Past, present and future: a (short?) bio of Allen Walker
Name: Allen Walker
Age: 15
Appearance: Quite tall for his age, with rather shaggy white hair that he usually neglects until it’s almost shoulder length. Not exactly scrawny, but he doesn’t have a lot of muscle on him, either. Notable features are the scar on the left side of his face, as well as his eyes, which are a pale blue and rather obviously useless.
History/Background: Allen was adopted by Mana Walker at a very young age - though he doesn’t yet know that he was adopted at all. He’s lived with Mana and Mana’s brother, Phillip, his whole life, and in spite of the lack of other family - aunts, cousins, grandparents - he’s never once been the least bit unhappy with his small family, and loves his father and uncle very much.
When Allen was six years old, Mana was driving him home from school one day and their truck - nicknamed the Ark for the sheer amount of stuff Mana tended to have in the back - was hit head-on by another truck. Allen had taken off his seatbelt momentarily to remove his jacket, and he was thrown forward, hitting his head on the dashboard and cutting his face open on a piece of glass from the shattered windshield. The engines of both trucks caught fire, and Mana was badly burned by the time paramedics arrived and got him and Allen out of the car. Their injuries were treated successfully - but what doctors didn’t catch was that in addition to the concussion Allen got from hitting his head, there was also retinal damage that, by the time Allen noticed anything was wrong and the doctors investigated, it was too late to reverse. Within weeks, six-year-old Allen was completely blind.
Like any young child would be, Allen was confused and afraid; and Mana, blaming himself, was an absolute mess as well. Phillip was the one who took care of both of them during this time, and to distract Allen, who wavered between fits of anger and crying, he started to teach his nephew to play the piano. As a professional pianist and composer, he’d often attempted to teach Allen before, but the boy was too energetic to sit still at a piano for very long and had only managed to learn a couple of simple beginner’s songs. Now, on the other hand, as he was still recovering from injuries and needed to relearn a lot of simple stuff, piano provided a very effective distraction, and Allen began to learn and improve at a very rapid rate. As Mana began to recover from his guilt, the family started to put their lives back together, all of them learning how to live with Allen’s blindness. In his first year of high school, Allen decided that he wanted to become a professional pianist like his uncle, and ever since then he’s been working hard towards that goal.
Personality: Allen is an incredibly good-natured person, slow to anger and quick to forgive. He’s always had this disposition, even as a child, but it was mostly in middle school that he fine-tuned it into almost an art form - though at the time it was more of a survival tactic, due to having no friends and being often picked on. Having to relearn to do almost everything after the accident taught him an unusually large dose of patience, too. However, he has absolutely no tolerance for people who pick on others, and he can get a little testy with people who just stand by and watch, as well. When he’s feeling down, he tends to try and hide it from people, though friends who are close enough to him (not to mention his family) will always notice if his smile starts looking too fake - he has a very expressive face, and it’s easy for people who know him to read every nuance of his mood. He also has a tendency to want to help everyone and fix every problem in the world, and his friends and family often need to remind him not to burn himself out.
Age: 15
Appearance: Quite tall for his age, with rather shaggy white hair that he usually neglects until it’s almost shoulder length. Not exactly scrawny, but he doesn’t have a lot of muscle on him, either. Notable features are the scar on the left side of his face, as well as his eyes, which are a pale blue and rather obviously useless.
History/Background: Allen was adopted by Mana Walker at a very young age - though he doesn’t yet know that he was adopted at all. He’s lived with Mana and Mana’s brother, Phillip, his whole life, and in spite of the lack of other family - aunts, cousins, grandparents - he’s never once been the least bit unhappy with his small family, and loves his father and uncle very much.
When Allen was six years old, Mana was driving him home from school one day and their truck - nicknamed the Ark for the sheer amount of stuff Mana tended to have in the back - was hit head-on by another truck. Allen had taken off his seatbelt momentarily to remove his jacket, and he was thrown forward, hitting his head on the dashboard and cutting his face open on a piece of glass from the shattered windshield. The engines of both trucks caught fire, and Mana was badly burned by the time paramedics arrived and got him and Allen out of the car. Their injuries were treated successfully - but what doctors didn’t catch was that in addition to the concussion Allen got from hitting his head, there was also retinal damage that, by the time Allen noticed anything was wrong and the doctors investigated, it was too late to reverse. Within weeks, six-year-old Allen was completely blind.
Like any young child would be, Allen was confused and afraid; and Mana, blaming himself, was an absolute mess as well. Phillip was the one who took care of both of them during this time, and to distract Allen, who wavered between fits of anger and crying, he started to teach his nephew to play the piano. As a professional pianist and composer, he’d often attempted to teach Allen before, but the boy was too energetic to sit still at a piano for very long and had only managed to learn a couple of simple beginner’s songs. Now, on the other hand, as he was still recovering from injuries and needed to relearn a lot of simple stuff, piano provided a very effective distraction, and Allen began to learn and improve at a very rapid rate. As Mana began to recover from his guilt, the family started to put their lives back together, all of them learning how to live with Allen’s blindness. In his first year of high school, Allen decided that he wanted to become a professional pianist like his uncle, and ever since then he’s been working hard towards that goal.
Personality: Allen is an incredibly good-natured person, slow to anger and quick to forgive. He’s always had this disposition, even as a child, but it was mostly in middle school that he fine-tuned it into almost an art form - though at the time it was more of a survival tactic, due to having no friends and being often picked on. Having to relearn to do almost everything after the accident taught him an unusually large dose of patience, too. However, he has absolutely no tolerance for people who pick on others, and he can get a little testy with people who just stand by and watch, as well. When he’s feeling down, he tends to try and hide it from people, though friends who are close enough to him (not to mention his family) will always notice if his smile starts looking too fake - he has a very expressive face, and it’s easy for people who know him to read every nuance of his mood. He also has a tendency to want to help everyone and fix every problem in the world, and his friends and family often need to remind him not to burn himself out.