Yarrow Frost

Main Protagonist

Yar/Yare (by Nathan), Frost or Frosty to everyone else.

Non-binary, possibly agender, but femme presenting. (They haven't fully figured it out yet, and that's okay!)

28.

They/them.

Meaning "rough stream" in English origin, Yarrow chose their name based on the plant (Achillea millefolium), which is known by some as devil's nettle, nosebleed plant, soldier's woundwort and sanguinary- used in the past by soldiers during war times to stop bleeding in wounds. Yarrow is also a symbol of enduring love.

Caught in the Carousel - Tilian https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-6m3QZAsbE

5'5"

a sort of rusty red-brown with some dark red low/highlights.

Usually thrown up into a sloppy mess of a bun, Yarrow's hair is long, but only because they don't know what style to cut it and they're too afraid of change to fix it. They also sport a side shave/undercut on the left side of their head.

Yarrow describes it as "Shit brown".
Nathan would describe it as 'coffee colored'.

Finnish and Irish mixed. Or so they were told by their grandmother.

Will become a lobster if left in the sun too long. Otherwise, ghostly white. They have joked that they glow in the dark.

slender, with little muscle definition, Yarrow refers to themselves as a "stick with legs". However, they were unfortunately endowed with a pair of large breasts, something which Yarrow has a love/hate relationship about. Yarrow doesn't bind, but does have a preference for sports bras as a result.

A scar just below their lower lip. They don't usually discuss how it was acquired, mentioning in passing once that it was because they fell and their teeth busted through their lower lip.

A semi-colon tattoo behind their left ear,

Throughout the course of the story they also acquire several injuries that probably will scar.

Yarrow is very laid back. They like to exist in comfortable clothes. Usually some kind of band t-shirt or something with an amusing phrase on it, or something fandom related, and very flowy, soft material pants, particularly when they're at home. If in public, Yarrow switches out the flowy pants for jeans, but keeps the t-shirt.

If asked to attend a fancy affair, Yarrow wears jewel toned dresses with a-line skirts, and things that try not to show cleavage because they don't like being looked at as an object.

For the purposes of the story, Yarrow is in jeans, a band t-shirt, with a heavier jacket, and a pair of hiking boots, good for kicking.

Yarrow is snarky and sarcastic to their friends, often engaging in what they refer to as 'gentle bullying'. But, Yarrow is often also the 'mom friend' - they're constantly concerned and sensitive to other's needs before their own. Yarrow cracks their knuckles (and, unrelatedly, sometimes their toes) before getting into the 'nitty gritty' of something. They also have a horrible habit of chewing their nails when nervous, which has led to awful nailbeds and an over abundance of gross hangnails.

Yarrow also tends to speak with their mouth full, shoving their bite of food into the corner of their mouth to speak with friends.

Yarrow mostly just wants to live. And it's not just through the zombie shitshow that they're going through.
Yarrow's been put through some shit their whole life. There was a period where they were homeless and couch surfing and things really weren't great for their mental well-being. After falling into a deep depression, Yarrow considered taking their own life before finally finding a good therapist, getting on the right meds and finding a place to call their own.

Being told for most of their life that they're both 'gifted' and 'will never amount to anything', Yarrow is incredibly stubborn and has dug deep in order to find their will to live and they're not willing to give up easily, even if a situation seems hopeless. Desperate to make something of themselves that they can be proud of, Yarrow will fight tooth and nail to survive.

Yarrow is pretty much Anxiety, personified. Not quite a full blown conspiracy theorist, Yarrow's anxiety tends to go off the rails when given information that they can't parse well. Lack of information tends to send Yarrow into Worst-Case-Scenario territory, and Nathan often has to pull them back to reality.

Yarrow also has a tendency to get super defensive when being told they're letting their anxiety get away from them or when otherwise called out for "bad behaviors".

Yarrow has a tendency to fall in love hard and fall in love fast and over the years, they've been burned by this repeatedly.

They also heavily dislike asking for help, nearly to the point that they hate even appearing like they need it. Yarrow has a tendency to fall into the thought process of 'fuck it, I'll just do it myself', even if the task needing done is seemingly too big for them to handle alone.

Yarrow sometimes journals just to get their thoughts out. Their therapist approves of this, a fact that kind of annoys Yarrow.

Yarrow also has a tendency to doodle - so they've been trying to fill sketchbooks with drawings, but they dislike their work.

Anxiety, depression, PTSD. They have considered the idea that they're somewhere on the autistic spectrum, but they haven't pursued diagnosis.

Yarrow believes that everybody has a story to tell, which is part of the reason why they decided to go back to school to study mortuary science/morgue work. Though people may have passed, Yarrow is interested in the stories their bodies tell, to help put them to rest in a way that brings them justice and peace. (Also, this belief directly influences Nate's later decision to collect videos of survivors he meets - because the truth is in their words).

Yarrow is asexual and panromantic.

Yarrow doesn't usually talk softly. Having to carve out their own space in the world has left them with a need to be loud, to be heard. They swear like a sailor and they don't care to be admonished for it.

Yarrow has been trying to quit smoking for years, but it never seems to happen. As the story really starts to roll, Yarrow notes they haven't had a cigarette in a week, the longest they've gone without caving to cravings.

Yarrow also partakes in edibles and smokes occasionally from a water pipe filled with jazz cabbage.

"You asked what my worst case scenario was, Nathan! I told you it was zombies! It's probably NOT zombies!" (...it's zombies).

"There’s this long, haunting quote from a comic that’s stuck with me for a very long time. It’s this… lament... about love… how it’s such a horrible thing, because it makes you vulnerable. How it cracks you open, and tears down your defenses. How when you find yourself in love, your life isn’t yours anymore. You’re a hostage to an emotion, to a feeling you cannot understand.

It’s a lament about how much love can rip you apart.

That’s how love always was for me. I was a hostage to something I could not understand. But -

I didn’t- I didn’t know. I didn’t know love could be easy. I didn’t know that’s what this was!"

Yarrow has a tendency to fall in love hard and fall in love fast and over the years, they've been burned by this repeatedly.

Atheist, but not an asshole about it.

Yarrow's not really vocal about their dislike of religion, but they've mentioned before that "if God exists, he's a spiteful fuck and I want no part of it."

Far left.
Everyone deserves a place to live, clean water, food and anything else that will make living more comfortable, including healthcare. This is partially due to Yarrow's own homelessness, but also because they've seen what a lack of something can do to the body.

Currently interning at a morgue, but also going to college for mortuary science.

An oddly specific shade of blue. (Specifically Nathan's eye color)

Tacos.

Nate gave Yarrow an amethyst point for their birthday one year. Yarrow keeps it with them always, usually stashed in a jacket pocket.

Yarrow loves cats of all kinds. They really couldn't narrow it down to any specific breed or genus.

The problem is, Yarrow is allergic and cannot own a cat. They still will get excited when a friend's cat decides that their lap is the perfect napping spot though.

Intern at the local morgue.

The way Yarrow describes it, they "just kind of fell into step together".

Yarrow doesn't realize the depth of their own feelings for Nathan until much later into the story, while they're separated, but it's very clear that Yarrow cares very deeply for him and his well being the moment we meet them.

They mention that 'he can go to his grave without ever knowing' the depth of their feelings for him, because they believe that a relationship with one another is something neither of them want. But Yarrow is very deeply in love with Nate, and literally everyone else can see it.

October 30th

GED, is attending college courses and considering a graduate degree in mortuary science, pathology and anatomy. Is considering a career as a coroner.

this is a wip, and will be updated as I write Frost. There are a lot of things that Yarrow doesn't like to discuss and not many people are left in their life that know their full history.

Yarrow doesn't own any pets. They aren't sure they can safely take care of one, especially if their mental health fails, so they're just happy getting to smooch on their friends' pets.