User:Grifflik
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| Stefin "Griff" Grifflik | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Supported Organizations/Programs
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Description
Name: Stefin "Griff" Grifflik
Age: 40-ish
Birthplace: N.Y., New York
Strengths: Honorable, Cautious, Resourceful, Strategist, Empathetic, Stronger Than He Looks
Weaknesses: Manic Depressive, Alcoholic, Night Terrors, Overdeveloped Senses of Responsibility and Guilt
Loves: friends/family, music, singing, reading, mysteries, cooking, animals (particularly dogs) and children (at times, his love of animals and children could be considered a weakness)
Hates: ignorance, dishonesty, racism, bullying
Appearance:
A grim, haggard Caucasian man with dusky, soot-streaked skin; he looks to be somewhere in his early to mid forties. He has a lean, wiry frame, just under six feet tall. Brown eyes with an odd luminous golden cast stare out at you from a tired face. Something about his bearing seems "wolfish". His dark brown hair, once kept short,is now grown out and shaggy; the hair hangs almost to his shoulders and is streaked with grey at the temples. "Salt and pepper" sideburns taper down becoming a rough beard at the jawline, stopping just shy of his chin. A moustache curves down across his upper lip, merging with the beard. A badly-healed scar marks his right cheekbone and temple, marring what would otherwise be considered pleasant features. A long scar also runs across his throat before cutting diagonally along the left side of his neck. His hands and arms are criss-crossed with dozens of similar cuts, scratches, scrapes and scars (these continue to his shoulders and much of his torso and legs beneath his clothing). When he speaks, his voice is a rumbling barritone, which he can naturally project quite loudly to good effect when needed.
He typically wears jeans, t-shirts and heavy work boots. A black griffin on a red field is stenciled on the back of his tattered bunker coat. Above the emblem, the word REVIVE is spelled out in reflective tape. Underneath his coat he wears twin pistols in a shoulder harness rig. A worn fire axe is held loosely at his side, and a battered canvas field bag hangs from one shoulder.
Background/History:
Griff is a third generation Firefighter from New York City. In his twenties he met and married the love of his life; Susan, an English girl studying at NYU. They had a daughter, Emmy, shortly thereafter and they led a happy life together.
Until 9/11.
Griff lost his father (his Chief), older brother and many friends from his firehouse responding to the disaster and horror at the World Trade Center. Blaming himself for their deaths, always feeling that he could have done more, the already sensitive man spiraled into depression. His was diagnosed soon after with Bi-Polar Mood Disorder and found he couldn't return to work; everything he saw around him as the city struggled to recover reminded him of what he felt to be his own personal failure. Seeking to help him, to heal him, his wife moved the family away from the city. Back to her birthplace.
Back to Malton.
The young family settled into small flat on Fyfe Avenue, in the peaceful suburb of Dunningwood, nearby to Susan's family home in Rolt Heights. Griff started seeing a therapist and began a prescribed medication regimen that proved quite successful in helping him control his mood swings. After a time, he started working in a nearby factory and even became a volunteer at the Grimmer Street Fire Station. Emmy started classes at Newell Crescent School. Everything settled into an even, measured pace as life returned to normalcy.
Until the Outbreak.
No one was sure what caused it. Locals conjectured that the activity seemed to stem from the Vetch Building in Dunningwood. The only certainty was that everything was uncertain. Local Law Enforcement was unsure of how to deal with it. The military started moving in. The media broadcasts gave conflicting reports. Griff's Volunteer Fire Brigade was mobilized in response to countless accidents and fires. With things in the suburb getting increasingly dangerous, Griff quickly moved Susan and Emmy to the safety of her parent's home in Rolt Heights, where no cases of the outbreak had been reported yet, before quarantine sealed off the suburb.
Days passed. The situation became worse. Power grids became unstable. Communication began to break down. Griff's firehouse, along with several other Emergency Service units, responded to a fire that was burning out of control at the Canner Building in neighboring Gibsonton. When they managed to breach the burning building in search of survivors, they found that it was filled with the living dead. The would-be rescuers were set upon and overwhelmed by a tide of smouldering animated corpses possessed with an overwhelming urge to feed. Griff watched in horror as his friends once again died before his eyes. Somehow he escaped the slaughter at Canner and he fled Northward, determined to get to his family and what he thought was the safety of Rolt Heights. He quickly discovered that the Heights were just as bad. Eventually he made it to his In-Law's home on Whitlock Road...which he found wide open; the doors and windows torn open and shattered.
Inside, he found his family.
There was no sign of his widowed Mother-in-Law. What was left of his wife Susan lay amidst the chaos of a destroyed upstairs bedroom. What remained of his 8-year old daughter Emmy was busily feeding upon her mother's remains. The thing that used to be Emmy came at Griff in a flurry of teeth and nails. Sobbing, Griff defended himself with his fireaxe. As the last axe blow fell, Griff looked down at what had been his daughter through tear-blurred vision...and saw a hint of recognition (and accusation) in its gaze. Quite simply, Griff lost it. He burned the house to the ground, reducing the remains of his loved ones to ash.
It wasn't until weeks later, after he'd managed to reconnect with other DEM personnel, that he finally heard about the miracle drug "Revive"...and what he could have done with it had he only known.
In an attempt to hold some semblance of his former life together, Griff applied all of his energies toward helping the MFD and DEM retake Malton from the undead. He worked hard, tried to make the right choices and was rewarded for his efforts with advancement through the Chain of Command, eventually even becoming Fire Chief for a time. However, trying to live only for the job almost burned him out. Time and stress eventually led him to have to make some hard decisions and leave his position, retiring from active duty.
While still remaining a member and supporter of the MFD, Griff no longer maintains an active role in the organization, and has refrained from attaching himself to any particular unit. He has now settled in Richmond Hills in his retirement, doing what good he can when he finds those in need. He makes few friends, but those he does make are treasured and tenaciously defended (though he keeps most discussion of his past even from them). He attempts to keep the memories of his past buried, but continues to suffer from wild mood swings and nightmares; he's haunted constantly by the final look his daughter gave him. He tries as best he can to regulate and treat this with a variety of medications scrounged from the local hospitals...but he's no Doctor and has made mistakes. His ongoing battle with alcoholism, which runs in his family and pre-dates his difficulties with his disorder, is a constant concern for him...particularly in his "darker" moods.
Seemingly at odds with this fact (perhaps he prefers to keep his demons close) is his recent decision to enter into a business partnership with retired zombie hunter Matson Jade; Griff now assists in the upkeep and maintenance of The Giffard Arms Public House in Richmond Hills.
This latest venture seems to suit him rather well. Many months of tending bar at the Giffard, and working in and around NW Richmond Hills with the locals and "Regulars" appears to have given the retired Firefighter a new lease on life; his condition seems to have stabilized. His mood swings have lessened significantly, the amount of medication he requires has diminished, and he has remained sober despite "working" at the Giffard as a would-be bartender. He has come to terms with the death of his wife and daughter, now viewing what happened as "a blessing"; they are both free and in a better place, having been spared the endless cycle of death and revivification he has endured since the quarantine. The dreams, while not gone completely, have greatly diminished in their intensity and frequency.
While not "whole" and far from care-free, Griff is a much more relaxed (even happier) man than he used to be.
Griff and Matson have increased their business ventures, recently acquiring the The Splain Arms Public House on Richmond Hills south central border. Griff has also been seen quite often lately in the company of Idril, former Chief of Forensics of the MFU; the pair have become romantically involved.
DEM Merits and Ribbons
The Weaponmaster Ribbon
Hand to Hand Specialist Ribbon
Fitness Ribbon
Sniper's Ribbon
Community Support Ribbon
Engineer's Ribbon
Field Medicine Merit
Scientific Achievement Ribbon
Acquisition Ribbon
Reconnisance Specialist Merit
Resident Surgeon Ribbon
Advanced Radio Dispatch Ribbon
DEM 1 year service
DEM 2 year service
Other Interesting Things
Tune in Every Sunday Night...
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Radio Survivor |
| This user is a listener and fan of the Buccaneer of the mike, the Corsair of the airwaves and Brigand of the radio band: Uncle Zeddie of Radio survivor. |
Visit The Richmond Hills Humongoplex...
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Island Vacationer |
| Grifflik has either taken an authentic and relaxing vacation on one of Malton's fifteen islands or been castaway there and forced into an authentic and mind numbing solitude. |
Why, yes. Yes I do...
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Roleplaying Notice |
| Notice: This User or Group enjoys the RPG aspect of MMORPGs, the category of games that Urban Dead falls into. As such, there is probably quite a bit of roleplaying and/or creative writing on this page and in said User/Group's in-game actions. In other words, if you think the difference between IC and OOC is "One has an 'I' and the other has two 'O's," buzz off. |
Sigourney's Signature...
These were obtained for me at great personal risk by MFD Eng. Mister Sandmann. He happened to run into the American actress, who was stranded in Malton while en route to filming the latest "Alien" sequel. Thanks for thinking of me, MS - I'm a big fan!
