( ☣ ) zoey ; languishment application

[referential]

PLAYER INFO
Name | Kyrie
Personal Journal | levelgrind
Contact | (AIM) sorcery genius, (E-MAIL) sorcerygenius@gmail.com
Current Character(s) | Oerba Dia Vanille (Final Fantasy XIII)

CHARACTER INFO
Name | Zoey
Series | Left 4 Dead
Canon Point | Post "The Passing"
Reference | "Things like this... never end well."
Age | 18-19. Zoey's age isn't given in canon, but she's a college student, and has been for at least half a year.
Gender | Female.
Suitability | N/A.
Appearance | "Funny, sexy brunette zombie killer wanted to lead 3 helpless men to safety... Hunh."
Personality |

Zoey is pretty much your every day, normal college girl. Well, sort of, if you count 'normal' as being a borderline college dropout with an unhealthy interest in sitting in the dark watching movies 'normal.' The thing is, her studies never captured her the way the movies did, and honestly, can you blame her? Buckets of fake blood are more interesting than anything a textbook could ever offer. Thanks to the freedom of college, she was able to spend an entire semester studying her favorite subject: old horror movies (usually of the zombie variety). Unfortunately for her, this caused her actual grades to suffer. Obviously, this is a bit of a problem- what kind of parents would pay for tuition for someone who wasn't attending class?- and she was posed with a decision: get her grades up or drop out of college.

With a mixture of both good and bad luck, Zoey didn't have to make a decision- the world did that for her, by unleashing what can only be described as the zombie apocalypse on the poor, mostly unsuspecting masses. With no classes to attend or professors to lecture her, Zoey was free from college, but thrust into the midst of the plot of her very own horror movie.

Should be exciting, right? Not exactly.

See, the thing about watching movies is that it's a decidedly passive activity- you don't have to do any surviving on your own. Instead, you get to sit back on the couch and criticize the poor decisions the characters make in order to provide the viewer with more 'scare' moments and therefore, entertainment. In the real apocalypse, you have to run, jump, shoot, take hits, and look out for your fellow survivors. No matter how much you know about the horror genre, nothing can prepare you for the real thing, and Zoey got to learn this firsthand. Suddenly, all of those times she made fun of the characters in her favorite horror flicks for making poor choices were coming back to bite her in the behind; because unlike watching from the safety of her living room, she was the one forced into making decisions that would either kill her or keep her going even longer, or even help or hurt the people she travels with. Staying alive is important, considering she's one of the last women on Earth.

You'd think being in the middle of the zombie apocalypse would take a lot of the fire out of a person, but in that respect, Zoey shows herself to be an extremely strong girl. Even after having dealt with not only her mother turning before her eyes, but having to put down her own father after her zombified mother bit him, she still manages to be both witty and sarcastic, and still, strangely, has a cautiously optimistic outlook for the future. She knows this won't all blow over one day, and that the world is changed for good, but she wants to help people fight back rather than stowing themselves away in a quiet little corner of the Earth and living out the rest of their lives, to regain some semblance of normalcy that they all lost. The idea of being alone in the world seems to absolutely scare her, to the point where she takes an easy liking to the good people the group does end up coming across, like the survivors from Left 4 Dead 2 and, before them, some of the more innocent people at the army base. She isn't entirely good at this whole bright-side thing, but hey, she tries. She'd like to say she's realistic. After all, she's seen enough of these movies to know how they turn on in the end. (She's hoping theirs ends up being one of those feel-good horror movies people hate so much.) She knows when things are unfair, though— and she'll say as much, usually precluded and followed by a number of curse words.

But yeah, she can be pessimistic. Hearing that there really isn't much hope for the future doesn't exactly, including hearing that they're not much immune to the Green Flu so much as they are simply carriers of it, infecting everyone they come in contact with. The army rescue they'd had high hopes for turned out to be nothing more than the military intending for them to become glorified lab rats. That wasn't happening for them, which is why they escaped, but it definitely put a damper on any interactions with other people outside of their little group.

Despite the grim state of the world, Zoey's constantly cracking wise and joking around with her fellow survivors, always there with a playful rib or a joke to lighten the mood. In truth, the humor is a little bit of a coping mechanism for her: something to kind of take her mind off of, you know, the world ending. It calms her down when things are looking bad, or brings up the mood when everyone else is off in their own little depressed moods. Her often sarcastic nature leads her to some rather biting remarks sometimes, but most of it is made in good fun. Whether it's a quip ("Oh no! The zombies killed God!") or an observation ("And of course the bridge is out..."), or just plain poking fun ("Look, Bill, it's your favorite--stairs!"), Zoey is a funny girl. She also happens to make a lot of movie references, and breaks the proverbial fourth wall with quotes from movies or genre-savvy inferences. Being funny is just a huge part of who Zoey is.

That sarcasm, of course, also comes into play whenever she's pissed. And boy, does she get pissed. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, she's a force to be reckoned with. Make a sexist remark? She'll threaten to shoot you where you stand. Even so much as try to harm one of her fellow survivors? Oh buddy. Watch out. That isn't to say that her fellow survivors never catch any of her ire— in fact, one of her strongest moments of anger is directed entirely at who is likely the person she cared for the most since the outbreak— Bill. While he was constantly looking out for the group, he took, what was in Zoey's mind, an extremely unforgivable path. In their escape from the military base they were taken onto at the end of Blood Harvest, the survivors leave behind other people who weren't infected (though it was unknown whether they were merely carriers of the disease as they were), something that Zoey is angered and devastated by. They could have helped them, and they left them to die. She spends much of the Sacrifice DLC being angry with Bill for that. She can have a bit of an attitude problem, sometimes, but overall, Zoey's a good kid, and she does end up forgiving him, later (because he sacrifices himself to save them, but, she would have come around eventually, regardless).

Because honestly, underneath the barbs and sarcasm, Zoey really is a nice girl. Or, she can be, anyway. She loves to laugh and honestly cares about her fellow survivors— and she picks on them out of love. She's always one to try keeping everyone's spirits up, and is gentle and kind whenever she's patching one of them up with a health kit. She tries her best to be soothing, to put in her effort in holding the group together. She genuinely cares about their well-being, and not just because she knows they have her back. She's absolutely devastated whenever any of them die in the game. Truthfully, her mental state depends on these guys— whenever she's the last man standing, you can sort of hear her starting to come undone. She's extremely loyal. Besides... They're all she's got left.

Not that she's a delicate flower of a girl. In fact, Zoey is something of a tomboy. She's not exactly prissy about anything (getting slimed with Boomer bile doesn't count— nobody in their right mind likes getting barfed on), and she will take action when she needs to, like, for instance, shooting the helicopter pilot-turned-zombie who was navigating them to safety. Of course, it caused a helicopter crash with them in the helicopter and Francis' endless ribbing ("HE. WAS. A. ZOMBIE, FRANCIS."), but still, if she hadn't, they would have been the in-flight snack. Not to say that she doesn't try to weasel her way out of some of the heavy lifting, often referencing the fact that she is, in fact, female, in order to sort of con the guys into doing things like starting generators or opening giant Tank deathtraps. She seems to get a little miffed when they don't, too— guess chivalry didn't survive the Green Flu, either. Not much else did.

Still, she's willing to do things for the sake of the group. By the middle of the first few campaigns, she and the other survivors work together like pros. They're a team, and she cares about each and every one of them: she's friendly to Louis, picks on Francis and is like a surrogate granddaughter to Bill; they're like family, their motto "no man left behind." The four of them have worked together to get from Pennsylvania all the way down to Georgia— which is, unfortunately, where things started to unravel for our little group.

Zoey, since the beginning, was always a little bit unstable. It's clear she's terrified, and using humor as a way to distract herself. Even as things get a bit easier and fighting zombies starts to become more like second-nature, she's still petrified. She's still young, still vulnerable, and it only gets worse when they lose one of their teammates permanently (no respawning in a closet after that one, nope). After Bill dies, Zoey becomes a little more hardened, a little more business-minded... But she's still nice and funny. She can't cut that out of her personality completely. But mainly, she's focused on the goal Bill was focused on— their survival. Helping others when it isn't an inconvenience. She wants other people to survive, but not if it means endangering herself, Bill or Louis. The three of them are tight-knit. The loss of Bill hit Zoey hard, but it just makes her more determined to live.

Possessions | Zoey is showing up fresh from a zombie apocalypse, so she'll have with her all of the necessities for such— namely, the things she carries on her person at any given time. Along with her disgusting, blood and vomit-caked clothing, she'll be bringing her makeshift holsters stuffed with two pistols, a hunting rifle, a healthkit, a molotov cocktail and a bottle of ibuprofen.

Character Abilities/Powers | What do you mean, being funny isn't an ability? Well, how about being able to use a gun? That works, right? Zoey can definitely use a gun. She's been going to the shooting range for a while now, thanks to her father, who wanted her to become a cop. She also has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of horror movies, is decent at first-aid, and can punch zombies to death with a can of gasoline. If that's not hardcore, I don't know what is.

Weaknesses/Fears |

Well, for one thing, though she doesn't like to admit it, zombies. She's not terrified of them, per se, because she's immune and the disease can't get her, but more what they've done to the world. It's devastating to watch the entire world around you cease to function. That isn't to say Special Infected aren't disgusting and terrifying— nothing says holy shit oh god why like a bazillion-pound all-arms lunatic zombie who wants nothing more than to throw you off the side of a building or smash you into the pavement. Dying looks like it hurts, she doesn't want to do it.

People losing their humanity is another thing that really bugs her. She's seen people go literally insane because of the zombies, and fears going down that path herself. It's because of her support network that she's kept going, otherwise, without it... She might have been one of them, her own version of the crazy Church Guy muttering "better safe than sorry" over and over again.

By the way, there's something she hates— the phrase "better safe than sorry!"

Being left alone is another, and probably her biggest weakness. Zoey starts to fall apart whenever she's left behind with everyone else dead in the game, and losing Bill hits her incredibly hard. Having anyone else die would be too much on her.

Requested Village | Fuar.
NPC mini-plot | Sure.

SAMPLES
First-person |

Mic check, one two one two?

[ The camera comes on to record... Well, an eyeball. A green one. She pulls it back a little to at least reveal a quirked eyebrow, and finally, even further to reveal a confused-looking face. Hi, Attollo! Meet Zoey. She doens't look too good. Not in the sense that she looks beat up (because she does), but the sense that it looks like she hasn't bathed in a good week or two, and her clothes look downright disgusting. Her hair is matted with gunk and falling out of its loose ponytail. And yet, despite her state, she looks... Amused? If not at least a little confused. ] Does this thing even work? It's sure as hell doesn't look like a phone.

What kind of place is this, anyway? I haven't seen a zombie since that weird guy woke me up. Huh.

[ She scrunches her nose and shakes her head. ] Uh, anyway, if this thing's recording? Louis? Francis? We've got to talk about you guys letting me wander off with strange men. Aren't we supposed to be, you know sticking together and stuff? Seriously, guys, way to let me be the irresponsible teenager.

[ What would Bill think? Does she even want to think about what Bill would think? ]

Anyway, I... Don't know where I am, and I can't find either of you, so, if you come back? I promise I won't accidentally-on-purpose set you on fire with a molotov next time we see a tank.

Promise.

... God, I hope you can hear this.

Third-person |

This.

This was heaven.

It had to be, because Zoey hadn't seen or felt a shower this amazing in her life— though, in all likelihood, that was the fact that she hadn't really had a proper shower in weeks talking. It felt amazing to finally do something more than take a bitch bath at a sink, to be able to actually run her hands through her hair instead of getting it caught in layer after layer of filth piled up on top of it. Bathing wasn't somehing she thought she could take for granted, really, but, ever since the start of the apocalypse, oh, had she been proven wrong. This moment was quite possibly the best she'd had even since before the outbreak, and she was going to indulge in it for as long as she could.

So far, since waking up here, she'd had a weird talk with some guy about some mark or something, and found this really cool phone-thing that she wasn't exactly sure even worked (seriously, how did this place still have power?) and had managed to stumble into a bathroom and found this magnificent, magnificent, glorious bathing facility. It probably wasn't her most resposible of decisions, but, seeing nary a zombie in sight, she'd decided to give getting clean a go. That was how she'd wound up here. All of her clothes were in a disgusting pile on the floor, right next to her weapons propped up against the toilet, save for a single gun resting on the seat cover, should she need to reach for it in a flash.

It was then when it hit her, though. This was like the beginning of almost every horror movie she'd seen in her life, wasn't it? And in all honesty, it wasn't something she was happy about emulating. It was pretty obvious how the naked girl in the shower ended up--y'know. Dead.

Zoey's hands froze midair. Great. Now was making herself paranoid. So much for enjoying her shower. Groaning at herself, she reached to turn off the faucet and slid the curtain open, grabbing for the nearest towel to dry herself off.

Slowly and reluctantly, she went for her clothes, sliding them back on. Ugh, she needed to find something else to wear. She couldn't take much more of this. "Lovely," she finally sighed out, fully dressed with the exception of her track jacket, which she held in her hand. At least that was one glaring stereotype down. Maybe if she wasn't naked and in the shower, she wouldn't be such an obvious target? Yeah, that's it. Think positive. You're only stranded in the middle of nowhere with no idea where Francis and Louis are, Zoey. Nothing to be scared of. Nothing to be panicked about. Nothing at all. Except the fact that you're probably going to die.

No. God, no. Stay calm. You'll be fine. You just have to find somewhere safe to stay until the guys find you. That's the spirit.

You can't die now— you're the token female character. Every movie's gotta have at least one.