Lemons

Shelter: A Zombie Survival Story

Juuuuust gonna throw this in the ring!

Shin-ae Yun

_{18 - Capricorn- Senior- 5'8" - Lee Bo-young}

"I get called heartless a lot, and every time I want to scream."

Shin-ae Yun

---

Appearance Details

Tall and lithe, Shin-ae cuts quite a recognizable figure walking through the halls. While she couldn't be called buxom by any stretch of the imagination, she is not entirely devoid of curves; she does have an unmistakably feminine shape with a modest bust. Her angular pale face is framed by silky, pin-straight black hair that falls to somewhere just north of the small of her back, and set with eyes that are dark enough brown to be nearly the same. That face is set with a near-permanent expression annoyance or frustration. Combined with the prim way that she tends to carry herself, it tends to give people the impression that she doesn't like them, regardless of anything that she might actually feel regarding them. Or, to put it simply: she has a colossal resting bitch face.

She has (or had, evidently) a closet filled with proper clothing. Button-down shirts and blouses, pencil skirts, cashmere cardigans, most done up in monochrome. She is looked at somewhat strangely sometimes, as her bearing and clothing combined with her overall attitude lend her an air of professionalism beyond her years, one that is far more formal than her actual genuine thought processes.

Characterization

A whole lot of Student Council President Shin-ae's life has been defined through expectation.

Being the child of two Korean immigrants, she was, from the beginning, subjected to the tiger mom style of parenting, with all that entails. She had expectations HEAPED on her. Things that she needed to do. Things that were demanded of her, or else she'd be yelled out. The stringent rules in her household couldn't be called entirely negative, as they did impart to her a great deal of tenacity and discipline. But that's not really a consolation to a child so choked under those expectations, and while straight A's and knowing how to play the violin might impress her mother's co-workers, they do very little to prepare one for speaking with your peers on any meaningful level.

On that note, this has had a number of effects on how she interacts with others, first being 'the Shin-ae Stare,' dubbed as such by her vice president; that terrible resting bitch face that dogs her feet. She has a reputation among the student body for being a hardass, and the persistent reminds that she gives about decorum and conduct, something that she's a bit picky about, really has not helped. Consequently, Shin-ae is alone a great deal of the time; not only is she not really allowed to hang out with friends outside of school because of the draconian rules of her household, but there are few enough people who know what she's actually like. Which is quite personable, actually; she's not relaxed and laughing all the time, obviousl, but she's friendly and helpful enough, and if you pay enough attention you can find the streak of dry humor that she has under the surface.

And it's a very good thing that she's started flaunting her parents' rules now and then to spend time with other people. Because just like preparing one for a social life, those straight A report cards and violin recitals have done very, very little in preparing her for the apocalypse.

Character Notes

- Her mother works for a prominent tech company in a fairly high position. Shin-ae has no idea where she is right now.

- Her father is a freelance photographer who works from home. She's extremely worried about him.

Inventory

N/A

---

Lem's Stash

_{18 - Capricorn- Senior- 5'8" - Lee Bo-young}

"I get called heartless a lot, and every time I want to scream."

Shin-ae Yun

---

Appearance Details

Tall and lithe, Shin-ae cuts quite a recognizable figure walking through the halls. While she couldn't be called buxom by any stretch of the imagination, she is not entirely devoid of curves; she does have an unmistakably feminine shape with a modest bust. Her angular pale face is framed by silky, pin-straight black hair that falls to somewhere just north of the small of her back, and set with eyes that are dark enough brown to be nearly the same. That face is set with a near-permanent expression annoyance or frustration. Combined with the prim way that she tends to carry herself, it tends to give people the impression that she doesn't like them, regardless of anything that she might actually feel regarding them. Or, to put it simply: she has a colossal resting bitch face.

She has (or had, evidently) a closet filled with proper clothing. Button-down shirts and blouses, pencil skirts, cashmere cardigans, most done up in monochrome. She is looked at somewhat strangely sometimes, as her bearing and clothing combined with her overall attitude lend her an air of professionalism beyond her years, one that is far more formal than her actual genuine thought processes.

Characterization

A whole lot of Student Council President Shin-ae's life has been defined through expectation.

Being the child of two Korean immigrants, she was, from the beginning, subjected to the tiger mom style of parenting, with all that entails. She had expectations HEAPED on her. Things that she needed to do. Things that were demanded of her, or else she'd be yelled out. The stringent rules in her household couldn't be called entirely negative, as they did impart to her a great deal of tenacity and discipline. But that's not really a consolation to a child so choked under those expectations, and while straight A's and knowing how to play the violin might impress her mother's co-workers, they do very little to prepare one for speaking with your peers on any meaningful level.

On that note, this has had a number of effects on how she interacts with others, first being 'the Shin-ae Stare,' dubbed as such by her vice president; that terrible resting bitch face that dogs her feet. She has a reputation among the student body for being a hardass, and the persistent reminds that she gives about decorum and conduct, something that she's a bit picky about, really has not helped. Consequently, Shin-ae is alone a great deal of the time; not only is she not really allowed to hang out with friends outside of school because of the draconian rules of her household, but there are few enough people who know what she's actually like. Which is quite personable, actually; she's not relaxed and laughing all the time, obviousl, but she's friendly and helpful enough, and if you pay enough attention you can find the streak of dry humor that she has under the surface.

And it's a very good thing that she's started flaunting her parents' rules now and then to spend time with other people. Because just like preparing one for a social life, those straight A report cards and violin recitals have done very, very little in preparing her for the apocalypse.

Character Notes

- Her mother works for a prominent tech company in a fairly high position. Shin-ae has no idea where she is right now.

- Her father is a freelance photographer who works from home. She's extremely worried about him.

Inventory

N/A

---

Amygdala Circuit

"What is this, deadgirl?"

It always amazed Quinn just how real the sims felt. No matter how many times she hopped in, there was always that same thrill; an echo of the freedom she'd felt when she first left her house. It was only months ago, wasn't it? It felt at once like yesterday, and like a distant past life that she'd never even been a part of. She looked up towards the projected sky, admiring the faux sun with Ablaze's terrible maw stretched in some horrific parody of a smile, and appreciating that it sounded like Roaki had a little bit more bite in her now. Taking her into sims had been a good idea. "Even if it's not real and it's just there for training in the end, it's still pretty, huh?"

Rolling her neck and stretching her arms briefly, she dropped her head down and stared levelly back at Blotklau. There was a hint of a cold shiver that was ready to race up and down her spine; the last time she'd seen it face to face like this hadn't been the best of times for anyone involved. But she did her best to ignore it. If she could ignore using the Savior and weapon that had massacred Hovvi, then she could ignore an unpleasant memory.

"You know, I told you I'd tell you what Ablaze meant, but I never did." She let a beat pass, and if she'd been in her own body, she would've probably reached behind her head and adjusted her braid. "After this one, I promise. I'd tell you now, but it kinda takes a while to explain."

She went quiet for a moment, reaching her clawed hand out to grab the sheet, but not pulling yet. Not 'til Roaki did. Her voice was completely lacking in anything like humor or sarcasm. It was sheer quiet sincerity all the way down. "I meant what I said. You don't deserve to die and I'm not gonna let them kill you even if I have to fight the whole world." After another pause, she let humor leak back in there and cocked her massive head in an odd reptilian motion.

"So, you gonna come kill me or not?"

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

---

Alja heaved a long sigh upon hearing Seele's explanation. Graves and Sieg made a little bit more sense now. There was only one way Graves knew how to have a disagreement, and things getting heated and emotional sounded like code for it snowballing violently out of control either during their fight or immediately afterwards. Her jaw clenched, though she did her best not to show her frustration. As much as she wanted to deck Graves for starting a fight now of all times, he was clearly broken up, and being yelled at never helped anything. At least it seemed like it was resolved now. So she took a long, long calming breath and let it out slooowly, and by the time it was gone the violent impulse had abated and worry had taken its place. She'd never seen Graves like that.

But that was neither here nor there. Pressing either him or Seele right now would make it worse more than anything else. She'd grill someone later on what the hell happened, but this was not the time. So she elected to ignore it, steamroll right past it for the moment, and consider Seele's second question. As soon as it was asked, she sagged a bit. Nowhere near as much as she had in front of the door, of course, but she was obviously bothered by something.

"The others went to another guild--Children of Letria--to see about pullin' together. Safety in numbers, you know? I didn't go with them, I wanted to...talk to Leaves." Her voice slowed as she spoke, until she finished and it ended up ground to a halt. She took a sharp breath and stared up at the sky for a moment, trying to squeeze the evident emotion out of her voice some and meeting with minimal success. "Didn't end up answerin' me when I knocked on her door." A part of her knew that it was possible, if not downright likely, that Leaves had just been asleep. But that more reasonable voice was shouted down by the choking feeling of guilt. By the time she dropped her head, though, she'd managed to wrestle it back down, and she looked down at the girl next to her with a wide, genuine smile.

"Ha, listen to me divin' into self pity. I'm alive, hey? I'm sure things'll get better from here, right? Graves is good at pullin' himself together, he'll be just...fine..."

She trailed off as the recollection of the conversation she'd had with him in the sewers resurfaced, and she sobered up almost immediately.

"Listen, um, Seele," she started, "you remember how I wanted to have that convo with you at some point? Could we...uh...do that sometime soon?"

Amygdala Circuit

"You're not dead yet and I don't give a fuck what Casoban has to say about it." Quinn spat with searing energy. "And there are no laws or rules that says you can't go to sims. So do you want to kill me or not?" Blood boiling, Quinn barely managed to wait for an agreement before she pulled Roaki off the bed where she'd taken residence for the past few weeks, rammed her into the wheelchair, and took off through the open doorway.

Dodging through incredibly confused staffers, nurses, and doctors, Quinn tore through medical, pretty much jogging as she piloted Roaki's wheelchair like an airplane. It was lucky that sparring and training had given her so much more strength and stamina, she though; when she'd first gotten to the Aerie there was no way she could do this. It would be so much slower, and take so much more effort.

As she went, her mind raced. After she got out of medical she'd need to cross almost exactly straight through the common area. She knew Roaki wasn't exactly well-liked at this point, obviously. So she found herself wondering if she should skirt around the edges and try to attract less attention, or if she should just plow through the middle to cut down on time. They only had so much, after all. "Within the week" could mean in an hour for all she knew. And on realizing that, she knew exactly what she'd do. She screwed up her courage. Whatever happened, this was probably going to make Besca and Deelie mad, and she hated that. She'd never intentionally done something that she knew would anger them, she didn't think.

But Roaki's life was more important. So as she emerged from medical, she went straight.

People looked at her with a varying array of expressions which she did her best to ignore as she punched straight through the growing crowd. It wasn't quite lunch time yet, but it was getting there; people were just starting to get off work. She found herself glad that she was hurrying. It'd be harder and harder the more people showed up.

Dodging by the last crowd of hangar staff--was that Tillie?--she finally cleared the commons, very conscious of ever eye in the room on her. Her jaw was clenched tight. From that point it was a brief sojourn through mostly empty hallways to get to sims where she desperately hoped Dahlia wasn't at the moment. It would be...difficult to explain to her at the moment. When she arrived, the technician looked at her, mouth hanging open and eyes wide. She shook her head quickly, trying to catch her breath as her chest heaved. What was it Doctor Follen had said?

"Doctor Follen is trying out a new therapy. Hooking her up. Sorry." With no further explanation, she rushed past him as well, finding all the sim pods empty and breathing a sigh of relief in spite of herself. Still moving quickly, she grunted as she hefted Roaki into one of the pods, shifting her a bit and letting her plugs catch. Proceeding to do the same herself, she gave a harried grin. "Blotklau should still be in the system from training."

The she connected, and Ablaze breathe deep, trying to keep herself calm. She wasn't at all excited to fight Blotklau again, but it had to happen. She closed her eye and made her second and third breaths as she was notified that someone had connected to sims.

Don't help me this time, okay?

Amygdala Circuit

There will be consequences.

No matter how soft Doctor Follen's voice was, and how firm Quinn's conviction was, those four words sent a shock of unease down her spine. She'd been so worried about the Board's retaliation when she just moved Roaki out from holding. This was so much more important and impactful. But no matter what...she had to. She would never, ever forgive herself if she didn't; if she let Roaki die. She took a long, deep breath, steeling and steadying herself. Two breaths. Three.

"I know. I just..." I just hope only I get punished. "...I just couldn't live with myself if I didn't." She gave him a small, sad smile. "You get it, right?"

The she went quiet, and with one more protracted look at Doctor Follen, she slid open the door and left his office, striding purposefully into the foreign ward and ignoring any questing looks. Pulling out the 104 key the thong on her neck, she fitted it into the door, took another deep breath, then shoved it open and dove in.

Her voice was vastly different from what it usually was. It wasn't subdued as it was on occasion. It wasn't cheerful and bouncy the way that she tried to hard to be most of the time around Roaki. Rather, it was fast and low and showed a clear urgency in the sheer tension present in her. Her foot was tapping rapidly on the floor in a way that she didn't know if she'd ever done before, her lips were pressed tightly together, and she moved immediately over to Roaki's bedside, yanking the wheelchair to her instead of taking a seat like she usually did and shifting it over to the bedside as well.

"Roaki, I need you to murder me in sims right now."

Amygdala Circuit

“I don’t believe that’s possible at this point, Quinn. Apologies, I thought you already knew—the deal was made. We’re delivering her to Casoban within the week.”

Quinn blinked, and her mouth dropped a little ways open in raw surprise and confusion, like she just...didn't understand the words coming out of Doctor Follen's mouth. Or like they were in a totally different language; so far beyond her scope of understanding all she could t was sit there stupefied for a moment. A deal with Casoban. Delivering Roaki to them.

Letting her die.

Memories played back in her head of every day, when she visited Roaki, the tension in their speech, but at the same time, the kind of respect that they'd built up over the past few weeks.

They were letting her die.

Quinn's mouth moved before her mind could, really, and she found herself standing up in front of the chair braced on the arms, an expression between mulish stubbornness and seething anger no her face. Her emotions were tangled, but the same idea jumped out of all of them, and they all let to the same conclusion

"No. Nuh-uh."

Her voice was razor sharp as she went on: "I'm not gonna let that happen. Casoban can wait!" The confusion had cleared, leaving only frustration and determination. "Roaki doesn't deserve death! And I'm not gonna let her die!" Her mind raced. What could she do. What could she do? As firm as she was, she didn't have a real...

And then she did.

A way to convince Roaki to live.

Roaki clung to being a pilot like nothing else.

"Sims," she murmured.

"Sims!" Her voice was louder, and ever more stubborn now, if possible. "I'm taking her into sims!"

Shelter: A Zombie Survival Story

You thought you could have a Gowi game without me?

That's where you're MISTAKEN

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

---

The seconds ticked by like hours as Alja stood in front of Leaves' door.

She'd been here so many times now. Couldn't count the times she'd thrown open the door of the chapterhouse, rampaged by Aag and Luci and Pris sitting by the table planning a raid or something, and pulled Leaves out to go paint the town. But now that oh-so-flimsy piece of wood that she could probably shatter with a single punch might as well have been a mountain range, for all she felt she could cross through it. She lifted her hand to knock again, and for a moment it hung trembling in the air.

But a moment later, it fell back to her side. She laughed then: a bitter, mirthless laugh. Amadan. Cowardly, childish, idiot. This is what you deserve.

She should've come here so long ago now. She should've come here literally the day after what happened. She knew Leaves would take it hard, damn it all. She knew full well. But she was too scared. Too afraid to face her, after she'd failed her so utterly and completely. She didn't know what she would say. She didn't know if there was anything she could say. What would it even be? I'm sorry I let everyone die? Just thinking about it nearly set her laughing again. It was just so...grossly inadequate. No, there was nothing she could say that wouldn't just make it worse.

God, but she should've tried anyway.

So, standing there dead silent in front of her best friend and first real love's door--and feeling a metaphorical but equally as painful door slamming closed in her heart--all Alja could do was let her huge form sag, and drop her head in shame. Her voice came out in a soft, mournful whisper:

"Tha mi duilich, mo ghràdh."

She stood there for a few more seconds. Just staring at the ground, drowning in her self-pity. Then she sucked in a sharp, harsh breath. None of that, Alja Frostguard. There are other people that need you. So don't you fail them too. With steps still leaden but carrying on nonetheless, she fought her way back up the stairs, scraping her way back through the entrance to where Luci still stood. it hadn't been very long, after all. At a questioning look, she shook her head, then smiled sadly. "If I were her, I wouldn't talk to me either."

She lapsed into silence. She knew she said that she'd talk to Luci after she visited Leaves, but...all the wind had gone from her sails now, and it was hard for her to bring herself to talk much at the moment. And Luci, gorgeous saint that she was, must've noticed it, by the way she tilted her head towards the door. She didn't exactly look the happiest, and Alja gave her a rueful look. "Later. I promise."

Then she shoved through the chapterhouse doors again, determined that it wouldn't be the last time.

Thorinn was hot and humid as ever. She started sweating almost immediately. Her jaw was clenched as she walked, first slowly, then faster, back the way she'd come. Don't you fail them too. And when she finally arrived back at the Laughing Worg, she was met with...

...With Captain Everrandis looking none-too-pleased. With Sieg looking like he'd just been hit with a mental freight train, and Sif looking like she'd just seen her brother be run over by said mental freight train. With Artemis nowhere to be found. And with Seele hugging an absolutely shattered Graves.

She slowed to a halt, staring at the scene almost dumbly. What in the blue FECK just happened here? Then she shook her head quickly to chase the cobwebs out before she walked slowly over towards the ones she was closest to. There was nothing wrong with Sif or Sieg, obviously. She wanted to talk to Captain Everrandis to figure out what the hell happened here. She wanted to know where Artemis was.

But they simply weren't her top priority.

She approached slowly, hesitant to disrupt them. But in the end, her worry won out, and she came in from the side, laying a gentle hand on Seele's shoulder. "Hey. Sorry I'm late." A pause. "Would you, uh...care to fill me in on what happened here, Seele?" She let her eyes play over the scene again before returning to Graves, with a look of deep concern on her face. "Seems like I missed a lot."

Amygdala Circuit

As Doctor Follen went on, Quinn found herself nodding gently along, as seemed to happen sometimes when he went on for a while and she thought he was right about it. And he was, in the end; she had started to consider the Aerie as hers. Her home. A real home.

That said, she wasn't exactly happy about the only way to heal herself from the scar her parents had left being time. She wasn't surprised by it, but hearing it didn't exactly fill her with happiness, either: she'd always have to live with this on her back. And though Doctor Follen was sure it'd get lighter, she knew that it would never truly go away. The tangled thoughts, the confused feelings, the crushing memories wouldn't ever just go away. They may get less tangled, less confused, less crushing, but a part of her knew full well they would never just leave her be.

"Try to understand them," she murmured to herself, face the picture of doubt as it dipped to look at her shoes. She didn't really understand a good deal of her feelings on the best of days. How long would it take for her to understand ones this potent? She let slip a quiet, almost mournful sigh. If Doctor Follen thought that trying to understand them was important...well, she trusted him. If he thought so, then she'd try as hard as she could. "I guess I can at least try."

A beat passed in silence before she raised her head, meeting Doctor Follen's eyes again. She took a long breath, screwing up her courage for the next question. "I have another question," she said quietly. "It's...it's about Roaki."

Another pause as Doctor Follen kept looking at her, waiting for her to keep going, scratching away at his notepad. "She still seems not to want to live, or at least not care about it." As usual, now that she'd taken the first step talking, the rest came easier afterwards. "You understand people, right? Do you know any way I can...I don't know, help her realize that her life is worth living?" And, tacked on at the very end in a voice barely louder than a whisper, "I don't like seeing her like this."