

Out of uniform, they remain covered in all weather and temperatures and stick to neutral colors. Their civilian wardrobe consists of simpler pieces of varying thickness, baggier clothes, and nothing flashy. Since their head is shaved, they usually wear some kind of hat.

They are particular about sun exposure and religiously apply SPF. This goes hand-in-hand with their preference to cover up.

At work, they avoid jewelry. No rings or earrings. Nothing to get snagged or grabbed.

They have the following tattoos and piercings:

A tape measure, left bicep

A scrimshaw knife, left forearm

Railroad spike on back of left forearm

Trebuchet, back of left arm, text that says SEND IT

Right ear helix piercing, wears a silver band when not working

Ear lobe piercings, never wears anything in them

Upbringing

Hermit hails from Bozeman, Montana. Their parents were park rangers at Yellowstone (their namesake), with their mother working the winter season and their father working summers. As such, Hermit spent the school year living in an apartment in Bozeman and summer break living in seasonal housing closer to the park.

With park rangers for parents, Hermit spent much of their youth outside. Their parents impressed upon them the importance of basic survival skills and a reverence for nature. Their traditional education was supplemented with long hours spent practicing said skills in all weather: starting fires, building emergency shelters, identifying plants, identifying and tracking animals, and setting traps. When they turned twelve, they started tagging along on hunting trips with their mother and uncle. Every year after that, they missed school at the start of every deer and elk season.

They were a decent student with a middling academic record. Their teachers regularly pushed them to participate in class more, to no avail. Socially reserved, they kept a small circle, something that’s remained true throughout their life.

Military recruiters were common visitors at their high school, and given their disinterest in formal academics and affinities for the outdoors and firearms, enlisting seemed a no-brainer. Convincing their parents was a different matter. In the end, they joined the Air Force.

Shortly after they joined, their mother developed early-onset Alzheimer’s.

Early Career

The early years of Hermit's military career were among the most social of their life. Despite being solitary and on the quieter side, they were noted for having a 'calming' effect on their comrades and for being 'easy to talk to'. In reality, despite never saying much or really anything at all, Hermit served as more of a soundboard and unwitting therapist to their comrades.

They were repeatedly assigned to the armory as soon as they were qualified. Their deep appreciation for weaponry and preference for working alone made it an easy decision. Not one to gripe about the long hours, usually the first to arrive and last to leave, they practically lived in every vault they worked in.

In their first few postings, they struggled with frequently encountering what they considered a complete disregard for rules. Sloppiness. Rudeness. These things could not stand. It earned them their first callsign, Yellowstone, not just for their upbringing but also for the dormant anger that erupted into magnificent displays. Their outbursts got them into more trouble than they'll admit.

Time and experience cooled Hermit’s anger, returning them to a more reticent nature. Eventually, folks started to refer to them as 'Hermit’ as they practically lived in the armory, and made a habit of disappearing whenever off duty or on leave.

They received an honorable discharge shortly after celebrating their twelfth year of service and moved back to Montana to help their father care for their ailing mother. Their mother passed away shortly after that, and they became estranged from their father.

Listless and unable to cope with civilian life, they looked for PMC work.

Chimera

Over the next five years, Hermit moved domestically and internationally several times, bouncing from PMC to PMC. They never gelled with the groups they ran with. Then, they met Nikolai while he was visiting the facilities of their last gig. Nik openly talked a lot of shit until he met Hermit and glimpsed the vault. They refused to allow him access because of the rules. However, Nik liked what he saw and took a shine to the quiet and surly armorer. Months later, Nik returned and, in a blatant disrespect for Hermit's current director, extended an offer to Hermit to join Chimera. It took Hermit a week to accept.

#we're handwaving our military inaccuracies here #cod ocs #cod oc hermit #inspired by charlie #and p sharing jonesy!

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