Profile
The Intense, Cerebral Type: Perceptive, Innovative, Secretive, and Isolated
Eugene can come across as aloof, but quickly shows his actual demeanor: talkative, friendly, and genuine. Kind-hearted despite his past, he may even be a little too willing to give others second chances, or chances at all. A hard-worker, he makes sure he earns his keep with the Van der Linde Gang and is always the first to volunteer for a group job, even if he isn't physically fit for it. When it comes to his fellow gang members, Eugene is willing to risk almost anything to save them - besides his own life, of course.
He often neglects to consider the alarm bells he feels going off when around other people, especially if he likes the facade they show him. Eugene is also a morally grey man, with a strong inner code that simply does not align with most people's. He has no qualms robbing, killing, and conning others and is one of the most ruthless members of the gang, able to rationalize and justify even the most depraved actions he takes. Due to his lack of trust in other people, he does not typically talk about himself and tends to lack deeper social connections despite have many of them.
Although mature and smart, he rarely takes his own advice. His life has been a long string of impulsive decisions and pre-emptively self-sabotage leading him down worse and worse paths. He does not get angry over many small things, but he can be explosive when he is frustrated or irritable, frequently lashing out at people acting in his best interest in particular. While he is kind, he is also pessimistic and generally assumes the worst of people, creating an odd dichotomy where he is everyone's friend but trusts no one, save for Dutch and Hosea. He also experiences severe mental health issues that make him emotionally volatile and somewhat detached from reality at most times.
Eugene left his home at an early age, unaccepted by his family for his strange identity and severe mental health issues. When facing either institutionalization, death, or chronic loneliness, he chose the last. By the age of sixteen, he had more or less adapted to living on the road by himself and was extremely independent. He was untrustworthy of anyone, and refused to fall in with gangs or partners for longer than necessary. It was during these years he gained valuable pickpocketing, robbery, and acting skills that would make him a valuable gang member later.
Eugene had remained a lone wolf, yet simultaneously far too trusting.
CW for spoiler: drug addiction, SA, hate crimes.
During his time on his own, Eugene fell into drug addiction to cope with his mental health issues and past. It's around this time that he was frequently victim to assault, most of which he has zero recollection of beyond the fact it might have occured. It's also around this time his chronic pain developed and gradually increased in severity. Multiple overdoses led to a breaking point in both his psyche and physical health.
During the worst overdose, he was harassed and attacked on the outskirts of Annesburg late at night while stumbling through, his stolen horse lost. His chest was mutilated during the attack, leaving him with many keloided, torso-spanning scars.
Somehow, the adrenaline pulled him through this murder attempt until he was discovered in a ditch in the early morning hours by Dutch van der Linde. Initially, he believed the man to be dead, considering the pool of blood soaking him; with the last of his strength and consciousness, Eugene spoke. Shocked the man was still alive and feeling that perhaps he could pull through, Dutch returned to camp with him where Susan tended to his wounds. Also, maybe a little guilty considering he was about to rob a dying man blind. After an extremely rough month, he had mostly regained regular consciousness and functioning. The damage, though extensive, was mostly superficial and non-fatal save for the blood loss.
A year later, Eugene has stuck around and since stolen a new horse that he named Chicken. Most of the healing is done - physically, anyways. Much of his memory has been lost to trauma, and so all he has is the family and connection he's found within the gang. He gets on particularly well with the women and older members, and tries to be on everyone's good side. (The gossip is hotter that way, y'know...)
He enjoys taking the women to town to shop and gather leads, assisting the other members with collecting things, and reading with Mary-Beth and Hosea. (Dutch, too, but he's not the philosophy type.)
For his age, he's an impressive thief, and earns his keep through assisting with robberies and riding through town with other members. Eugene very much has the mindset that he must be invaluable to maintain his place. Often, he is unable to work due to his disability, so he ends up pushing himself even harder when he is able to in order to make up for what he cannot do.
As for romantic relationships: I yumeship him with basically whoever I feel like so it depends, they're all sort of mini-AUs including one where he is shipped with my IRL partner's self-insert and one where he is shipped with my best friend's self-insert lol.
