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stats/permissions, and a brief overview of Drake's brand of zombiedom!
| Player Info ♚ NAME: Ana ♚ CONTACT: ♚ TIMEZONE: EST (-5) but a chronic insomniac Stats ♚ VISUAL: 6'0" and muscular, with medium brown hair he keeps buzzed on the sides and combed on top, blue-green eyes, and a deep scar beside his right eye. Always clean-shaven. He has several tattoos: the numbers 23 and 44 on either shoulder just beneath his collarbone, and a Celtic-knot inside a bear's paw/clawprint on his right upper arm. Without the glamour (see Q & A below) he is extremely pale with red-rimmed eyes and pure white hair. ♚ FASHION: Drake is a suuuuper casual guy. He's almost always in t-shirts under casual button downs or just a henley (this boy loves henleys stfu), jeans, and work boots. Every now and then he wears a beanie. ♚ WEAPONS: Drake never leaves home without his sidearm, which in Hadriel he simply wears in a belt holster. It was a reward for surviving the gods' paintball game in September of 2017. On patrol he carries a battle axe, and is now modestly skilled with sword and bow. He also knows how to handle Ephemera's assault rifle. ♚ DEMEANOUR: There is a definite laid-back swagger going on in Drake's normal walk, his default expression comes off as open and friendly, and he intentionally keeps his body language relaxed as much as possible even when he is actually very tense. Good posture. ♚ SOUND: Drake usually sounds upbeat and calm, and speaks with an easy drawl of indeterminate origin. When he's angry his voice gets deeper, kind of dangerous, but he doesn't really ever yell or get riled up. Gotta maintain that chill. ♚ SCENT: ...uh. He doesn't really use fragrances and isn't picky about the bath products in the shops so I honestly have no idea. Go nuts. ♚ MENTAL INFORMATION: Drake has seen some shit, friends. His personal history involves child/domestic violence and both near death and death experiences, he was undercover for Seattle's major crime boss and witness to truly terrible things, and as a zombie has the death memories of everyone he's eaten. (See Q & A below.) You probably don't want to go spelunking in his head for fun. ♚ MAGICAL INFORMATION: No magic powers here! Permissions ♚ BACKTAGGING: I will backtag into eternity, and honestly can be kind of slow myself sometimes. If you ever need boomeranging/priority on a thread, just hit me and I'll do my best! ♚ FOURTHWALLING: No, please. ♚ PHYSICAL AFFECTION: Yes, go for it! Drake's very much a gentleman so probably isn't gonna touch you first unless you clearly need help, but he's very affectionate and gives excellent hugs. Just saying. ♚ PHYSICAL VIOLENCE: Please give me a heads up if your character is going to attack him seriously -- injury may trigger full-on zombie mode and out him, which I like to plan for. (See Q & A below for details.) Either way, he'll defend himself if necessary and he's a very skilled fighter. ♚ RELATIONSHIPS: My boy is very personable, he'll try to be just about anyone's friend. For shipping, at this point he's got a partner, but they are Characters In The Know Terrence Ephemera - the only person Drake told completely willingly, during a 'no more secrets' conversation; has sworn to protect him Lup Taaco - confronted Drake after seeing his nightmare where he killed and ate Ephemera; has sworn to protect him and help find a cure; currently glamouring him regularly to hide the zombie appearance Nick Valentine - helped contain Drake after the Null invasion; he admitted what he was and what was happening while requesting leave from the Guard; later helped him again during and immediately after the deserted event Lance Sweets - helped Drake scavenge corpses after he revealed himself while starving during the Null invasion Jo Harvelle - found fatally injured during the Null invasion; he comforted her as she died and she consented to being a meal so he could hold off Nagito Komaeda - caught a glimpse of brains through Drake's eyes during 'that's my rubber ducky'; offered his brain in case Drake ever goes hungry again Kyna Midha - told by Ephemera after the Null invasion; helped guard Drake/keep him company while he was contained and starving Ianchus Cepheos - another "no choice" case, Drake revealed himself during the deserted event; did not know what zombies were but despite being a total stranger he took it amazingly well and promised to keep it a secret Glacius - another necessity, when Drake was starving without the gods after the move to ice planet, he mentioned wishing it were cold enough to be frozen and took Nick up on contacting the ice alien to do so Agent Carolina - knows Drake is "sick" and his condition is managed by Hope Tinya Wazzo - knows Drake is "sick" and his condition is managed by Hope Klaus Hargreeves - told by Drake during fear itself, after he was injured protecting Klaus from attacking host ghosts and had to dissuade him from providing medical care |
Additionally, I'm writing up a thing over a year later, primarily because the canon lore has become inconsistent. I play from and prefer the lore in season 2, so for clarity's sake, here's how it works for Drake, in game!
What is a zombie?
An individual that eats human brains. They can and in fact do also eat other things to stay healthy, but they need brains to remain themselves -- without them they will lose all capacity for higher thought processes and become a "Romero", a monster whose only concern is cracking your skull open for a snack. It's unknown how long a zombie has to starve before they go Romero and start rotting, but it only takes a few days without brains for a zombie to become hungry enough to struggle to control themselves around humans.
Brains are gross!
Indeed they are, even zombies aren't happy about this bullshit. Hot sauce makes it more bearable, and in fact, a symptom of zombiedom is a loss of taste except in the presence of extreme spice. We don't know how this works, but a zombie will spice up everything they eat and drink to a level that's downright harmful to humans, to be able to enjoy it.
What about the rest of the victim?
Fortunately or unfortunately (probably unfortunately, since at least general cannibalism wouldn't necessitate murder in an emergency) the rest of the body is basically worthless to a zombie. Human meat is the same as any other, the only thing that will sustain their humanity is the brain. Even Romeros don't seem to feast on the victim's flesh, they are always ravenous but only for brains.
Are they dead?
This is reeeeeeal blurry in canon. Technically... I say no, they're infected. You cannot reanimate a corpse, and people who are turned still have a pulse (extremely slow -- 10 beats per minute), detectable if very low blood pressure, and low but still warm body temperatures, and they need to breathe and all that jazz. (Again, I am playing from season 2. As of season 4 the show has changed the lore on body temperature and refers to zombies as undead, but Drake never technically died and thus still considers himself alive.)
So is it an infection or a mutation? You say both.
Canon can't make up it's freaking mind, honestly. It's referred to as the zombie virus (while discussing sexual transmission) but there's no known pathogen in the tainted utopium. It seems more like a strange mutation, but it is highly contagious. So basically, I'm not 100% certain! No one really knows where it came from, but Drake is not a doctor and he thinks it's a virus, so that's what I'm going with.
Okay, how do they catch it?
Via scratch or sexual contact. Ingestion/injection of contaminated bodily fluids (blood is used in canon) also does the trick. Condoms do not prevent zombiedom. (But Drake has magic ones in Hadriel that will protect you, so if you're interested please live your best life.) For the record, kissing is perfectly safe.
Back up, how do the brains keep them human? That's not traditional zombie lore.
You're right, it's not! In canon nobody really understands, but it's theorized that since the ingestion of brains leads to the zombie taking on the personality of whoever they just ate, they're kind of borrowing that humanity. Usually the zombie will struggle to retain their sense of self when they're "on a brain," and get flashes of the deceased's memories. But once a zombie starves to the point of going Romero, all the brains in the world won't bring their mind back. They've gotta stay fed or else!
Wait, Drake is just himself in game, how are you playing this?
Luckily for iZombie players (come to me, castmates) the personality acquisition is not an issue in Hadriel. Hope provides zombies their brains free of charge, and since they're not actually from people, they're personality-and-vision-free. They still work to keep you human, though, because it's magic. In canon, a "brain mash" of lots of different people (I'm talking dozens of brains) will also prevent the personality acquisition, possibly because it's just not enough of anyone in particular.
Exactly how much can he heal from?
Quite a bit, but the healing is not regenerative. If he loses a limb or eye or what have you, it won't grow back/reattach without standard medical treatment, and honestly, zombies heal so fast that reattachment might not be an option. The stump or what have you could possibly start to heal over during surgery. Canon has gone seriously off the rails with this kind of thing (there's a talking head in s4 thanks I hate it) but at Drake's canon point, as long as he's in one piece and his brain isn't damaged, he's capable of healing from any injury. Perhaps due to the speed of it all, most healed injuries leave dramatic scars. And again, if an organ is destroyed/detached... that's all, folks, sorry. Can't unsquish that eye.
Full-on zombie mode, what is it?
It's a fight response (to a zombie, there is no flight mode, only fight) triggered by anger, injury, or even just fear. If a zombie is significantly threatened, they'll enter a violent state kind of like a rage status effect, during which they don't react to pain and are dramatically stronger and faster than a human. Their skin will further pale, their eyes will turn solid blood red, and black veins bulge from their skin. It ain't pretty. An extremely hungry zombie will also slip into this state by default, and struggle to control their actions.
So even non-Romero zombies look different from humans?
Yup! Romeros are more obvious because they're rotting (and y'know probably trying to crack your head open), but all zombies share the same physical characteristics: all their hair grows pure white, their skin turns extremely pale for whatever skin tone they began with, and their eyes are typically red-rimmed. The majority will spray-tan their skin and dye their hair to stay undetected. In Hadriel, Drake got such supplies from Delight until her betrayal. These days, his buddy Lup glamours him regularly. Nothing will hide full-on zombie mode, though.
Are there any upsides?
Well, becoming a zombie is a far preferable alternative to death. If someone is terminally ill or fatally injured, all it takes is a scratch to save them. Zombies never get sick, and have that insane healing factor. Many zombies (including Drake) became that way because they were about to die otherwise. He specifically did not consent and thinks it's pretty awful, but is rolling with it because hey, he's not dead.
Did I forget anything, or you just have another question? Hit me here! ♥