Papa Romero

Papa Romero is essentially **Your Dad**. (Your Dad's unapologetically a cannibal, right?)

## **General Information**

**NAME:** Roger "Papa" Romero

**AGE:** ~80 (total)/ ~50 (Pre-ghoul)

**BUILD:** Tall and broad. Husky (chub over solid frame)

**HAIR:** Ashen brown-black, curly. Pre-ghoul: everywhere. Oh god, the hair was just… everywhere. (He actually rather misses it, but at least he still has his glorious moustache.)

**EYES:** pre-ghoul, green-brown. Radiation-accelerated cataracts have paled them.

**EQUIPMENT:** A combat knife and a shotgun. Papa Romero's vision is too weak for long-range combat. He also carries a cleaver, a sack of various seeds, and a range of tools, but these are... not for combat use.

## **Origin**

#### **Pre-Ghoul**

Was born and raised in a small cannibalistic commune known as Unity, where the tasks of butcher and doctor have an uncommon overlap. Unity has a set of tenets for its population to follow, which Romero still holds true to. Romero has since learned that cannibalism is atypical, but does not see it as amoral (in fact, for cultural reasons, he considers it actually respectful).

#### **Post-Ghoul**

At around 50 years of age, several deliberately ruptured radioactive barrels were rolled into Unity from the nearby hills. Though Unity attempted evacuation, it was too late: the damage was done. The population succumbed to radiation sickness soon after. Most rapidly died, but Papa Romero survived as a ghoul.

For months, Romero assumed the attack an act from the Children of Atom wanting the site, as they were camped there in force when he returned several weeks later. After extended experience outside of Unity however, Romero suspects it could have been vigilantes opposed to the local tenets, and the Children were merely opportunistic squatters.

## **The Unity Commune**

#### **Core Philosophy**

Unity follows the philosophy of ‘all for all’. Cannibalising the remains of a Unity citizen is their final gift to their neighbours. Anything unsafe to eat is repurposed in other ways – often buried in vegetable plots to return more indirectly. (Romero currently tends in favour of the latter, since it coincides with other cultures’ burial rites - and makes his corn and tatos grow *amazingly* well.)

For those of Unity, leaving the honoured dead out in the open, or burying them without fruiting plants, is disrespectful – you’re deeming them as worth nothing more than food for the irradiated wildlife, or rotting uselessly in the dust. Their life had no value, and now their death doesn’t, either.

#### **The Unity Tenets**

* Honour the dead: waste nothing. Meat for food, skin for leather, hair for weave, bones for tools or carving, offal for the garden.

* The liver and brain are unsafe. They make you very sick, very mad, or very dead. Bury them alongside the offal.

* If you did not witness the death (or enact it), assume the cadaver is unsafe. Consume nothing, bury it all.

* Separate everything for cleanliness and safety – Irradiated (ghoul/Children of Atom), Contaminated (heavy drug-users), Clear (most common). If cross-contamination is a concern, consume nothing: bury it all.

* Cannibalistic consumption is for citizens or trusted (and informed) guests only. A stranger cannot truly appreciate the final gift.

* Honour dead outsiders, including their customs. An outsider’s body is to be returned to their family or community. If impossible, or unknown, they are treated with the same respect as Unity members.

* Carry a seed pouch when travelling outside commune territory. If you come across deceased you cannot move or process, scatter seeds on the site so that they may feed plants that may help in the future. If they are indoors and it is safe to do so, attempt to move them out of doors first.

## **The Dadliest Chef - Dad Trivia**

* He's in every hardware store - all of 'em, at the same time. (You do not know how.)

* His clothes are subject to change, but his fashion sense is always non-existent.
* At the beach, he will *110% embarrass everyone by wearing speedos*.

* He cooks some *seriously mean* food. His most common task in Unity was providing the communal meals for a reason.

* At a barbeque, he's the one running the grill. If you ask for your meat well-done, he will ask for you to sit your ass down and eat it PROPERLY for once. Else, you're getting vegetables (he refuses to waste a good cut on your sorry ass.)

* He can repair almost anything – poorly. Fixing attempts are, at best, temporary; and at worst, detrimental, and always improvised.

* Will absolutely pick the worst time to walk into any room. It's a goddamn superpower.

* He is stitched from platitudes and puns. They are both (almost?) always terrible.
* Does not understand Pre-War. Will try anyway. It is embarrassing.
* The commune mindset lives on - if he needs something, he will borrow without asking. He's used to everyone just sharing everything; the idea of keeping something you don't need away from someone who does just because it's 'yours' is selfish. Look, sport, he's not mad, just.. disappointed.
* Not the "Not under my roof!" type - roofs are communal, they belong to everyone! More the "ohoho I see what's going on you crazy kids" \*wink\* as he ruins the mood.
* Owns a bone flute engraved 'Dougie", named after the donor. He is terrible with it. He plays anyway.A body-type comparison of pre-ghoul and post-ghoul RomeroProvided without context. ʕ ͡• ͜ •ʔMEMEWORTHY. Featuring Tinker and Toy.