Walmsley

**Steven Walmsley** is a soldier that arrived during the 3rd Generation. Before arriving, he received no military training and was issued with broken, mismatched armour, and a broken assault rifle with a single bullet in it. Since then, he has managed to get his armour fixed to an adequate level and, while he has failed to show any kind of skill in most military situations, he has grown fond of throwing knives; mainly because they're the only weapon he can use accurately.

## Brief History

Walmsley grew up in London, England, Earth, with a difficult and troubled childhood. His father either left or died when he was very young, and his mother became terminally ill when he was 16, causing him to drop out of school and not finish his studies. After his mother died at 18, Walmsley dropped into claiming unemployment benefits, and continued renting the flat that he grew up in. Growing up, everybody called him 'Walmsley' - resulting in a personal dislike for his own first name, due to not really identifying as 'Steven'. After high school, all of his close friends turned to lives of petty crime, the most successful of these being Jared Perkins, who later showed up in the Gulch.

He was sent to Blood Gulch as part of a rehabilitation program for psychopaths due to a 'misunderstanding' in the Courts. He tried and failed to fake insanity to escape a £50 fine, which was a result of him crashing a police Mongoose while trying to evade a group of people he thought were chasing him (they were only attempting to return his lost keys and phone). He did this while doing a completely legal job for Perkins, and therefore Walmsley blames his former friend for his misfortune. He was originally sentenced to spend one year in the canyon, with the requirement for Walmsley to send monthly journals to the Board of Mental Health for psychoanalysis and reconsideration. At the time of writing, Walmsley's sentence has been extended by 2 years and 5 months; although this changes on a monthly basis.

Upon arriving at the Gulch, Walmsley initially demonstrated an unwillingness to make friends, believing it to be a waste of time and effort for such a short stay in the canyon, and that it would only result in unnecessary heartache upon leaving. As a result, Walmsley seemed quite distant from everybody else. In his first few hours, he managed to negotiate himself a second bed, which he promptly pushed against his own to create a makeshift double bed.

Within his first week in the canyon, the 'peace' between Red Team and Blue Team had ended after Campbell planted a bomb in Red base. This further added to Walmsley's difficulty with trusting other soldiers - Reds in particular. While this has since subsided, Walmsley still has fewer Red friends than Blue.

During his first month in the canyon, he received firearm training from both Wilcox and Font. The former resulting in him aquiring a magnum from Wilcox after his assault rifle was discovered to be irrepairably damaged, and the latter ending in him accidentally shooting himself in the leg.

After a while in the canyon, Walmsley finally took some advice from Blaise, and gave in to the friendships that were forming between himself and others; notably Font, Blaise, Claire, Bishop and Clover. Walmsley makes it no secret that he does not like Apartment, after he called Walmsley fat and the two had a short fight ending with Walmsley's jaw being dislocated.

He also has demonstrated that he has a strong moral compass. Having not been indoctrinated into a soldier's lifestyle, he strongly opposed the fight between Font and O'Neal, a journalist - despite being assured by plenty of fellow soldiers around him that this was completely natural. He also appears to have an intense hatred for pettiness and squabbling - and refuses to get involved in fights between his friends, such as between Blaise and Campbell when Purple Team began.

Walmsley participated in the canyon battle against the splinters, claiming his first kill, after which he had a mental breakdown due to the seeming lack of value for human life. This ended with he and Wade having a discussion about his issues with the canyon. Later, Walmsley participated in Echo Team's mission to The Child of Necessity, after receiving throwing knife training from his team leader, Arroyo. During the battle, he killed multiple splinters. After returning and hearing of Ford's death, he felt partially responsible for leaving him behind in the engine rooms. However, after talking to Ford's memory unit, he accepted that there was nothing that could have been done.

Walmsley suffers from chronic nightmares and sleepwalking, brought about and focusing on his fear of rejection, never leaving the canyon, and his insecurities about his own personality. He takes sleeping tablets that he found in Blue Base, and sleeps in a straitjacket to avoid sleep-shooting and harming anybody.

After Ariel entered the canyon, Walmsley uncharacteristically managed to work up the courage to ask her on a date - although not without her pretty much spelling out the fact that she'd say yes if he were to ask, beforehand. During the date, Walmsley demonstrated that he can get extremely nervous around romance and relationships, which was later explained by him revealing that Ariel was his first ever girlfriend. Afterwards, Walmsley spoke with many of his friends - all of them agreeing that he should become more confident if he ever wants to be in a relationship with her. In a spur of the moment decision, he decided to lure Ariel under some mistletoe, which was the catalyst to the beginning of their relationship. After this, their relationship slowly revealed itself to be purely unilateral and borderline abusive - with Ariel seeming cold and uncaring and Wamsley trying his best to make the relationship work. After a couple weeks, Ariel broke up with Walmsley in a brutal fashion, leaving him emotionally distraught.

Shortly after this, Walmsley attempted to reason with Ariel, but after being turned away, he had a confrontation with Perkins. After words were exchanged, the two had a short fight, ending in Walmsley's defeat. However, while he was walking away, Perkins called after him about replacing Walmsley as Ariel's SO - causing Walmsley to shoot Perkins thrice in the stomach. After Perkins notified Campbell of this fight, Walmsley and his CO had a brief argument. This finally ended in Campbell promoting Walmsley to Captain out of spite.