Mallard Champlain

Mallard Champlain is a main character and a survivor of RMC's Who We Become. He was a senior in high school with plans for college. He was from Decatur, Georgia. His father was absent from his life because he had been arrested for the possession and selling of narcotics during his mother's pregnancy. He had an older adopted brother, Todd, and his mother was an alcoholic. When the apocalypse began, he walked home from school to find his mother trying to eat his brother. He locked them both in a closet and ran from home.
== Overview ==
Mal was born to a single mother, his father being in jail for possessing and selling narcotics. He grew up poor in Decatur with one adopted older brother named Todd. He was a very mopey kid, refusing to socialize and crying often. His mother was an alcoholic, which often led to him hearing and seeing things he shouldn’t know at such a young age, such as his brother being abused and his mother openly insulting them both, which led him to spite drinkers he encountered.
His mom won a $250,000 lottery when he was eight, and with the money bought a house. Knowing Mal’s behavior, she turned him to a therapist, since she could finally afford it. The therapist would work well, bettering his mood and recommending him journaling to express his feelings without affecting others. This would play a major role in his life, spending most of his days writing and drawing in a journal. 
In school, he had little to no friends, depending on which grade he was in each year. He didn’t fall into any cliques or join any clubs, ate lunch by himself, and typically stayed out of trouble. He kept up high grades, A’s and an occasional B. He and his mother had been planning for college with some of the leftover lottery money. 
He worked as a waiter in a small diner. He didn’t make a lot of money from it, nor was the cash really needed, but he wanted to contribute to his family as much as he could while also saving money on the side for himself. 
Up until the apocalypse began his life would remain normal. His first exposure to walkers would be when he returned home from school one day to find his zombified mother trying to eat his brother in the kitchen. Too scared and sad to kill them, he locked them in a closet and left home. Then, he ran. For weeks, Mal would run alone, killing whoever or whatever he needed to survive, using a makeshift knife made out of a broken hairbrush. He eventually got trapped in Macon, where he then met with the current group. 
In Macon, Mallard was trapped in a diner filled with walkers. He had killed most of them by the time someone from the Macon group entered the building. The boy would be covered in blood. He was frantic, scared, and a little hysteric, but after being calmed down, he was persuaded into joining them. He kept to himself, and didn’t speak at all until he was spoken to, giving short responses.
== Personality ==
Mallard is known to be gloomy and depressed, often isolating himself when he gets the chance and trying to avoid interactions with other people. When in conversation, however, he's talkative and tries to use humor.
Mallard never really had much interest in romance, being single his whole life though he had been asked out once or twice. He doesn’t have a label, and when he does find himself attracted to someone, it’s not at all based on gender but rather personality, age, and appearance.
Throughout the show, Mallard starts to open up more, but that comes to an abrupt halt after the death of his wife, Avery Miller. He quickly shut down, going back to isolating himself and avoiding conversation as he had in Season 1. He has also started drinking, which is heavily out of character for Mallard due to his hatred towards alcohol and those who abuse it.
Mallard has also been shown to have suicidal tendencies, as he attempted to kill himself via slitting his wrists after arriving at the CDC and also stopped fighting back against people and walkers.
Mallard is also seemingly a pacifist, most of his fights only being fought against walkers. He has only killed one person on-screen, and it appeared to overwhelm him with guilt and remorse.
== Killed Victim ==
* Several walkers
* Johnny
* Several unnamed Day Breakers
== Trivia ==
* Despite all the human conflicts within the show, Mallard had not killed a single human on-screen until the finale of Season 5.
* One of the very first running jokes in the show is Mallard's spoon. In Season 1, when the rest of the group was tied up, Mallard had been hiding, armed with only a spoon.
* Mallard's name was put together when his actor, Alien, saw the "Chick-Fil-A Sauce girl" meme compared with Abby Mallard from Chicken Little. He later got the last name, Champlain, from a history lesson, stealing the name from French governor during the 1650s Samuel de Champlain.
* Mallard's background was based on two Metallica songs, Dyers Eve and Fixxxer.
Category:Characters