Zeb Lakeman

Zeb is a quiet man, at least until you make him angry. He... Yells a lot when enraged. He’s had terrible anger issues his whole life, though he’s trying to get help for it, finally. He’s a man of relatively few words, and he’s very blunt with what he’s does say. He’s compelled to show as little emotion around strangers as possible, and is liable to not ask anyone for any kind of help unless he’s in dire need. He’s very finicky about how other people see him, and therefore rejects pretty much anything he regards feminine, with few exceptions.

He’s not all bad, of course! He returns any respect he is given, and he’s a big sweetheart with the people he cares about; He’s quite affectionate with his loved ones—mainly physically. He’s very proud of himself, as he had to work hard to get to how he is now, and may try to hype up anyone who he feels needs a confidence boost, if they don’t outright say no. He loves helping people if they ask. He’s a hard worker, and almost never shirks on his responsibilities, especially while at work.

His dog, Princess, is his baby girl. He dresses her up in cute little outfits and spoils her rotten in general. He’s also got her trained quite well, though—she knows a lot of tricks and he‘s planning on teaching her more in the future. She’s very obedient for him and a select few other people, but is a little troublemaker for any dogsitters. If you say anything about a big overly masc dude like him having a tiny lapdog literally named Princess to him he’ll beat you up.

Born October 25th, 1992 as the second child to Jeff and Irene Lakeman, Zeb had a rough start from the time that he was old enough to start making decision so for himself. In some ways, his mother saw him more as a dress-up doll as a child; not so much of a problem for him when he was an infant, as he didn’t really know what was going on at that point, but when he was as young as a toddler he knew he wasn’t a girl and tried to make that known. Irene simply brushed it off and forced him into an idealized “daughter” role. Irene did all she could to keep Zeb away from Jeff from an early age, perhaps because she wanted to make him like her more, perhaps to try and imprint traditional female gender roles onto him? Zeb doesn’t know and likely never will. Either way, she failed.

On the bright side, she didn’t isolate him completely; he was allowed to play with his older brother, Raymond, who he got along with well, and still does. Zeb's love of older games stems from Ray receiving a Sega Genesis and some games as a Christmas present one year and Ray sharing the games with him after seeing Zeb’s disappointment with what he received. (He got fucking dolls or something)

He was put into Catholic school from the beginning, which again, wasn’t a big deal for him at first, but as he got older he got more unruly, which earned him (physical) punishment from the nuns. He also had dyslexia, which, as it wasn’t undiagnosed at first, earned him punishment as well, alongside teasing from his peers. He stayed in Catholic school up until age 13–he was expelled after assaulting a nun, in a bid to avoid punishment via incapacitating said nun. After said expulsion, he was put into public school, where, though he was a bit of an outcast at first, he was much happier. He met his best friend, Monica, after starting in public school.

His parents divorced while Zeb was in his last year of high school—their relationship had been strained for a very long time before hand, but they wanted to try everything they couldn’t to salvage their marriage, as divorce is a Big Deal for Catholics and all. Zeb made it very clear to everyone involved that he wanted to live with his father, and so he did, though he was forced up until age 18 to see his mother every weekend. Zeb's grades suffered during the divorce and his already existing anger issues worsened, so his father asked him if he’d like to see a therapist an Zeb begrudgingly agreed. During his time in therapy Zeb learned the word transgender and had his feelings about himself validated. He came out to his father as soon as he figured it out, who was supportive albeit confused at first. His mother was far less supportive. Zeb wasn’t surprised, but being screamed at about how he “can’t do this to her” and how she was “supposed to have a daughter and a son, not a son and an abomination” and how Zeb was “going against God’s will” still hurt. In spite of his mother he transitioned as soon a second he was able; he did so socially almost immediately—he decided on his name fairly quickly and was very insistent on anyone and everyone using masculine pronouns for him, as well as his new name. He picked the name Zebulon because it sounded cool, and Garth was a suggestion from his father—what he would’ve been named were he born AMAB. He transitioned physically as soon as he was able; he started testosterone on his 18th birthday, a few months after graduating.

Zeb graduated from high school with middling grades. He started at a local community college but soon dropped out, apathy overshadowing any drive to learn he may have had. His father had him get a job since, though he was willing to let Zeb live with him as long as he needed, he wasn’t going to support Zeb financially past providing a home and three meals a day. Jeff even went so far as to offer Zeb a job at his auto repair shop—Zeb refused, having no interest in learning the trade at that point. Despite that, he did end up working as a mechanic—but at his father’s rival’s shop. He had applied for anything and everything in the area, but nobody seemed to want him until Dave returned his call. Zeb suspects that part of it was just so Dave could laugh in his father’s face about it. Not that he really cares because Dave went through the trouble to teach him how to work on cars and bikes, awakening a love for them that Zeb really wasn’t expecting he would ever have.

Zeb had top surgery at age 20 (thank god his insurance covered it!) and had to take a couple months off work to recover, much to his chagrin. Dave, fortunately, was understanding, and didn’t fire him during the interim, and Zeb's father helped him recover. He healed with no complications, though the scars still haven’t faded, almost 8 years later. After healing from his surgery, Zeb decided he wanted to start working out—his chest was too flat, concave even, and he didn’t like how that looked, so he figured he’d start exercising to try and build some muscle there so it’d look better. Once again he found a new things he loved that he hadn’t expected, and soon picked up a regimen that had him going to the gym almost every day, which he still follows!

He eventually moved out into his own apartment, and after moving into said apartment, adopted a dog with his landlord’s blessing. He had originally anticipated getting a pit bull or something like that, but he saw a very small, somewhat raggedy Pomeranian puppy, and fell in love immediately. Zeb’s forgotten what Princess’ name was when he adopted her by now, since he renamed her immediately.

He met Benji a few years prior to the events of ATSB, and they moved in together about a year beforehand. Zeb is still working at Dave’s shop. His brother lives on the opposite side of the country and his father travels regularly since retiring but he’s still in contact with both of them. Not so with his mother.

• ● He tenses up whenever he hears his deadname in public even though he knows there’s no way whoever’s saying it is talking to him.
• ● He has very few secrets; he doesn’t feel like he needs to keep most parts of himself hidden. That said, his quiet nature might lead to him inadvertently keeping facets of himself secret from acquaintances.
• ● His favorite colors are green and blue.
• ● Despite being an atheist, he’ll sometimes catch himself saying prayers, doing the sign of the cross, and other decidedly Catholic things when stressed or scared. He also still wears a cross sometimes. He hates it but he hasn’t been able to kick his superstitions yet.
• ● He had a major Invader Zim phase in high school. He owned a GIR hoodie. He was really excited when the movie came out.
• ● He can make his pecs twitch, or as he usually puts it, “make ‘em bounce.” Think Terry from b99.
• ● He snores. Pretty loudly. Loud enough that he’d keep most people aside from Benji awake at night.
• ● He Really likes vintage muscle cars. He got to talking about it with Benji one time, and Benji bought one such car for Zeb’s birthday that year. Zeb cried. That car was very expensive so it’s reasonable that he cried, he thinks.
• ● He sings in the shower when he thinks he’s home alone—he’s right about that most of the time, but he’s been eavesdropped upon by Benji a couple of times after Zeb either misjudges the apartment being empty or if Benji comes home from being out somewhere while Zeb’s in the shower. He’s a fairly good singer.