CaliforniaNightmares:Brian Robeson

Played by TigerBunnyMark

General Character Description

Post #blah: 14 years old. Kind of a weedy kid. Didn't always get enough to eat, and was sickly. Lived rough with his elder sister and another kid a little older than him - in between his age and sister's age. This second kid had a "protector" relationship with Brian and his sister, and Brian both idolized and resented him. Becoming a pilot is the first time Brian's been strong on his own, able to fight for himself. He's a bit drunk on the thrill of it and acts out a fair bit.

Post #48: Brian Robeson, Age 14, Eager Young Soldier

Eight-year-old Brian and his big sister Maia didn’t have a whole lot more than each other before the end of the world, so they did okay after it. “Dads”, when they had one, were as much to be feared as anything else, and mostly just meant that Mom resented and ignored them more than usual for a while. They’d been taking care of themselves their whole lives, so everybody falling asleep mostly just meant that they didn’t have to worry about getting caught shoplifting dinner any more.

The first thing they did when they figured out nobody was going to wake up was get out of their neighborhood and start looting a better class of house. For a while, they lived in a beautiful mansion, up on the hills looking out over Piedmont, with some other kids – not really a gang, not really a family, but in a lot of ways, better off than most.

Then the monsters came out of the sea. They stomped through the streets of San Francisco like something out of an old movie, spewing beams and smoke and methodically hunting down any sign of human habitation.

And Brian got sick. Some of the other kids got it too – the fever, the shaking, the headaches, then the sleep, and then – they died. Brian lived. On and on, shaking, trembling, moaning in pain and thrashing with nightmares.

Maia never told Brian what she’d done to get Luis Montes to let her go through his gang’s dwindling stocks of drugs searching for something to help him. He does know that nothing helped. He just got better. Sort of.

Ever since then, Brian has the headaches. He can’t seem to keep his weight up, his legs shake when he tries to walk too far or too long, and everything aches, all the time. Maia gave up their house on the hillside for him, had to depend on Luis instead of her brother because he was too weak to protect her.

A lot of bad things happened. Luis and his gang, along with Maia & Brian, hid as best they could. Sometimes there wasn’t enough to eat, and sometimes a fight would break out and someone would get shot or stabbed or whatever. Sometimes Maia and Luis would fight, and Brian would hear her sobbing in the night afterwards.

Then, one day, Luis comes back from a “shopping trip.” But he doesn’t have a satchel of canned food or butane fuel – he’s got a scruffy, hand-printed sign. “Help Us Fight Them – UCB”.

Most people didn’t believe what the geeky grownup and the nervous girl told them. If the guy hadn’t had a riot gun, somebody might have even started something. But for some reason, Luis believed it. Brian maybe didn’t, but he really wanted to. They said that they needed help, because they had a plan to kill one of the monsters.

It worked. Luis even got to be a big damn hero, luring the monster into the trap on a motorcycle. By the time the other monsters showed up, everybody was gone, and the so-called “Resistance” had what they wanted – samples from the monster’s insides. But Luis was dead, and there was no way the rest of the Motherless Sons wanted anything to do with UCB after that. Only Jen, Maia, and Brian stayed on.

It took a while to get results, but what would become the ANIMa was a success beyond the wildest dreams of the Resistance. Especially Brian. Finally, he wasn’t the weak one, the burden. Getting sick might have been worth it after all – because he seems to be a better natural pilot than any of the other candidates. Sure, Elliot has been fighting longer, and volunteered for the test mission back before they even knew if this would work. Sure, Rick tested higher, but he crashed and burned. Sure, Raymond is everybody’s golden boy. But _Brian_ is the one who Prof Daulare relies on.

Maia is gone now. He still visits her, sleeping in the master bedroom of the old house, like Sleeping Beauty waiting for her prince. It won’t be Luis who wakes her, though. It’ll be Brian. He’ll finally be able to protect her, like she protected him.

Physical Description

Skinny, long unkempt black hair, large nose. Sort of ratty-looking. Leather jacket that’s a bit too big for him, heavily patched jeans, an assortment of garish rock t-shirts. Smokes his green more than is good for him.

Relationship Summaries

Prof Daulare – 3/3 – “He gave me a chance to be strong. I won’t let him down.”
Alex – 2/1 – "Without him finding me parts, there's no way I'd have gotten my car running."
Jen – 4/1 – "You're the only one who still remembers how weak I was."
Evan – 1/2 – “I can't believe he's still an Anchor, after what happened with Rick.”
Riri – 1/2 – “She’s spooky. And reading all the time can’t be good for you.”
Raymond – 4/1 – “He pisses me off. Mr Golden Boy. Still, at least he gets it.”
Ashley – 1/2 – “Always sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong.”
Sally "Robeson" – 1/5 – “That’s why I fight. Because the little kids like her need protecting. But what's with all this 'Big Brother' stuff?!?”
Katie – 2/2 – “I can’t believe the Prof lets her be a pilot. It’s too dangerous for someone like her.”
Brandi – 2/2 – Anchor. “I don’t really know what her reasons for fighting are, but she wants to win as bad as I do. We’ll be a good team.”

ANIMa

Sleek, curvy, silver. Like a sportscar or a jet fighter. Or maybe a little of both.

Chassis – Brandi – A transformable ground attack plane. A little bit Valkyrie, a little bit A-10 Thunderbolt II.
Weapons Rack – Prof Daulare – Here it comes, bug! Whatever we need for the job, load 'em up.
Jet Engines - Alex - I can fly circles around the bugs. Assuming they don't conk out.
Railgun – Jen – I don't want to have to use it, but the bugs don't want me to, either. Massive killing power, but goes through ammo like crazy.
Point Defense System - Raymond - Get off my tail! Avionics/Navigation/Targeting Suite – Sally – When things get hairy, it'll bring me home.
TransAm Mode – Katie – A little extra in a tight spot.

Theme

Silver Machine, by Hawkwind. Preferably a nice grungy version.

I built a Pandora station for him.