Bérenger Eversnow

Bérenger James Eversnow is a Trinidadian man working as a coroner for the Antarctic State Military. He is commonly known to be a rather tall man with very long dreadlocks, an eternally gruff demeanor, and a well-kept physique, despite his age. Bérenger is a married man to a Finnish woman named Vega Eversnow, the father of Garland Eversnow, and grandfather to two brothers Jaydin and Keydin Eversnow. Bérenger has come a long way since the start of his military high school years, first securing a job in the Security Forces as a designated marksman, then working for Public Security in his later contracts.

Childhood
Bérenger was born on the 25 of July 2140 in South America; more specifically, in Port of Spain, on the island of Trinidad. At the time of his birth, his father gave him his first name and his surname, while his mother granted him his middle name, James. Bérenger was raised in his hometown within Trinidad for roughly five years, and even attended a preschool before his parents had taken him with them to immigrate to Cyberia. Bérenger and his parents were educated, tested, and then after a year in total, taken in by the ASC Department of Foreign Affairs. The Eversnow family was designated full comfortable shelter in the city of Texas, where the family resided for the next eight years.

Bérenger adjusted quite well to the new country, even learning an entirely new language in primary school, proving himself to be a capable young boy in his grade school years up to and including the 8th grade. While he was a well-rounded student overall, Bérenger tended to show more interest in the health sciences through his choice in electives. The boy had made quite a few friends, though he often preferred reading alone rather than going out to play. During those eight years, Bérenger's father, a rather frail man, became increasingly infatuated with the Antarctic State's military, so much so that he attempted to enlist three different times, but was thrice denied due to medical reasons. The father backed down, defeated, however was still obsessed with the country's armed forces. Soon, he turned to his young son Bérenger.

Persisting through resistance from his wife, Bérenger's father enrolled him into an Alternative Military Academy (AMA) as soon as the boy became of age to attend. The man so desperately wanted to live vicariously through his son, that he constantly reminded them to achieve a great and extensive military career the likes that all men ought to be proud of. Before long, young fourteen year old Bérenger was visited by two uniformed men, and shipped off to Druzhnaya CMB in Avery shortly thereafter.

Juvenile Military Schooling
Upon arrival at his new home in Druzhnaya, a young Bérenger understandably found himself in a bit of a shock due to the drastic change in scenery, peers, and lifestyle he was to live in for the next four years. As was the academy's intention, Bérenger entered with some feelings of intimidation. Nevertheless, he stood his ground against letting that uneasiness get the best of him. He was placed in a barracks just like all the others, and was provided for with all basic necessities including food and a uniform, but not including any personally-owned electronic devices.

In his first few weeks in the AMA program, Bérenger befriended a classmate by the name of Sayre Ampère. The two boys rather quickly grew fond of one another in a brotherly manner, and even though the company of youngsters was not allowed phones at their age, the two stuck with each other through thick and thin during their time at the Druzhnaya Academy. Throughout the first couple academy years, Sayre tended to talk at Bérenger about guns, gun parts, and a number of other gun-related subjects at length, so much so that Bérenger often learned multiple new things about firearms on the occasional day they could talk at length.

In the third year, as soon as he turned sixteen Bérenger became eligible to take marksman training at the academy, and was highly encouraged by his best friend Sayre to join together. Having gleaned lots of rather unfinished knowledge about accurized rifles from Sayre as well as some from academy classes, Bérenger felt some compulsion to enter beyond just mere encouragement. Sayre's hyperfixation on guns and ballistics turned out to benefit the both of them from the very start of marksman training. Both Bérenger and Sayre ended up showing above-average performance on their written assessments, and Bérenger himself, thanks to his naturally calm hands, demonstrated exceptional first-time steadiness, precision, and accuracy with long-range rifles.

It didn't take long for Bérenger to catch the eye of not only his instructors, but also the eyes of NCOs who were looking out for prospective recruits. The young shooter's targeting, leading, and grouping scores showed for sure that he well-understood the ins and outs of external ballistics as it pertained to long guns. Marksman training completed a few weeks later, with both teenage friends passing with flying colors. Having made his impression on higher-ranking enlisted a great one, an adolescent Bérenger soon began receiving offers for his potential future services as a designated marksman.

Some uncharacteristically chummy recruiters introduced themselves to him in-person and by computer, one from the Riot Control Corps and another from the Security Forces. Both adults attempted to keep in touch with Bérenger through solicitation and otherwise incentivizing his future service in their respective divisions through various offers mostly revolving around large enlistment bonuses and accelerated promotion. Despite their continuous hounding, sixteen year old Bérenger made it a point that he would not be able to make a choice so early on. This caused the recruiters to back off for a time, while keeping their offers open should he decide later.

Later into the start of his fourth year at the academy, Bérenger was once again approached by the recruiter from the Security Forces with a rather less chummy attitude. The man forwardly reminded him that the offer was still open, however there was now added a rather short deadline imposed on the boy's acceptance or declination, much to his chagrin. Bérenger was put off by this turn of events, however his moderate dislike of Riot Control prompted him to finally give in to the Security Forces' offers, and solidified his future spot in the division. Bérenger went on to graduate AMA with high numbers in nearly all subjects. At his graduation, he finally got to meet his parents in-person for the first time in four long years. Not only that, but he met up with Sayre one more time, finding out that they had chosen to join in advance, the "rival" division of Riot Control. With the two friends exchanging contacts, they eventually went their separate ways, with their respective divisions' recruiting squads whisking them off to Ramiel CMB for the next stage of their lives.

First Assignment
At seventeen years of age, Bérenger was processed by a common SF recruiter soon after graduation, using the file accumulated on him ever since he started academy. This file included all the incentives that were awarded to him via accepting the bid for his service by the man that met with him after AMA's marksman training. At the time of signing, the boy was now contractually held to four years of active duty military service, and with it came a multitude of military life benefits. As was promised, Bérenger was to receive a nice enlistment bonus in the form of an additional sum to his salary for several months.

Basic training was the next step major for the young man; eight weeks of a lifestyle not much different than the preceding four years. Of course, AMA rather effectively desensitized Bérenger to such a lifestyle, and so his time at basic was a relatively normal one. Having been through AMA however, he was explicitly expected to outperform each and every one of his comrades by his drill sergeants, which served to be a challenge. Bérenger came to overcome this challenge though, and completed his basic training a bit of a bulkier young adult than before he entered, in addition to his earned promotion to. As a fresh new PFC, Bérenger was well on his way to finally entering the Security Forces for real. This transition as seamless as intended, having been given his new job as a gate guardsman, and placed in his newly assigned living space with another PFC that he was unfamiliar with, yet shared mutual respect with anyways. Bérenger soon gained a propensity for reading books in his spare time.

For the next few years, Bérenger spent his days living the average military life for an SF gate grunt in the Antarctic State; showing up for work, grabbing his gear, and standing guard atop the border gate for a varying amount of hours through the day. He had been entrusted with a rather bulky and heavy rifle; an old Soviet anti-tank rifle that had been modernized (albeit poorly) to fit the then-current needs and manufacturing processes of the Cyberian military. While not particularly predictable, Bérenger was often assigned "checker box" duty at least once a week, where he would stand at ground level and verify the IDs of those who attempt entry into Ramiel through his assigned gate. The years were mostly routine and uneventful except for a few outlying occurrences.

Roughly around the end of the second quarter to his third year as a gate guardsman, a particularly severe event took place out of his control. On June 27 at 20:47, his entire post received an advisory call over their radios, stating that a civilian had just stolen a metro cop's vehicle, and was being tracked heading in the direction of their gate. As the gate's designated marksman, Bérenger was ordered to setup with his heavy rifle in a sitting position at the roof of his gate, looking out across the very wide street beyond. At 20:49, Bérenger's spotter announced over the radio that he has spotted a police vehicle approaching the gate at a high speed and accelerating. A quick response back confirmed his suspicions, and also authorized Bérenger to dispatch the threat.

Despite his rapid pulse, Bérenger managed to steady his sights on his target's route. In his mind, he sifted through several weeks’ worth of memories of his prior marksman training many years ago in mere seconds. Then at exactly 20:50, Bérenger squeezed the heavy trigger and sealed the suspect's fate with a loud bang and a huge flash. Not more than a second later, the suspect's vehicle drifted to its right, and later unceremoniously crashed into the border wall to the left of the gate. Bérenger was ordered to stay at his position and be on the lookout for further threats, while a small squad was sent out to check out the crashed vehicle. Soon enough, it was announced over the radio that the suspect inside the crashed vehicle was dead where they sat. It didn't take more than a glance to find the cause of the suspect's death, as there was a sizable hole in the windshield, and a grandiose splatter of blood across the steering wheel and dashboard, obviously originating from a massive opening in the person's chest.

After some time, Bérenger was able to climb down from the gate and view the crashed vehicle with its deceased occupant inside. Upon seeing his handiwork up close, the young man felt an eerie aversion to what he had done to another otherwise living, breathing person. Back on-base, his immediate superior reassured him that while he certainly could have disabled the vehicle by firing upon its working components, he technically still followed his given orders at the time without deviance. Bérenger's superiors had then taken it upon themselves to defend his actions once an investigation into the incident was launched. He was ultimately not punished, and returned to his normal duties, however the incident stuck around in his mind all the while.

In his fourth and final year of his first assignment, Bérenger was promoted to, where he was given increased responsibility as the intermediate squad leader of the set of grunts operating at a given gate. Other than a change in rank, his duties passed down from above ranks had not changed very much. Near to the end of his first active duty obligation with the State Military, Bérenger was prompted for his thoughts on furthering his military career, once again being offered temporary benefits if he stayed. Now twenty-one years old, Bérenger expressed interest in going to college to pursue a higher education. The retention team assured him that he could have the military pay for his tuition and books, however the stipulation was he would have to continue his enlistment, and by then it would be best for him to secure a job with more free time.

Second Assignment
Being a newly made E-3, Bérenger enjoyed a bit more qualification to his name in the context of searching for new military assignments. After much thought, he settled on transferring to the Department of Civilian Affairs' Public Security division, specifically working a Section 2 evidence vault in a police station in the city of Overcast. This job required that he be assigned a living space in an apartment complex outside the borders of Ramiel, where the rent was to be paid in full by the State Military each month. Working the vault proved to be much quieter assignment for Bérenger, however he enjoyed that calmness plus the slight mental exercise that was retrieving and filing away various items of evidence. Beyond that, he had been tasked with keeping tabs on exactly who he had received/given evidence items to, and for what reasons.

This second assignment of his was decidedly less hectic than the first. Though, as was his decision, there was now college work to do on top of it all. Bérenger had enrolled in a Russian science-focused university by the name of Zhizni Nauka Institute (ZNI), declaring himself to be in pursuit of a major in medical sciences. Bérenger gave himself a disciplined schedule, diligently working on his studies while also keeping up with the workload at his police vault job, with some extra time set aside for working out and reading to himself at night. Though it proved to be interestingly full schedule, Bérenger handled it quite well on average.

During his time at ZNI, Bérenger met many interesting classmates and professors, befriending some for the long-term through his formal personality as well. A particular classmate in his medical classes stuck closer to him than the rest; a Finnish woman by the name of Vega Lahti. Vega had been attending ZNI for a nursing degree, and met Bérenger during a 200-level class shared between the two's majors. As soon as Bérenger had let slip that he had his own place to himself, Vega playfully prodded him for a chance to visit once in a while. Bérenger agreed, somewhat reluctantly, to let her visit and stay awhile after his classes. Vega turned out to be an even more polite guest than she let on beforehand, often offering to bring him food, drinks, and entertainment, and the two even assisted each other with their respective assignments from college classes. Vega and Bérenger kept in close contact with one another throughout their college years, growing closer with each day.

In 2164, during his third year of college, Bérenger and Vega both felt more than enough of a bond between each other to take their relationship further beyond, bringing forth a son into the world between themselves. Just as his father did for him, Bérenger gave his newborn son his surname, and the first name of Alabaster, while Vega gave them the middle name of Garland. Having privately announced Vega's pregnancy to his superiors well in advance of the birth, they worked reasonably with him to secure a slot for the young woman and their child in the receiving of his military benefits, including room and board with him. Caring for a child on top of all his other work required a bit of schedule fixing for Bérenger, however he was more than willing to do so for the sake of Vega and Alabaster.

In the fourth year of his college attendance, not long after Alabaster was born, Bérenger and Vega married. Soon after, the man graduated ZNI with a bachelor's degree in medical sciences. In the same year, being the eighth year of military service, Bérenger was once again approached by a retention-type recruiter for his thoughts on staying with the military for yet another assignment. After giving it plenty of thought, Bérenger ultimately decided to stay with the military via using his newly acquired degree to commission into the officer ranks of the State Military.

Third Assignment
At the age of twenty-five, Bérenger was actually in-line for a promotion to the rank of, however he decided instead to pursue a spot as an officer; several ranks higher than E-4. He soon began to further his military career through joining Officer Training School (OTS), now that he had earned a bachelor's degree. OTS for him was rather routine, after his experiences through the previous two military assignments plus graduating from a prestigious college. What needed slight refreshment were his leadership skills, which he carefully studied first, and then executed quite well. While Bérenger did well in leadership, he found that he preferred doing his own work, without having too many subordinates to babysit and do things for him. Despite this, he had a better plan in mind besides commanding a bunch of troops.

Thinking back on his first assignment, the thought of him having shot and killed a person still did not sit well with him. He could still remember the incident like it happened just a day ago, seeing all the blood and the lifeless body it came from having made him feel guilty ever since, in a way. This is what prompted him to take his bachelor's degree and do more than just commission; Bérenger petitioned for an apprentice position for forensic pathologists. He began to aspire to become one of them; a coroner, investigating suspected criminal activities that which result in the death of a person. The requirements for this were starting to fall into place; holding a proper degree in a medical field, and now graduating from OTS as a fresh, the next step was hands-on experience and the acquiring of a doctorate in medical sciences.

Having made his intentions quite clear, Bérenger's third military assignment began with him officially holding the job title of 'Forensic Assistant', where he would be taught directly by forensic pathologists, inside operating rooms as opposed to classrooms. To have any hope of becoming one himself, he also returned to his college in pursuit of a doctorate. OTS started to feel like one of relatively few highlights to his military career, seeing as he had been and will be spending so much time in college classes. Bérenger tried to keep himself grateful for the financial assistance passed down to him for his treads through higher education, and with that gratefulness he focused on the light at the end of the tunnel.

Working in both an assistant's position plus a full-time schedule as a graduate student, Bérenger found it a bit hard to fully keep up with his family at home; his wife and son. Bérenger acknowledged this difficulty; being sure to set aside his otherwise free time for them, even though he tended to be mentally tired. Vega, now a civilian registered nurse, worked at a non-military hospital in the city, and knowing this, Bérenger managed to use his rank to secure a home nearer the inner border of Ramiel to facilitate Vega's commute to and from work. Their son, Alabaster, was most often taken along with Vega to be set in the hospital's dedicated day care center, and was regularly checked up on by her throughout the day.

In a matter of a few years Bérenger acquired his second degree in the form of a doctor of science in medicine, and began finally enjoying more free time to himself and also to his family. Gaining a doctorate put him one step closer to his end-goal, but he still had a number of years of on-the-job training as an assistant to go. As their son Alabaster grew throughout the years, early on Bérenger tended to allow the young boy to play with and read his medical college books, with Vega doing the same with her old materials.

Fourth Assignment
Since he was now an officer, Bérenger was no longer subject to the badgering of retention recruiters, since he technically has no definite end to his military contract to wait for. He was free to focus on his work on becoming a full-fledged coroner, and was well on his way towards that end. Throughout his time as an assistant, Bérenger was promoted once, up to the rank of. Then in 2171, he had finally accumulated enough experience in the eyes of the government to finally be made a fully qualified forensic pathologist. It was at this point that Bérenger was promoted to the rank of, and was soon put to work on suspected criminal cases, civilian and military. Now, in the year of 2206, Bérenger has long since settled down as a forensic pathologist by the rank of for at least thirty-five years total in the position. At some point, Bérenger was also put in charge of disposing of select deceased persons, before or after he performed autopsies on them as needed, making him a cremator on top of being a coroner.

Working in an investigatory job field, Bérenger would often be called out to crime scenes in which the death of a person is involved, in order for him to conduct a precursory viewing of a usually undisturbed body. Most of the time, when he is ordered to be present to investigate into a deceased person's final moments, he is also responsible for personally informing their immediate family of the death. Though much more rare, he would sometimes be scheduled to appear in court to give his findings as an expert before and after completed autopsies, should a trial be necessary.

Personality and Traits
Nowadays, Bérenger carries with himself a very disciplined and conditioned personality. He has long since learned to finish what he starts; to carry his intentions out to their completion. On top of that, he had been exposed to enough stressful scenarios to not be visibly bothered by conflict or emergency. Bérenger is generally reserved yet active in his life. What time he doesn't spend on his work, exercise, or family, tends to go towards reading books of all kinds, fiction, non-fiction, and educational. In conversation, he is normally polite and respectful, but also firm and decisive.

Mutual respect is among the highest virtues, in his opinion. It is for this reason that he will show respect upfront, and expect the same treatment in return. Family is a close second, to which he makes sure to set aside some time to reach out to and check up on his living family, including the husband to his son.

As a child, Bérenger was reserved still. He was a particularly studious child, naturally so, seeing as he saw somewhat more entertainment in learning than he did in playing. Growing up, he didn't have much of an outstanding relationship with his parents, however it was not a bad familial experience either. Bérenger simply was not as tight-knit with his family as most people are with their own. He nearly resented his father for having enrolled him in a military high school, though he ultimately was happy to have made his father proud through hard work and dedication.

Through his military career, Bérenger transitioned to adulthood through a slow cycle starting from scholarly, to fatigued, to disgusted, then back somewhat to scholarly and on from there. He had become disgusted for the first time, when he was exposed to what happens when people are used as weapons; when he was prompted to shoot and kill an individual. Bérenger has since come to terms with the incident and its inevitability, however it had been a personal stain on his military career for a good while. The incident, coupled with his coroner job and many other arguably smaller factors, led to him losing his enthusiasm in regards to showing happiness and high spirits on the surface. This is not to say that he is incapable of showing affection or other pleasures, but it does mean that he is nearly always seen with a grumpish, frowning face.

Choice of Hairstyle
Ever since he moved to the Antarctic State, there have been many times in the past where Bérenger had either been questioned about or ordered to do something about his hair. His chosen hairstyle has traditionally been that of thick and lengthy dreadlocks long since his birth in Trinidad.

In grade school, he was allowed to wear them, even in school uniform, though he got a mostly positive but still mixed bag of compliments and odd looks. In academy, he was forced to keep his hair quite short, not nearly long enough to form dreadlocks. In the Security Forces, his command had allowed him some leeway in wearing dreads that were pinned back and not interfering with headgear. From this point on, it is fair to say that his freedom to wear the style he prefers increased steadily, even into his forensics job field, so long as he keeps them neat and prevents them from interfering with any work to be done.