A lost soul with nowhere to go

Full Name: Hope Lightwood

Age: 21

Birthday: 23rd of March, 2005

Species: whitetail deer feral

Gender: female

Pronouns: she/her. Feminine.

Sexuality: Straight

CURRENT STATUS:

Hope is a scavenger, surviving on her own in the apocalypse, usually searching around for supplies while doing her best to stay out of sight, not wanting to be seen by anyone whom she couldn't completely trust.

CONFLICT:

Hope is neither human nor feral in the eyes of others, seen as a liability by humans and as prey by the other ferals, and haunted by a world in which she has nobody to trust or call a friend.

Other ferals don't see her as one of their own, but rather, a delectable meal. When they see or smell her, they become even more aggressive and bloodthirsty, even compared to their reaction to humans. For a long time now, she has relied on her increased senses and speed to escape from different encounters, escaping from life-threatening situations a good few times with a shockingly low number of injuries.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:

Hope is a female, anthropomorphic whitetail deer. She doesn't have much visible muscle, being pretty slender in places. However, her agility and stamina are greatly increased, allowing her to move much faster, though she isn't as strong as most humans.

Her appearance is pretty feminine, having a thinner waist, wider hips, and somewhat noticeable thighs, but not to the point of looking unnatural, or at least not more so than she already did. She has a small snout on the front of her face, tipped with a cute black nose.

She is around 157 cm, approximately 5'2", tall.

Her fur is mostly a brown-orange color, but in places like her front, inner thighs, rear end, lower legs, forearms, hands, chest, the insides of her ears, around her eyes, on her snout, and in spots around her shoulders and outer thighs, her fur is a bright shade of white.

Her ears are soft and very sensitive to sound, often swiveling left and right, listening for anything that could possibly be a threat. From the top of her head stick out two large antlers, something that she didn't expect to show up since she didn't think females got those...but she honestly didn't want to question it, already overwhelmed by the many questions she had about what caused all this.

She is scared in a few places, but otherwise, she is pretty unharmed, having been pretty good with avoiding confrontation with those more aggressive ones. Because the other ferals are so sensitive to her scent, becoming incredibly aggressive when they smell her nearby.

She has feminine genitals and a small pair of breasts, but she cares very little about such details, getting confused when people mention them since she doesn't think about that kind of thing much.

ATTIRE:

Hope wears a pair of worn-out shorts with a hole in the back for her tail and a black top that doesn't really cover her midriff, a simple outfit that gets the job done ok enough.

She keeps a backpack on her, full of survival supplies and other items she's held onto all this time, such as canned goods, bottled water, an identical outfit (for when she needs to change and wash the original one), and her sister's old pocketknife and a small notebook she uses as a journal, writing in it occasionally when she can.

PERSONALITY:

Hope has a tendency to be overly anxious, her previous experiences with both ferals and humans making her fearful and jumpy. Her first reaction is usually to run away when she thinks somebody is coming.

It is very difficult at first to gain her trust, having been viewed as a risk for a very long time now because of her basically being a magnet with how other ferals react around her.

She will often freeze up when people ask about her family, deeply traumatized about what had happened to them and not exactly being inclined to talk about them with other people unless she trusts them a very great deal.

When she does open up, however, she is incredibly caring and wants to help others feel better despite all this stuff that's going on. Her sister had taught her something very important, and that was that she needed to help other people whenever she could and needed to stop leaning on others so much and actually be the person that people were going to want around.

She won't run away if a friend is in danger, instead doing her best to help them escape, whether that is pushing them away from danger, drawing a feral's attention away, or doing what little bit she could to defend them, being a last resort since she knew very well that she wasn't anywhere close to matching the strength of a human, let alone a feral.

Her main goal is to be the person for other people that her sister was for her, that kind person that seemed to always have your back, always have a solution, and always have a comforting thing to say when somebody was struggling or feeling down.

QUIRKS:

Her ears frequently change positions depending on her mood, not just when listening. Whenever she is sad, scared, or nervous, they are often down and less noticeable, but when she is feeling more positive or curious, they tend to pop up, twitching a lot more often.

The small tail poking out behind is also very prone to that sort of thing, wiggling left and right when she's excited and staying still when she is more upset, usually twitching every so often if she feels more neutral.

LIKES:

Helping others, being around people she can trust, being treated like a person instead of a feral, and optimism.

DISLIKES:

liars, betrayal, dwelling on the past, being viewed as a risk or liability, people playing with her antlers, being yelled at, confrontations, other ferals (specifically aggressive ones)

ROMANTIC CONNECTION:

Usually, Hope isn't one to pay attention to that sort of thing, but if she were to actually get romantic feelings for somebody, it would be painfully obvious, not because she says anything but because her personality shifts a great deal from her normally positive attitude she has around friends to a much more nervous, shy sort, especially when the person she feels romantic interest for flirts with her or something, which she isn't used to and will likely become flustered by very easily.

She greatly values trust and reliability on both ends of the relationship, as she feels like depending on each other is extremely important.

Once she is in an actual relationship, she tries very hard to be what they want from her, whether that be pretending to be confident and tough or shy and nervous, like she frequently is without any input. (She'll appreciate it if the partner notices it and tells her to not worry about trying to please them.)

She appreciates having comfort and contact as important parts of a relationship, frequently hugging and talking to them if they aren't feeling the best, wanting them to feel better. Quality time is also something she tries to do, though unless the relationship has been going on for a long while, she is still likely to be a bit jumpy and anxious, the threat of ferals still being an important factor.

SEXUAL PREFERENCES:

Hope focuses very little on things like sexual intercourse and such, but she isn't exactly one to put off trying something new.

She wants the pace to be somewhat slow, not because she wants her partner to wait, but just because she isn't used to this kind of thing and wants them to show her the ropes instead of just jumping into things without any idea of how to do things.

She prefers when the partner takes charge, just going along with what they say as long as it doesn't make her too uncomfortable (dirty kinks, degrading words, BDSM, etc.)

She usually dislikes people pulling on things like her tail and ears, but if her partner isn't too rough, she's somewhat ok with it. She also tends to be very sensitive to touch in more intimate moments, her ears and tail often twitching in response to touch.

Compliments and loving words are something she really likes, often exchanging compliments with her partner, either about their body or about them as a person overall.

BACKSTORY:

Hope was once a cheerful, optimistic girl who lived with her family of four in a small house in the woods before stuff started going downhill. She felt that life was good, her sister (Dess) and parents always keeping her life interesting and her always trying her best to do the same for them.

She had friends in the city, though she didn't see them often, and most had stopped texting her over time. That didn't matter, though, as her family did everything her friends could have for each other and more. Everything was happy for the four of them, though things began rolling downhill quickly when it happened, when the infection began.

She and her family were mostly safe in the woods, but they heard that things were heating up in the outside world, as evidenced by horror stories in letters from family members living in the city. The four of them were preparing to stock up on resources in case things went down, but while Hope and Dess were looking for supplies in the city, they received horrifying news that a forest fire had engulfed everything.

The house, the supplies, and their parents were all gone; only she and her sister remained. Hope ended up relying heavily on her sibling for comfort as a result of this, as nothing this horrible had happened to her before. The two remained hidden in the city, seeing no point in attempting to return home because the trees that would have provided them with cover had been reduced to ashes in the fire.

The sisters later had a close encounter with a feral; Hope barely escaped with a nick on her arm, but Dess was not so fortunate, being killed and devoured because she was not as quick on her feet as Hope, who could only keep running, unable to force herself to look back.

She had become sort of deer feral over time due to the infection that had spread from her wound to the rest of her body. She was scared and confused, having nobody left to lean on and nowhere to go.

When she encountered other humans, they quickly found out about the problem she had: ferals could sense her way easier and were more aggressive when she was nearby.

It felt like the whole world was against her, and she was very discouraged by that fact...but she wouldn't back down, not with the knowledge that her family would have wanted her to keep going, to keep herself safe from those that wanted to attack or take advantage of her.

INFECTION

Unlike other ferals, Hope remained in full control of her mind. She didn't experience feral urges that told her to murder and infect humans. Instead, she amplified that within others.

Due to being an herbivore feral, she's seen by other ferals as prey. Every feral that sees or smells her has their urges amplified and seemingly overcome with bloodlust stronger than that for any other human.

Other ferals pick up onto her scent from way longer distances. Any feral that picks up on her is immediately motivated to chase after her, overcome with some form of uncontrollable rage, which makes them way more dangerous.

Hope's infection also made her noticeably weaker than she was before, well below average for humans, which makes her vulnerable to both humans and ferals. As a result, instead of strength, she has agility and dexterity. Her body wasn't built for battle or hunting but rather escape and survival. If she were to fight any human or feral, she'd most likely lose.

She can still, however, infect humans just like any other feral, but the desire to do so is completely gone.