Taylor

He’s just a private, athletic dude who’s a little bit too serious sometimes. He's reserved and conceals so much about himself. He doesn't know what to do with himself once the fault hits. With no more structure in the world, he has a hard time breaking himself from laws that no longer exist.

## Description

Taylor is a 6'3" human male. He's androgynous, and mistaken for a girl upon his first appearance. According to the rest of the living, he is the most attractive guy. He has a mole on the left side of his mouth, and a straight nose. He’s got quite the stunning red pair of eyes, and as such they tend to be an attractant to unwanted attention. That, and he is most expressive through his eyes. He likes the anonymity of sunglasses, and the ability they give him to observe without drawing attention to himself. His blonde hair is long, but spikes out just above his shoulders. He wears a grey V-neck, and fluorescent orange sweatpants. He also wears a blue jacket around his waist, and blue sneakers.

## Personality

### Likes

* Keeping to himself
* Skateboarding
* Working out
* Comics
* Movies
* What Zack likes
* The thrill of doing things he shouldn't

### Dislikes

* Attention
* Deep conversation
* Close relationships
* Talking and debating

## More

Deep conversation, close relationships, they really aren’t his forte. He can talk and he can debate, but if he can help it he’d really rather not. And he tends to come across as rude and stoic when he does engage. He also has a very bitchy resting face, and whether it’s forced or he was born into it, it rarely falters.

When the Fault originally took place, he was fine with learning to adapt to bracing the end of the world with someone he was acquaintances with. Close enough to not care about being around him, but it’s not like he knows the guy very well. That guy being Zack of course.

Even though they’re trekking this apocalypse together, you’d be surprised at how long it takes Taylor to warm up to Zack more than just an acquaintance level. He can handle getting to know one dude he’s sort of stuck with, but when he’s around a bunch of people, like Zack would lead him to, he really becomes a man of few words.

It’s hard for anybody to learn anything about the brick wall that he is. The right types might be able to pull a little more out of him; Hannah, Tanner, really chill people who don’t feel the immediate need to pry into him. But for others, one could strike the most charming first liner to a conversation and he’d more than likely pretend he didn’t hear it.

Why? Aside from just not being a talker, he believes people need to earn what they get from him. Not the healthiest approach to socializing, but that’s who he is. You need to earn a response from him, you need to earn his respect, his history, etc. How to go about earning any of this is something he similarly neglects to share. You need to get him excited, and know how to tell when he is.

He might seem hard to please but he carries his few interests on his sleeves. As long as you stick to what he knows when you talk to him, he can actually be somewhat pleasant to talk to. And when he’s pleasant to talk to, you know you’ve actually got his attention and interest.

It’s why Zack, such a carefree and outgoing person, still gets Taylor to stick by his side so well. Zack likes a lot of what Taylor likes, and he knows how to talk about it (Also Zack is just really charismatic and knows how to pull a chat from Taylor anyhow).

He’s just a private, athletic dude who’s a little bit too serious sometimes. He’s strong and he’s fast, and he definitely carries himself like he’s in charge of his own path, but he honestly functions a little better when he’s not the one deciding what to do. He wouldn’t admit it, but if Zack weren’t in the picture he probably would not have left hometown, and he would have no real aspiration to work towards except to survive.

Now his aspiration is to survive *better* than anyone else instead, as Zack drags them into increasingly more chaotic situations. He wouldn’t admit this either, but Taylor also sort of likes the thrill of doing things he shouldn’t, even though he was particularly law-abiding before the Fault.

## Relationships

### Zack

They went to the same highschool, met there, and remained nothing more than acquaintances who hung out once in a blue moon until the events of the story took place. They sorta just happened to be hanging out at the time of the Fault.

Taylor is a lone wolf and Zack is a people person, so in the beginning Taylor tried to find many reasons to brace the apocalypse alone, while Zack did his best to stick by Taylor’s side to avoid being on his own.

It worked out though, because while Taylor is strong and athletic, it just wasn’t realistic that he’d survive all on his own against monsters many times his size and strength. Zack was always there to help in fight or flight. In turn, Taylor kept Zack from becoming reckless and going overboard, something he is prone to doing when left by himself.

Their friendship grew relatively quickly at the start as they worked to help each other, although they both fought against it from time to time. Even then, when they felt more secure together than alone, there were a lot of factors that made it difficult for them.

The Persuasions of fate and other types never work for them like they do for the main cast. They are not ‘needed’ in the grand scheme that is fixing the world from chaos. They simply live in it, and reap no benefits from that temporal aid. So, they struggle against their fair share of poor luck, hard times, and supply scarcity. This causes occasional tension between them.

Their friendship strengthens later on, though, when they meet up with Hannah & her friends. With no means of safe transportation at the time, little food, and nothing better to do, they helped Hannah out with some RV issues she was having, and in turn she let them hang around for a little bit. (Hannah is a little too nice that way. She’s all for helping strangers in need, even without knowing their true intentions.)

This relief allowed Taylor and Zack’s pressures to ease up for a while, which meant less friction and tension. Taylor prefers hanging around people he knows rather than large groups of people he doesn’t, so he and Zack’s bond only grew stronger during this time as he stuck by Zack’s side.

Zack also rubbed off on Taylor a bit through the several weeks they’d stuck together. Taylor is rational and keeps to himself, but Zack likes to take risks and go for broke quite often. When they feel at their most secure, Zack eventually convinces Taylor to help steal Hannah’s RV in the night and drive off with it.

It’s right around this time that I’d say they’re probably something just a touch more than friends. Taylor would deny this outright, however.

During most of their time with Hannah & the gang, Zack felt secure enough to come on to Taylor– rather strongly at times– and so there was a lot of sexual tension between them for a bit. Even if Taylor persistently denied attraction.

But! When they were alone together again, and felt like they had much more of a chance on their own (now with an RV stocked with much needed supplies!), I’d say that Taylor started to give into Zack’s flirts just a tiny bit. Or maybe a better way of putting it, he tolerated it all a bit more.

It’s a long ass process from there. Taylor is stubborn and resists changes in relationship. It took them a couple of months at least of being by each other’s sides 24 hours a day for him to accept the fact that they were *probably* friends. It takes even longer for him to accept any different.

They eventually lose the RV, get caught up in Bristly’s reign like everyone else, and again struggle through life. But with being so close at this point, their struggles are instead softened from time to time when they know that, in the end, they have each other.

## References

1. ↑ https://creaturefeaster.tumblr.com/post/692661440332578816/are-taylors-eyes-red
2. ↑ https://creaturefeaster.tumblr.com/post/700481353381183488/how-do-zack-and-taylor-meet-and-how-does-their