AH Application
Jul. 16th, 2021 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
allapplesaregoodCharacter Name: Archie Jensen
Age: 32
Canon: Zombies, Run!
Canon point: Season 2, Mission 18 (Long and Dark, just after the explosion but before Van Ark kills her (spoilers))
History:Archie comes from a world that has already, in fact, experienced an apocalypse in the form of a zombie plague. Archie herself was working on her post-doc research at an (unnamed, but likely northern?) English university before everything happened. For a while, she and her boyfriend tried to make the best of it, staying in their top-floor apartment. Eventually, when the weather turned bad, they headed for the settlement of New Canton (a sort of rival community to the one that "you", the main character, live in.) Archie is a "Runner", which means that she is tasked with going out on missions to retrieve supplies and intel.
Archie's role in canon is actually pretty brief. Her first actual introduction is in a set of side-missions that you can participate in, where she and another Runner from New Canton set out to investigate Archie's former workplace, the Keeley Centre. In the course of the mission they discover that Professor Van Ark, a scientist that Archie worked with, is still alive. In the next side-mission, Archie and Runner 5 visit a nearby hospital to warn a group of scientists (two of whom worked at Keeley too) that Van Ark bombed the first facility. Unfortunately, they get there a little too late, and find out that Van Ark's men have bombed the hospital as well. The last “survivor” (except not quite, since she's been bitten by a zombie) tells them that Van Ark is coming for New Canton next. At the end of this mission, Archie is the one to shoot the scientist at her own request. In the last of these side missions, Archie is involved in a preemptive attack on one of the complexes that Van Ark is working at.
Within the main story missions, Archie's influence is minimal to the overall story, for the most part. She accompanies you (Runner 5, the player), on a few missions which don't really contribute to the main plot, and shows up in the background in a few more. She does have two important sets of missions, though. The first is when she accompanies you on a mission to retrieve a group of children who have been living in the countryside. You manage to find two kids, but only narrowly escape a group of zombies. That's when Jaime, the guy who is looking after the kids, shows up. He's pretty brusque, but Archie seems to find him very attractive anyway, and flirts with him for practically an entire mission. At the end, you find out that he's left a message for Archie with the New Canton radio operator.
In the second set of missions, you and Archie are sent on a secret mission to investigate a lab facility that Van Ark may have been using. In a previous mission, you discovered a tone generating box, and that box leads back to the lab (in previous missions you have also discovered that some zombies can be controlled by the use of certain tones). Archie enters the lab, and discovers more tone boxes, and notes on their use. While she is trying to memorize as much information as she can, the zombies that you have drawn away are ordered to attack the lab itself. Archie manages to figure out the machines quickly enough to send out a reset signal that knocks out the zombies surrounding her, but unfortunately she is still captured by Van Ark in the end. As it turns out, the entire thing was a trap specifically designed for Van Ark to get his hands on Archie, for certain secret information that she has about Abel's plans for wiping out zombies. While she's in Van Ark's hands, he interrogates (and tortures) her for information. At her particular canon point, she agrees to give Van Ark the information, but before she can, her boyfriend Jaime (aided by you in a rescue mission) blows up part of the building in an attempt to save her.
Personality:
Optimistic: Archie is basically a ray of pure sunshine in human form. She can actually come off as incredibly one-note most of the time, and that one note is indefatigable optimism. When she tells New Canton's Runner 5 about her life after the apocalypse, she actually manages to paint it in a good light. She talks about how she and her boyfriend lived on the roof of their building, planted a garden, sunbathed and cooked on a camping stove, and said it was “like a holiday”. She does recognize when a situation is bad, (about the apocalypse: “A lot of our friends were dead”), but quickly tries to find and point out the good in it. (“but the weather quite good, remember?”) It's simply the way that Archie approaches the world. She can even paint running away from zombies as an exciting thing.
Talkative: Archie talks. A lot. It's potentially endearing but also definitely something that can come off as annoying to other people. She seems to be fascinated by the English language (it's not her first language), and enjoys playing around with it. You often hear her musing on the origins of words (like why an important person is called a "big cheese"), and there's more than one point in canon where she either debates what word she should be using, or comes up with her own. Unfortunately, this tends to lead her off on tangents when there are other things happening that she should be paying attention to. It also leads to her having little to no filter, which can read as being slightly inappropriate. For example, when trying to find the right word for a partially-destroyed Abel Township (and in earshot of...citizens of Abel), Archie debates calling the settlement "a bit of a mess", "a wreck", "hovel" (although she quickly says that hovel isn't fair), and "shabby". In the same mission, she point blank asks someone "Don't you pay attention when people talk?" because they asked about information that she seems to be sure they should know. Sometimes, she just doesn't really seem to care that her chatter isn't what you'd normally think of as appropriate conversation. For example, she introduces her ex-boyfriend (who is running a mission with her at the time) by saying that they used to go out, and now they don't, and that he "has sex with a pretty woman named Georgina instead."
Easily Distracted: Somewhat tied in with the above trait, but it's sometimes more than talking that distracts Archie. One of the other characters observes to another that he thinks "she might stop dead in the middle of a zom attack to look at an interesting cloud. 'Dead' being the operative word." It's not entirely an unfounded observation! In the same mission, she gets very distracted by some chickens (and naming the chickens) while "you" complete the objective of the mission on your own.
Intelligent: For all that she rambles and gets easily distracted, Archie is actually incredibly intelligent, and versed in multiple scientific fields. Her main base is in protein crystallography, but her research at Pandora Haze (with Van Ark) involved limb regeneration in mice. She also demonstrates a knowledge of the electronics needed to make a functioning internet repeater station, which suggests some familiarity with technology.
Friendly: Archie likes everyone. Almost everyone. If Archie doesn't like you, you've definitely done something really wrong, and are a terrible person. (It can happen, though - in the case of Van Ark and a scientist who has ended up working with Van Ark - and when it does she can be very sharp about her response.) Nadia, one of New Canton's radio operators, actually point blank tells Archie that she's not really going to trust Archie when it comes to liking people, because she apparently still likes a Runner who set her bunk on fire. (Archie claims that it was a joke, and that she thought it was funny.) She also likes Jaime from the very beginning, who is kind of an asshole to her and Runner 5 for the entirety of their first meeting.
Suitability: While the world of Apocalypse Now is similar enough to Archie's world that she'd probably be fine just wandering off, she's definitely not that kind of person! Also she has a boyfriend to get back to, so if there's any chance that she can do that, she'd stick with the people who might know how to do that. More importantly, Archie is a helper. If something bad is happening - especially probably the end of the world - and she's asked to stick around and help, she's going to stick around and help.
Powers/Abilities: Archie is a very normal human. She is athletic enough to have been chosen to be a Runner, though, and as previously mentioned she is pretty intelligent.
Entity Affinity: Archie could go a few ways in therms of entities she might align with. We really don't get a good idea of what she's afraid of (other than...pain?) but considering her circumstances, it isn't unreasonable that she would fall prey to the Corruption due to the disease aspect. Getting bitten by zombies and becoming a shambling, rotten thing definitely has to be a fear of hers, even if she doesn't express it. Otherwise, her innate curiosity could make her susceptible to the Eye. The Spiral could also be a contender. Not because she likes tricking people, but because she does have a certain chaoticness to her thought patterns that might suit the Spiral (and because she might legitimately not think it's as bad as the rest).
Inventory: She'll be coming in with nothing but some very worn athletic gear.
Samples: dialogue
Inner Thought Process:
[Being sent out into the field with a camera is...well, alright it's not what Archie is exactly used to. Not with a camera! But she is used to being sent out on missions, so when the nice people at ADI tell people to go out and try to find some evidence of supernatural activity, she's kind of excited!
Yes, yes, she knows that it's probably not going to be good if she finds any. They've explained that part too. Supernatural is bad. Archie gets that. But....it might not be? Maybe it won't be! Maybe she'll find something that's actually good. Or maybe she'll just find something interesting. As long as it's not something that's trying to kill her, it will probably be alright. And she's glad to have a partner to go out on the mission with. She's meeting new people and meeting new people is also very interesting and very nice.]
What do you think we'll find? [She grins over at the person next to her, and doesn't seem to mind or notice when they give her a slightly skeptical look.] Maybe ghosts? Do you believe in ghosts? I think I do. It's fun to believe in ghosts!
[She keeps chattering as they make their way further into Dogtown, until...oh, those stones have something carved into them. How interesting!
...The stones have something not nice carved into them. Archie stops, frowning just a little bit as she looks over at her companion to see if maybe they see what she does.]
...Do you think that's supposed to be a joke? Like, they knew we were coming here and carved something on the stones? It's not...well. Actually, that would be pretty impressive, hey? Carving things about people into the stone so quickly? We should see if there's something about you, too!
