Earth Alone

Name: Elias Neguse
Age: 18
Location: Yellowstone
Appearance: Dark skin with short black hair and dark eyes. Simple work clothes. 6' 3"
Personality: Usually bright and bubbly, he often jokes around, trying to lighten the mood. This doesn't exactly set him on good terms with his peers and coworkers, most of whom believe he should spend more time and energy working. He's very prone to restlessness and wishes to escape the underground city, even if he knows it's practically a death sentence.
Other: His family is originally from Ethiopia, but his grandparents moved to America with his parents before the incident. His father was one of the first to explore the surface after the underground city had been constructed. Unfortunately, his suit failed, leaving him to instantly freeze. Olan works as a caretaker of the few livestock that currently reside in the city.

(Thank you!)

Eli wiped sweat from his brow as he cleared out the horse stall before him, shoveling dung and soiled hay. It was always hot in this cavern. It was one of the closest to a geyser and it was where the coffee, pineapples, and bananas grew. He would've minded the work if it weren't for the animals. He knew them and they knew him. After putting in fresh bedding and leading the chestnut mare back inside, he leaned against the stall door to watch the few workers amongst the rows of plants.

Name: Marco Antonio Rivera (Prefers to just be referred to as Marco, Antonio, or Rivera)
Age: 19
Appearance: Marco Antonio isn't very tall for his age, standing at 5'6''. His skin is medium tone and his hair is very thick, straight, and dark. His eyes are dark brown, almost black.
Location: Yellowstone
Personality: Careful with expressing his thoughts and feelings, but not timid; rather, he simply chooses to remain silent until the right situation presents itself. His sense of humor is dry, biting, sarcastic, and often rather morbid. Although intuitive and receptive to the body language and emotions of others, Marco Antonio often acts in a manner that lacks sensitivity towards the feelings of his peers. He entirely lacks the ability to care about the opinions of others.
Other: Marco Antonio was born in a small town near Campeche to two Mexican parents: One from a long line of Spanish immigrants, the other from a completely indigenous family. They sought a better life in the United States and settled there before Marco's father abandoned his wife and two-year-old son. Marco and his mother lived in one of the underground cities where she began work as a biochemist. When the son disappeared, mother and son were well-prepared. Josefina Rivera is his only link to the culture that Marco never could grow up in and his only caretaker. She is also one of the few, if the only one, who believes Marco Antonio when he says that he can see the dead.

Eli turned to give the mare's nose a few last strokes before he made his way to the exit tunnel, waving at the harvesters as he passed. Most of the tunnels were usually pretty dark, but since this one was more remote, electric lights only dotted the wall every few meters. There were some stretches where it was pitch black, leaving Eli only in the company of his thoughts and the faint hum of the nuclear power plant below the city. Eventually, the tunnel connected to a larger one, which led to the city's center cavern. He glanced out through the porthole windows in the rock at the huge space. The tunnel he was in lie in the wall of the city center, about halfway to the ceiling, which allowed him a nice view. Across the way, he could see the windows of the tunnel on the other side, where the dorms were. Eli headed that way, towards another connecting passageway that led to the chicken coops. As he walked, he tried to recall what it was like on Earth before this way of life, something he did nearly every day. But no matter how much he racked his brains, he could only come up with a few vague memories. After all, he'd only been three years old when everything had changed.

Elias rolled down his sleeves to his elbows. Thankfully, the chicken coops were a bit cooler, though noisy and smelly. If it weren't for the hens, this would probably be one of his least favorite jobs. He skirted the dorms on his way to the tunnel. These ones were relatively new, built a few years after the original ones. They were nicer than all the rest and had forced Eli to take a different route to the chickens. It was quite a long detour, but he tried not to mind so much. It wasn't worth complaining about anything around here. You'd just be ignored and told to work harder.

As Eli made his way through the tunnel, in his hand swung the portable lamp he always brought along for when he used the largely unlit passages. But this one was fairly widely-used by many of the citizens... He'd have to talk to somebody about this later, if they weren't already trying to fix the problem. The lamplight only allowed Eli to see a little ways in front of him, which just made the darkness seem thicker. This was a near-daily occurrence for him, and he thought it should be something he was accustomed to by now,but he still feared the dark. Often, the memory of seeing the corpses on the surface, frozen solid and still horrifyingly lifelike, would jump into his head. It left Eli shaken and made him walk faster.

The sound of someone else's footsteps caused Eli to tense, even though he knew it was probably just someone on their way to work. The steps sounded lighter and softer than his own, almost inhuman if he let his imagination get the better of him. He tried to think of the awkward relief he'd feel upon seeing the other person and realizing there had been nothing to be afraid of. But when the light finally fell upon the source of the footsteps, Eli jumped and his hand flew to his chest in surprise. The figure was cast in the bluish-white of the lamp, which reminded him even more of the frozen people in the abandoned buildings up above.

Eli stared at the girl, slowly coming to the realization that she was indeed just another citizen. "Oh..." He allowed his heart rate and breathing to slow a bit before he continued forwards. He tried to remember whether or not he'd seen this girl before. Somehow, she seemed vaguely familiar even after he'd come to the conclusion that they hadn't crossed paths before. Eli offered a wide smile as she approached, hoping she hadn't noticed him scared out of his wits a minute ago. "Good morning, Miss," he greeted politely in a heavy Ethiopian accent.

"You sound lost," Elias noted. He never saw too many people this far down the tunnel. Most entered from one of the more frequently-used connecting passageways, which he'd passed a while ago. Most people who bothered to go down this far were people that helped tend to the chickens and turkeys. "Are you lost?"