Character Info
Player Information
Name: Devi
Age: 23
AIM SN: devimelete.
email: thamnopsis [AT] hotmail [DOT] com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Yes.
Currently Played Characters: n/a
Conditional: Activity Check Link: n/a
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Left 4 Dead
Canon Format: Left 4 Dead is a first-person shooter video game developed by the company Valve. There is also a FLC comic considered to be canon material, which covers the Left 4 Dead team’s story from when they were picked up at the finale of Blood Harvest to The Sacrifice, embellishing their backstory.
Character's Name: Zoey. No surname given.
Character's Age: It has never been stated, but Zoey has just been going through her first semester in college and assuming that she hasn’t waited a few years to attend a university, I will guess she’s around 18/19 years of old.
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. N/A
What form will your character's NV take? iPhone.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: Before the events of the game, it has been stated that she has some experience in firing guns and holding her ground in a fight, thanks to her father wanting her to join the family tradition of being in the police force. It has never been stated how far she had gone with the shooting range or what are her fighting capabilities are even like, hinting that she at least knows the fundamental basics. After the apocalypse started, it can be said with certainty that she is well-versed in both firing and maintaining all sorts of guns. She is vocal about any sort of explosive devices, and knows how to use a pipe bomb. If she can do well enough in a fist fight despite her petite physique is still unknown, but in the comic it revels that she can forcibly grab a soldier’s rifle and knock him down with the butt end of it, hinting that she can hold her ground at the very least.
Zoey has picked up knowledge of first aid during her travels with the group, and is quick to take action. She also has a library’s worth of knowledge concerning all movies and being genre-savvy to it, often using it to her own advantage in a world filled with zombies.
She is also a asymptotic carrier of the Green Flu - meaning that she harbors the virus, but is averse to its deteriorating conditions and can pass the virus to others who are not immune, though how exactly the virus is transmitted is not explained. When Zoey arrives in Siren's Pull she still carries the virus, but its effects of the virus will be neutralized so the city won't be overwhelmed by zombies because of her.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? Super strength, although this power is a bit of a meta joke on Left 4 Dead’s game design parameters: Francis is six foot five inches but Zoey is twelve inches shorter and has half his weight, and yet has the exact physical stamina and strength as he does.
The effectiveness of the power depends on the material/person she’s fighting against. For example, she can easily punch a hole through shallow concrete, but if faced with a heavily enforced, three-foot-thick metal door, she’s going to have to work at it. Another example can be that once she starts training, she’ll only be able to fling moderately-heavy objects at long distances, like chairs or bicycles; over time, she’ll be able to lift and throw heavy-ton objects like heavy machinery or large boulders. The drawback of these powers that it will take time to develop; and when she first uses these powers she will feel painful cramps and aches, not unlike someone who is trying to get muscle tone for the first time. But with training, her endurance will help tolerate her new powers.
Weapons: Zoey will be carrying her M1911 Pistols with her, an Assault Rifle and a first aid kit. Her pistols are equipped with a weaver rail mount, which allows it to carry flashlights. Her Assault Rifle is the M16A2 variety, as a nod to Bill and his status as a Vietnam War veteran.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History:
Here is Zoey's character page and the plot summary of the game. For cohesion's sake, I'm going to write out the game's plot anyway, including her background. I'm also including links to the Left 4 Dead wiki for any need for more in-depth details.
Knowing virology won’t help you against the Green Flu.
A pathogen that similar to rabies, the Green Flu - more commonly known as “the Infection” - has suddenly appeared to the eastern region of North America, and spread down to the southern, northern, and western regions in a matter of weeks, with Pennsylvania as its epicenter. It creates heightened aggression, delirium, and loss of higher brain functions. Many people fell to the virus, and to the lucky few who were somehow immune to the virus, a large percentage of those were killed off by these very sick and murderous people. Very soon, the infected individuals were given the name “zombie”, for the obvious reference to how these infected people were be able to discern from another zombie to an non-infected individual. How the virus spreads is another unknown: it can be transmitted through contact of fluids or bites, but it could be airborne as well.
One thing for certain: the virus is constantly mutating in such a scale it has ever been seen.
Two days after the infection hit, people believed that it is a normal strain of the everyday flu, and the reports of the crazed infected were just usual media sensationalism. It is certainly believed as such to Carolyn, Zoey’s mother, who is arguing with her estranged husband Wade over Zoey dropping out of college because she cared more of watching movies then studying them. Her parents continue to argue, with Zoey watching on uncomfortably, before an infected man somehow got inside the house. Zoey’s father shot and killed the intruder with his own officer’s gun, but not only before the infected man attacks Carolyn. While Zoey rushes to the telephone to get help, Carolyn is turned into an infected in a matter of seconds and attacks Wade savagely. When Zoey returns back to the room and starts to panic, Carolyn diverts her attention on to her daughter and lunges toward her. Wade is able to grab his gun and shot his estranged wife in the back of the head. Zoey went over to her father’s side to try to stop the bleeding on the severe wounds on his face, which leads to this exchange:
“Remember those zombie movies I used to sneak you into when you were a kid, Zoey?”
“Heh. I remember how mad Mom got when she found out.”
“Remember the part in all of ‘em when they had to shoot the guy before he turned on them?”
“Yeah, we always made at that part.”
“I love you, Zoey.”
Both knowing that they didn’t have much time before he becomes a zombie as well, Zoey shot and killed her father point-blank with his own gun.
At this point of her backstory, it is unknown how or when she first met Francis, Bill, and Louis, only that it was between the two days after the infection hit and the ten days after her family’s death. Regardless, it’s clearly evident they developed a close bond and has created a team dynamic over time, relying on each other to watch each others’ back. Arguably the strongest bond she developed was with Bill, who looked after Zoey like a daughter, and she likewise looked up to Bill like a father. She developed a warm, comradely friendship with Louis and Francis, often teasing them both.
The story officially started when the group was traveling through the city of Fairfield they encountered new, mutating zombies, followed by a large horde. After escaping from them, they were alerted of an evacuation made by CEDA nearby the local hospital. After hours of fighting through both normal and mutated zombies alike, they are rescued by the pilot, who turned out to be infected later on, forcing Zoey to shoot and kill him. This resulted in a crash landing somewhere outside the city, where they come across a custom-made, armored delivery truck. The survivors took the truck and went as far as to the outskirts of the town Riverside, where they abandoned due to the road being blocked.
Arriving at Riverside on foot, they encounter the nasty discovery of the town overrun with the infected. Eventually they found a fellow survivor who barricaded himself inside a safe room inside a church. Unfortunately he was delirious and paranoid as being previously bitten by a woman who claimed to be immune to the virus but was then turned herself. In order to prove "their humanity", he rang the church bell and drew a horde of Infected to their way. After fending off the horde, the barricaded survivor wasn't immune as he thought he was, and turned into a mutated Infected and attacked the survivors.
After killing the Church Guy, they head toward the boathouse and contact a fishing vessel manned by a married couple for rescue. For reasons unknown, the Survivors were later thrown off board to the city of Newberg that is mostly in flames. Seeking cover in a greenhouse, they find a military plane flying overhead, leading them to travel further up the city to an international airport. This leads to an even more unpleasant discovery of the military bombing the airport as an attempt to contain the rampaging infected, but with the runway curiously intact, which allows the Survivors to escape on a waiting military cargo plane.
Bad luck seems to follow them everywhere, as again they find themselves in the outskirts of Allegheny National Forest, where presumably the plane crashed. They followed the train tracks to an abandoned military outpost, where they made a radio transmission for another pick-up. After fighting off hordes of zombies, they managed to jump inside the arriving APC and head off to a secure safe zone.
Again, this is not what it turns out to be. They instead head to a military base in Milhaven to test if they are truly immune or not, much to their disgruntlement and disgust. The survivors are then informed by a military doctor that they are asymptotic carriers, meaning that they harbor and transmit the virus while not facing the symptoms themselves, and the chances of a cure are very slim. The news worsen for Zoey, who discover being a carrier is genetic and passes down from father to offspring, resulting in that mercy-killing her father have been for vain.
Meanwhile, a coup within the military stronghold have been in the works, resulting in a rebellious lieutenant sounding the alarm and drawing in any infected into a frenzy. The military doctor and other sympathetic military staff help the survivors to escape on a train, but Bill left them behind by refusing to compromise his group. This causes a great strain on the relationship between Bill and Zoey, who looks up to him like a father and Bill’s ruthless decision unnerved her greatly.
“Who else have you left behind, Bill? Who else are you going to leave behind?”
The train ran to a stop in Rayford, Georgia, and they start to find a sailboat that can take them to the Florida Keys where there might be no Infected and no military. They find a sailboat stocked with supplies, but it is blocked off by a bridge with lowered lift. The survivors start to work on the generators that power the lift so they can get away from the hordes of Infected.
But one of the generators stopped the lift half-way.
To Zoey’s horror, Bill jumps down the bridge and makes his way to the malfunctioning generator; after he restarts it, he’s about to return to the bridge when he’s attacked by three Tanks and is wounded fatally. With the bridge fully rise, Zoey takes Bill’s mantle and assumes a leadership role alongside with Francis, and waits for the horde to simmer down so it will be safe enough to hijack the sailboat.
As they waited, they ran into a group of survivors hailing from Savannah, and helped them lower the bridge so they can get across. After that, they got on the boat and set sail to the Florida Keys.
.
Point in Canon: After the Passing, when she and the rest of the team were sailing to the Keys after helping the Left 4 Dead 2 cast crossing the bridge.
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history. N/A
Character Personality: Zoey is the Smurfette, the average woman, the young ‘un for all the players to relate to if they are around her supposed age, and she’s knows it. If there’s only two words that could describe Zoey, it’ll be “genre savvy,” although she might have preferred to be called as “funny, sexy”. An avid gamer and just happened to have a scholarship in filmmaking, if she haven't wasted her first semester holed up in her father’s apartment watching horror movies for “research”. More often than not, she uses this as a coping mechanism to the daily stress that is the zombie apocalypse, referring random films sometimes out of the blue, trying to make a dire situation somewhat lighter. Cracking jokes at everybody’s expense but not aiming any ill will at them, she is a girl with good intentions. Zoey is also opinionated, and has no restraint whatsoever in telling people her opinion on them really is.
Despite her humor she’s not an optimist. She has her moments of pessimism, and her sarcasm tends to have a biting edge, even to the point of being razor-sharp if she's truly angry at someone. She'll take action when it calls upon her, such as shooting an infected helicopter pilot while in mid-flight despite the risks, and she won't apologize or back down from her decision. Zoey knows a good thing when she sees one but will call it as it is; so one can call her the one of the group who is the most realistic point of view on things, with the exception of Bill. Forthright in her criticism to anyone who she thinks deserving, even to her own teammates, she can take people aback, especially if they know her. She oftentimes tell her teammates to cut out their squabbles if it annoys her enough. Although to strangers, this attitude can appear to be bratty,harsh, unfair, even downright unpleasant.
But if you are nice to Zoey, Zoey will be nice to you.
Zoey is at her best when she works in a team, working in perfect coordination in covering people’s backs or going on the offensive. After the events in The Sacrifice comic, Zoey has emotionally matured from “easy-going follower” to “hardened-but-fair leader”. While still friendly, she is firm and will have a “business-first” attitude to strangers outside her team. The group means so much Zoey that she’ll do whatever she can to make sure they’ll survive, even if it means it’ll be too late for her to take care of herself. In the game, should everyone die, she’ll start humming to herself in a panicky sort of way, giving the impression that her mental stability depends on them as well. With her constantly cracking jokes and her personal investment with the other Survivors, Zoey is doing her best to remain in one piece, whether it is physically or mentally. All of that goes out of the window should something happen to them.
With the tribulations and the desperation she and her group has endured, it's of no surprise that they view themselves as family. The privilege of civilization gone, she immediately takes priority on what matters, and the idea of having any sort of a romantic relationship is not one of them. This further shown when she and the others encounters Ellis, Coach, Rochelle, and Nick, she maintains a cool and professional attitude (with the exception of Nick, who she threatens to shoot when annoyed by his caustic remarks, though it is doubtful she will actually go through the threat). Another aspect to Zoey's attitude toward her new found family and to the life of a zombie apocalypse is that any intentional sabotage on her team's survival (such as the Church guy they encountered in Riverside), or outright betrayal (like the military) will be meet if not a disgusted, then a furious manner. Being a survivalist in a new world of zombies does make her more loyal to her group than to anyone else, but she'll try her best to help others, even when being hard on them.
She also has an innate kindness and she’s willing to help people out which can lead to her fellow survivors in a perilous situation, such as mistaking a Witch’s crying for a potential survivor. After the events of the Sacrifice, this tendency somewhat disappeared. With Bill’s death, she’s become a hardened young woman her priorities developing to take her remaining team to safety, and starts to take on a leadership role alongside with Francis. She becomes more aggressive, and tends to snap at others more if given an attitude. While she still wants to help others if she can, she’ll always have her friends’ survival as her first priority. In her words and Bill’s:
“We look after our own.”
Conditional: Personality development in previous game: N/A
Character Plans: I have only a few tentative plans for Zoey: one is that she will do anything to get back to Louis and Francis. They are all she’s got, and she’ll fight for them to the bitter end. When she finally realizes that she won't be coming back to them any time soon, I want her to hang around people her age, especially if they went through a similarly rough time as she has. With her group not around, she will try and attach herself to others, though it will take time, as she viewed Louis, Francis, and Bill as the only family she has.
I want to explore the leadership qualities that have been developed in her character arc, as well as exploring her post-combat stress and her finding ways to cope.
I would also like for her to go face to face with a zombie version of herself, and then eventually see other people she cares about as zombies, like her father and the men in her group, just to screw her head.
Appearance/PB: Here, for a high-depth picture of her, though the image is pretty big. Here is a smaller one, for a full-body shot.
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[ In the depths of the Darkness, gunshots echoed through the night. A young voice calls out, feminine but blunted by life’s gravity, spilling out swears as easily as her rifle ejects empty shells. ]
Francis! Louis!
[ A screech filters through, something inhuman - or maybe it once was human - before a wet schunk splatters to the ground, like maybe a butt end of a rifle smashing a skull to pieces. The angry woman lets out snarl, and again there’s another wet, crunching sound of bones breaking. Heavy footsteps slap the pavement. ]
Where the hell are you guys?!
[ For a while, there is huffing quietness on the young woman’s part. Small pebbles skitter around, and there’s a sharp ding and crash of trash cans falling over and rolling. More screaming-hissing noises, and there’s the bark of the assault rifle -
- and then all is silence.
It’s been like for a while, until later the NV is turned on, this time in video format. Here revels a young face, perhaps around eighteen, nineteen years of age. Maybe she’s older than that. the lines on her cheekbones, the circles underneath her eyes is starting to form, may indicate such. She offers a humorless smile. ]
It’s been a long time since I even touched a cell phone. And totally going video with this, just because I didn't have a video option in my last cell phone.
[ A cough. She rubs her eye. ]
I've been looking at this, and I guess this is what, some kind of weird MySpace kind of deal? Anyway, I haven't really sit down and look through all of it, but I just want to say, hi, I'm Zoey, I've been traveling with two guys, Louis and Francis. If you know where they are, please tell me, okay?
And, um . . . um . . .
[ She rakes her hand against the loosening strands of her ponytail, her bangs - hair that hasn't been washed in days. Scratched her cheek, not noticing (or caring) if there's dirt and grime and blood and gunpowder setting on her skin like make-up on a gritty, bleak film about the end of the world. She sighs, and gives a shrug and a muttered "I think that's it."
The transmission ends.
She waits. ]
Third Person Sample
Life after zombies isn’t as easy to integrate as she has hoped it will be.
It’s stupid, of course. The city is almost like home, if one can exclude the weird powers and the nocturnal monsters. And the weird animals. The funny, futuristic video games. And the slaves . . . okay, so it’s not like home at all. At least it’s civilization, and there aren’t any zombies, anyway. Fuck those guys to hell and back again.
Zoey suppresses a sigh and looks up at the professor in the lecture hall, talking about the history of Siren’s Port, yadda yadda, AGI, yadda yadda. His voice is an annoying buzzing sound, his lower jaw quivers as he speaks. He also has some kind of a deformity of sorts: his left arm is bigger than his right, the palm of his hand slanted into some kind of a club hand. He almost looks like a Charger, except well-dressed, speaks eloquently, and isn’t trying to bash the nearest student into the ground like paste. A callous idea goes through her mind and Zoey wonders, for just one second of lunacy, just how many bullets does it take to take this man down if he becomes infected - or worse, mutated. Sanity regains control and now she feels bad. She hunches over, curling up on the inside, trying to appear as smaller as she possibly can. She hasn’t done a damn thing and already she’s feeling guilty. Way to go, self. She should join a cult instead and be part of one of those self-flagellating groups while she’s at it.
Instead on focusing on the teacher in front of her, she casts a curious glance at the room around her. One of those stadium-classroom deals, with at least a hundred people attending. There were only two doors and no windows. The room is stifling with the body heat. Somebody lets out a sharp but slurping wet cough and Zoey jerks in surprise; out of ingrained instinct her hands fly down to her waist to reach for her holsters - but no. She hasn’t brought her guns to the campus, because she’s a normal person now and normal people don’t do that. She swore to herself quietly and tries to eases down again, trying not to think just how uncanny the guy’s cough sounds like a Smoker’s.
Zoey wonders if she has PTSD. Always possible.
An itch made herself down on the back of her neck. As she scratches it, it feels like somebody turns up the heat in there. God, so unbearable. She hates it, the two people are pressing against her with their tiny, inhumane desks. Zoey crosses her legs in an attempt to get comfortable, and finds her left leg twitching. Fuck. This is hell. She wants out.
She doesn’t know how many minutes or hours has passed before class is dismissed. For all she knew it might as well be an afternoon, even an entire day has passed. Doesn’t matter to her - she immediately shoves her notebook to her backpack and takes off without a moment’s notice.