Re: Zombies in the 20's Discussion
Posted by:
ocean cat (IP Logged)
Date: January 17, 2012 06:03AM
Okay, here's my hunter girl. For this I'm thinking that the zombies first appeared about fifteen years prior to the beginning of the story, but I can alter that depending on what we decide about them and about the hunters. Oh, I did have a thought about the zombies, though. Do you guys know about the polymorphic locust? It was initially thought to be two different species because it has two different molts that look totally different: gregarious, which is where you get the huge swarms, and then solitary, where they're just off by themselves. What if the zombies are like that, and they go through cycles where most of the time they're just acting alone off in some jungle and they eat, I don't know, panthers or something, and you get a rogue one sometimes that eats a human but it just seems to be a particularly vicious murder, but then every hundred years or so something weird happens and they start moving in packs and taking human victims and converting some of them? And the humans that are converted are more or less immortal (unless killed), so they just stick around until the next cycle? Ooh, and maybe the gregarious stage is the only time they can convert humans, and the conversions are the only way they reproduce. So then the hunters could be this ancient secret society bent on wiping them out, and maybe before the current cycle they got really close to doing it and some factions of the society thought they'd succeeded, but one group didn't believe it and kept training people to be ready in case of another cycle? So there aren't very many of them around, but now they're recruiting because, well. Zombies.
...I actually meant this post to be just a profile, but apparently worldbuilding wanted to happen. Thoughts?
Anyway, here's my girl:
Name: Martha Wickham
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Job: By day, personal secretary for the executive editor of a small newspaper, The Daily Herald. By night, kickass zombie hunter.
Appearance: Curly, unruly reddish-brown hair worn longer than the current fashion so she can tie it back out of her way. Small facial features, with the exception of her dark gray eyes, which are out of proportion and seem slightly too large for her face. 5', athletic, slightly curvier than is fashionable. Very fit. Not strikingly beautiful, though not unattractive either. She has a thin scar on her left cheekbone which she tells people she got in a car accident. There are a number of other scars on her, mostly on her arms and legs (she wears stockings during the day), but one very deep, ugly one that stretches from her right shoulder to the middle of her back, from a close call when she was fifteen. Typical daytime clothing includes knee- or calf-length skirts and long-sleeved shirts in neutral or muted colors. With the exception of hairstyle, she pays attention to fashion insofar as it helps her blend in, which she does extremely well. For hunting, she wears form-fitting black leather pants, sleeveless shirt, and a full-length coat which somewhat disguises her shape. The outfit both allows her free movement and gives her some protection against wayward zombie bites and other hazards. She's never without a weapon; during the day, she conceals a medium-sized knife under her skirt, while at night, she has two guns in shoulder holsters and an impressive variety of knives strapped around her waist, with more in special holders in the skirt of her coat.
Personality: At her day job, her boss and coworkers know her as quiet and a little timid, but very efficient. She has a shy smile and a light, playful sense of humor. Her hunter personality is fearless and sassy. She's very task-oriented and has a take-charge attitude about hunting, with good instincts and good results. She tends to mouth off, which irritates bad guys and allies alike, but she's often right. She's direct and honest; she doesn't stand for any kind of beating around the bush or coquettish behavior. If she likes you, she lets you know. If she doesn't like you, she either ignores you or beats you up, depending on the level of dislike. First impressions don't always hold with her, though; her closest friendships, such as they are, usually start out with her disliking the other person, with the somewhat ironic result that she's punched most of her friends at least once. She can have a slightly twisted sense of humor and likes messing with people, though never when it comes to work. She can be hard to read if she wants to; most of the time she just doesn't bother. She's quite jaded and sometimes a little callous, though underneath it she has a kind heart.
Background:(I can change this if we decide on different zombie stuff) She doesn't remember anything before she was eight, when a lone hunter found her hiding in a closet hours after a group of zombies slaughtered her parents and three older brothers. The hunter took her in and raised her as his own child. At first he used the physical training as a way for her to work through the trauma, but she soon proved to have a natural aptitude for fighting. She's an expert in close-quarters and hand-to-hand combat, using her small stature as an advantage--she's sneaky and deceptively fast. The hunter who raised her died two years before the start of the story in an attack, but she doesn't dwell on it; very few hunters die of natural causes, so it wasn't at all unexpected. It still hurt, but it's not what drives her. As to what does drive her, she's not really sure, other than a general hatred of zombies and a desire to protect the people she cares about, even though she never really lets anyone get close.
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A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket.
~Charles Peguy
Edited 3 times. Last edit at 01/17/12 06:08AM by ocean cat.
