how's my driving?

Anon commenting is ON, and I'm not going to take your crit any less seriously if you decide to take advantage of this (or if you're just a lurker or something)- unless, of course, your purpose for remaining anonymous is to simply bash and offer no advice on how to improve. Concrit isn't trolling in my mind; "LOL GTFO U SUXX0R" is.

application for havenrpg

Name: Iddy
Contact Info: ZieglerFan719@gmail.com
Other Characters Played: n/a
Requested apartment: n/a

Character Name: Lizzie Samuels
Canon: The Walking Dead (TV series)
Canon Point: post 4x14, "The Grove"

Background/History: Wiki link!

Personality:
SPOILERS FOR SEASON 4

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In a world overrun by a zombie apocalypse, Lizzie is the only character we see who wholeheartedly maintains a sympathetic attitude towards the zombies (called "Walkers" in canon). There are definitely times when she fears them and recognizes that they're dangerous, but she sees them the way she does people-- some are mean, and some are nice; some want to hurt her, and others don't. She believes that it's unfair that they're killed on sight, regardless of whether or not they're actively attacking people; that even though they aren't human anymore, they're still something, and that's important; and that overall, they aren't any less deserving of life than humans. At first, these ideas of hers seem like a minor personality quirk: a little strange, kind of endearing in a weird way, but ultimately harmless. However, as time goes on, both the viewer and the other characters start to become more and more aware of the serious dangers that this mindset poses to Lizzie... and to the people around her. At the beginning of the season, she's the odd little girl who's innocent and empathetic enough to care about the lives of undead monsters. By the end of the season, however, she's shown to be a dangerous liability whose delusions cause her to murder her sister Mika in an attempt to prove to everyone else once and for all that death and rebirth as a Walker isn't as bad as everyone thinks it is.

Despite her obvious issues, Lizzie isn't stereotypically crazy, and she's clearly capable of rationality and logic. Still, there are hints that she might be just a little bit dim-- not enough to actually be considered mentally challenged or impaired, but she acts closer to eight or nine than to her actual age of eleven. Right before his death, her father instructs her to take care of her sister-- but more often than not, it's Mika who takes care of Lizzie. She's also prone to minor panic attacks when something upsets her emotionally. They seem to be at least a semi-regular occurrence, because Mika knows how to help her deal with them-- encouraging her to count to three and breathe, telling her to look at something and focus on it, etc. It's possible that her attitude towards the Walkers is a coping mechanism-- at one point she tells Carl that she has seen people die and be reanimated, and convincing herself that they weren't really dead and gone may have been the best way her mind knew how to deal with the situation. A lot of her arguments actually make sense on a surface level, until you remember that she's talking about creatures who were formerly human (and, before their deaths, probably wouldn't have wanted to lead an undead "life" as a zombie), aren't really aren't shown to have even the most basic brain activity, and are prone to actively hunting and attacking people. She also goes a lot further than simply thinking about it philosophically. She cries when the Walkers she's named are killed, she talks to them like they're pets or very young kids, and she tries to reason with them and convince them not to attack people. At the prison, she sneaks out at night and feeds them small animals (which is presumably a big part of what causes them to swarm the perimeter fences during the day), and when she and a small group of others are traveling through the woods, she kills more animals to leave behind for any in the area. She even screams at Carol, one of her caretakers, for killing one she was "playing tag" with (though to everyone but Lizzie, it was obvious that the zombie was trying to catch her to eat her, not to play). At one point, she tells Carol that she really is trying to understand everyone else's mindset-- but ultimately, she can't, and that becomes her downfall. The apocalypse has warped her to the point that she doesn't see death as as big a deal as she should, because people who die "just come back". This is shown even before she kills Mika-- at one point when they're hiding from the Walkers, she puts her palm over a baby's nose and mouth to keep her giving away their position with her crying. It's possible that she didn't realize the potential consequences of her actions, but it's just as possible that she was actively trying to kill the baby. In a game setting like Haven, this attitude would carry over-- perhaps even more so, because not only do people come back from the dead, they come back exactly the same (as in, as how they were before, rather than as zombies). She'd also be liable to treat the humanoid monsters similarly to how she treats the Walkers in canon-- and possibly the non-humanoid ones too, if she met enough sentient non-humanoid PCs.

All that said, her issues on the Walker front do indicate the existence of some more positive traits. She's empathetic. She's nonjudgemental. And she's extremely strong in her convictions: when literally everyone around her is trying to make her understand that the zombies don't really retain any of their humanity, she maintains that they're all wrong and that she's the only one who understands. This last bit, obviously, can present as stubbornness to the point of ridiculousness in some cases, as it is with her opinions of the Walkers. But it also means that she's willing to stick by what she thinks is right even in the face of unanimous opposition, which can definitely be a good thing in other situations. She's even able to talk Tyreese, one of her other caretakers, out of killing a passing Walker at one point, reasoning that sometimes they have to kill them (when they're attacking people) but other times they don't (when they're not). He probably only gave in to humor her and avoid upsetting her, but the fact remains that she does actually make a decent argument for her position from time to time, even if it ultimately falls through because of the "but they're fucking zombies" aspect.

Mika, Lizzie's younger sister, calls her "messed up" more than once-- and once you've seen her story from beginning to end, it's hard not to agree with that assessment. But despite everything, she's still a kid, and it shows. Her worst actions in canon are because of, not in spite of, a childish innocence and lack of ability to understand the reality of her situation. She gloms onto parental figures, especially after her father's death (as evidenced by how she misspeaks and calls Carol "mom" at one point, and is also shown to be quite physically affectionate towards her). She hates it when people are angry with her (to the point that she eventually stops being so willing to talk about her views on the Walkers because she knows it makes people mad). She likes playing games and listening to stories and being tucked in at night. And when Carol ultimately makes the decision to kill her for the safety of everyone else in their party, Lizzie doesn't suspect a thing when she's lead out into the woods, distracted, and shot in the head.

Abilities/Powers: She knows how to use a gun, and is a good enough shot to usually hit the things she's aiming for. However, she's not a trained marksman by any means, and mentions at least once that she hit someone in the head when she'd been going for something lower.

She also knows how to use a knife both defensively and offensively, having been taught by Carol in canon.

Items/Weapons: A knife, a gun, and a box of ten bullets.

Sample Entry: Dear Mun post!

Sample Entry Two: Test drive post! If I don't get any replies, I'll just say the main post is a stand-alone sample.