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- Name: Abby // Abigail Jones
Age: Dead
Eye colour: Empty, bleeding sockets
Hair: White. Usually up in a high ponytail which reaches to her shoulders.
Body type: Emaciated. Rounded face.
Short personality: Apathetic, sarcastic, laconic, occasionally witty, condescending, lazily malicious to almost everyone, secretly deeply introspective.
Distinguishing features: Lack of eyes. Green skin with blue tints. Devil tail and curved horns. Scar under her right breast and across her left hip, both roughly sewn.
Outfits: Rotten, torn, and generally disintegrated. Wears enough to cover her modesty, then adds oversized hats, oversized weapons, and chunky / knee high boots. Is rarely seen without the tattered cloak. Doesn't really wear anything that isn't black.
Themesong: idksomethingzombierelated + Candlebox - You
DETAILED PERSONALITY
For a long time after Abby is revived, she is incapable of emotion. All she has to prompt reactions are fuzzy memories.
After a while she gets the hang of it again -- mostly through forcing herself to react -- but very few ever come naturally after the infection. As a result, she generally expresses little to no emotion at all, since faking them is a lot of wasted effort.
Most people, though they would never say so to her face, are unsure if she feels emotion towards anyone except Nate.
That's because people are stupid.
Strategy is for the weak. She'd rather wing it, since she believes she was never enough of an alpha personality to get the hang of leadership.
Abby is kind of stupid sometimes, too.
She is extremely logical, for the most part. She sees things in black and white, and often comes to conclusions other people do not. She doesn't suffer from a guilty conscience or uncertainty, so her decisions are based on fact, which gives the impression that she is extremely cold hearted.
For example, if there was a small child and an old man both surrounded by zombies and she could only save one of them, Abby would just walk away and leave them both to die. Since they are basically doomed anyway, there is no reason to kill them, and no reason to attempt a rescue when neither will be a productive member of the community.
Abby finds one of the large advantages of being dead is that she no longer has unconscious tics or giveaways, since her body doesn't do anything instinctively anymore.
It makes conversations awkward for the other person, but works great when she decides she has a reason to lie.
It is extremely rare for her to show interest in pretty much anything at all.
As far as she is concerned, people are boring. They whine and wail and stamp their feet and screw around and pretend that the world hasn't turned to s**t.
This is not applied to the world in general. She is very, very interested in the state of the world. Especially in what parts have been left for the dead, what parts are being reclaimed, and what parts have been settled on. She's far from stupid, and knows this is important information.
It is worth reiterating that Abby considers almost everyone she meets to be a moron, and the ones she hasn't to be completely stupid. Useless, too.
She has no problems making this clear -- mostly when she can prove them wrong. This was not a trait she displayed while she was alive.
Obviously, she comes across rather arrogant in a lot of situations, although she considers an ego too much effort to upkeep. Mostly she's just right and doesn't have the mental buffer to state this subtly.
Anger and malice are very hard emotions for Abby to feel. However, they are easy to fake, so she expresses them often when comments are made that she is being unfairly emotionless.
She tried distant sadness for a while, but people kept trying to make her feel better, which lead to having to fake more emotion. A lot of effort.
It is widely assumed that her death has made Abby very forgiving since she rarely indicates holding a grudge, but the fact is, she just never really cared in the first place about the insult.
Next to Nate, sarcasm is her best friend. She does retain some sense of humor, but rarely shows it as she considers it a private remnant of her former self.
Although it's hard to tell, Abby is extremely private. There are a lot of times that she doesn't respond because she doesn't want the other person to know what she is thinking, rather than because she doesn't care if they do.
She lies a lot, especially in regards to what she remembers. While it's easy to recall details about her life before she died, there is no emotion attached to them and she doesn't consider them memories. The things she does remember are hers, and unlikely to be shared even with Nate.
Even around Nate, Abby craves solitude. The only thing that stops her from pursuing this is that she doesn't want to leave him. It is an unsettling thing for her to realize.
Being around other people is exhausting, as she takes a lot of cues from her partner and works to make sure her behaviour reflects on her, and not on him. Being alone is only marginally easier than being with him on a one-on-one basis.
Talking isn't as much effort as she makes it out to be, and actually comes rather easily. Still, she rarely speaks unless she has something to say, and chooses her words carefully.
Trust is never something that she worries about. She believes that people will do what they have to do to survive, and if that involves screwing her over, so be it. She would do the same to them if the situation arose, and sees no point in concerning herself about what she sees as inevitable.
People assume Abby is fiercely independent. Mostly she just doesn't need anything. There's a difference.
She lives with Nate because he requested it, not because it mattered to her. Eventually it does, but not in the initial stages.
Abby is extremely introspective, and spends hours analyzing her memories and what she recalls to try and understand who she used to be. She never figures it out.
She is very loyal to people she cares about, and shows it by tolerating them. This amounts to Nate, and later to a smaller degree, Johnny.
Abby is too lazy to ever be sensitive in general. She is also too lazy to be selfish, petulant, or afraid.
She rarely shows affection for anyone. She believes that since she is dead, she can't form bonds. Nobody bothers pointing out the hypocrisy of her blatant affection for Nate in the light of this.
Before the zombies Abby was shy and socially awkward. She wasn't comfortable being in large groups of people, and rarely made close friends due to a lack of empathy. She worried a lot about being seen as immature, and often took on more responsibility than necessary to overcompensate for this.
Though she had a very developed sense of humor, it wasn't often that she showed it, for fear of being laughed at.
A lot of her emotions were bottled up to the best of her ability, and let out in private. Confrontation never happened, since when she was a child she used to cry when she was angry, and crying as an adult is humiliating.
Abby was terrified of being alone, despite her instinctive desire not to be around people.
However, now and again, she threw all her inhibitions out the window and just did whatever she felt like doing, consequences be damned. Usually with the aid of hard liquor.
Before the infection Abby spent a lot of time being wide eyed, terrified, and numbly trying to remember why she wasn't just walking into a horde of zombies and ending it all. She was wracked with guilt over what she had to do before she found Nate, and reacted by curling up in small spaces and crying whenever she had the chance. Dimly, she acknowledged Nate was protecting her, but it never struck her as important enough to care about. She genuinely wouldn't have held it against him if he'd left her to die.
Eventually, once she learned how to shoot a gun, her self confidence returned. Being able to defend herself -- and other people -- was a big deal to Abby, and she took to it like a duck to water. It was a snowball effect after that, and soon she was as close to her old self as was going to happen. She was witty and sarcastic, and though she was no longer afraid of confrontation, being seen as a fool still terrified her. She never entirely recovered, however, and was excessively withdrawn around strangers.
CURRENT/HOME UNIVERSE
Zombiepocalypse
PAST
> friends with Nate
> zombies
> crycry
> death
> more zombies
... No, that's really about it. Seriously.
RELATIONSHIPS
* Abby and Nate are extremely close, despite the fact she is dead.
Though he still has the urge to protect her, Nate does this more behind the scenes than he used to -- taking on most of the village and going out of his way to defend her honor, amongst other things. She is only dimly aware of his efforts, and he never makes a point to bring it up.
They tease each other a lot -- unafraid to tell the other when they're being a childish d**k, a lot of their statements could be taken to indicate hostility to outsiders. They know exactly what buttons to push to piss each other off, and have no problem doing this to get a point across, or just to amuse themselves.
However, since they actually understand each other, whatever resentment arises from their spats never lasts long. There's never need for awkward explanations and bumbling apologies. They're too manly for things like that -- besides, the fact that Nate brings her cigarettes and Abby doesn't kill anyone around him is enough proof of their friendship, in their opinions.
Nate still trusts Abby unconditionally, though she no longer lets him in on what she's thinking most of the time, and he never pushes. Abby never breaks this confidence. It never even occurs to her that she could. She also never offers advice, and if he feels like venting at her, she'll listen with at least half an ear.
Abby would do anything for Nate -- this is a lot more obvious than she realizes, since it is his request alone that can get her to tolerate the village, go on hunts with other hunters, and not snark at Tabitha. She doesn't resent him in the least for killing her, and brushes off his own guilt at it. She's dead, so being butthurt about it won't achieve anything. There is more than a little residual adoration from when she was alive in her relationship with Nate. This tolerance is not shown to anyone else.
They never suffer from rose coloured glasses -- Nate is well aware that Abby is dead and ******** up in social situations, and Abby is well aware that Nate is a douchebag manwhore. They just don't think these aspects are anything to worry about.
Nate acts as Abby's conscience, since with him around, she has to watch what she says in case it reflects badly on him. She never questions her actions in regards to this, and he never does more than watch her carefully.
On an unacknowledged level, they need each other. Talking about this would be not-masculine and more than a little gay, so they never do.
Most people assume they're just banging behind the scenes. This ignorance is a source of amusement. They don't change the way they treat each other, because uncertainty about how they feel is never an issue between them.
Abby worries, to some degree, when Nate goes on a hunt. Him being dead would not be a pleasant thing.
In her eyes, he is always going to be who he was before. He knows this, and sometimes wishes things were different.
Abby and the mayor of the village have a love/hate relationship, without the love.
Abby thinks he's an immature douchebag who she would only go to in the most extreme of circumstances, since he obviously cares more about pleasing the masses than the individuals; and he thinks that she's more trouble than she's worth and life would be a ******** easier without her in it.
There's a tiny bit of grudging respect on either end, although they never admit it. The bottom line is, they both do their respective jobs well enough that they can go through life simply scowling at each other -- he keeps everyone else happy, and she keeps them alive.
Abby and Johnny are comrades-in-arms, in her opinion. She is aware of his attraction, and that he considers them friends, but she is also clear that she does not. She's dead and therefore unable to form bonds.
They are fairly close, and she tends to confide in him about things regarding Nate. She appreciates the fact that he can not only keep a secret, but that he doesn't interfere. She also acknowledges that since he's not dead, he might sometimes have an insight into how to deal with things.
When it comes to hunting, they work as a bloody good team. Since he isn't Nate, Abby's concern for him is minimal, and he is more than capable of looking after himself. They work more efficiently together as a result.
From the start, Abby considers Tabitha nothing more than an expensive whore. Aside from that, there isn't much between them -- Tabitha thinks Abby is a threat to her relationship with Nate, and Abby thinks that's ******** hilarious because Nate is never going to care about Tabitha anywhere near as much as he does her. This doesn't mean she doesn't know Tabitha actually loves him, she just thinks Tabitha's constant attempts at rivalry are pathetic.
In general, the only relationship Abby has with the village is something bordering on masochism. They hate her, she finds them hideously boring, but as long as they keep out of each others way, things are ... tolerable.
She prefers to treat them with apathy, but since Nate finds that disconcerting, she expresses great hostility. It is assumed she is just mimicking the way they treat her, and she never corrects them.
In general, Abby treats other hunters with distant respect, no matter how they treat her. While the ones that are familiar with ghouls are accepting and often try to engage her in teasing banter, the ones that aren't react the way the village at large does. At some point, most of them try to kill her, whether they're friend or otherwise -- just to see if they can.
However, since she does the same job they do, she acknowledges it takes a certain amount of balls, and rarely reacts to anything.
In general, Abby treats other ghouls with nothing but undisguised, condescending disgust.
Being one of them doesn't change anything. She believes that the first ghoul sets the bar for the rest, and does not want to be associated with the personalities they express. She was never a happy, chirpy little ******** -- and the fact that people who know them before her assume she is does nothing to improve her opinion of the rest of her 'kind.'
Before the zombies, Abby and Nate were super bffs. They met over an incident involving broken crayons and a lot of alcohol, and made the mistake of becoming friends when they should have been having a quickie behind the bike shed.
They didn't really introduce each other to their respective groups of friends, preferring to keep their friendship private, rather than secret. If they met in public they would exchange words and a few laughs, but it would always be quite dismissive. They both had their own reasons for this.
Nate was extremely protective of Abby, annoyed by the way that the universe seemed intent on destroying what he saw as her persistent -- though vaguely child-like -- optimism about the world. Rather than being insulted by his need to save her, Abby was rather amused -- and comforted -- by the fact that someone had her back, even if she didn't understand why he wanted to. The world was a scary place.
They would most often be found in secluded places -- empty bars, parks, places like that. By unspoken agreement, they gravitated away from people when they were together, unless they needed food.
Their teasing interaction and half-snide comments led to the assumption they were having an affair. Nate was amused. Abby was oblivious, and continued acting the way she wanted. The fact they were very touchy-feely around each other didn't do much for their side of the argument, although this absent-minded physical contact had its roots in Abby's dislike of being touched at all, and her desire to overcompensate so as not to insult Nate, who was casually touchy anyway. Nate was amused by this, too.
They confided in each other without concern, from the start. They genuinely wanted to make things better for each other, but acknowledged the world didn't work that way, and mostly just listened calmly. It wouldn't be unusual for Nate to snap at Abby if she was being spineless and in a bad situation because she wouldn't stand up for herself, but he would never storm away in a huff. She would take his statements on board later, when she had stopped feeling sorry for herself. This sort of "tough love" prompted her to take such action as moving into her own house. She never told him how highly she valued his opinion, and he never told her that he sought her approval.
It was common for Abby to show up on Nate's doorstep after a bar fight with a scowl, a bottle of iodine and a tirade about what an idiot he was to get into another scrap. She'd usually fall asleep on the couch after she was done cleaning him up -- which he was quite capable of doing himself -- while he was making her a coffee, and he'd cover her with a blanket when he went to bed. She'd be gone when he woke up in the morning.
Before the zombies, Abby had a family even if she never cared about them. It consisted of her hedonistic whore of a mother who was never around, since she was too busy cheating on her father; her father, a spineless wimp who never got up the courage to leave; and her little brother, who she actually did care about a little, even if he was short and dorky.
SPECIFIC UNIVERSE CROSSINGS
N/A
OTHER s**t
When Abby gets wounded, she pretty much just staples / sews that s**t together. After a while, it disappears. It never "heals", her body just basically resets back to its default state -- which is how it was when she stopped being dead.
With the exception of her eyes, she never bleeds. Ever.
She really, really likes cemeteries. Once she leaves the village, she lives in one. It's the gravestones that attract her.
She also really, really likes high places. She lives in Nate's attic, and if she's not with him, she can generally be found sitting on top of a high piece of wall at the edge of the village. Rooftops, however, are awkward perches.
Abby considers things like adding a lilt to her tone at the end of a question to make it a question instead of a statement -- or even emphasizing words -- to be a lot of effort. She often doesn't bother.
Although she'd never admit it, making herself sound bored or disinterested is pretty much the same amount of work as the aforementioned. She rarely sounds anything but.
Her love of classic rock comes from the fact that Nate introduced her to it. Her favourite band is AC/DC.
Despite the fact that they now live in a zombiepocalypse and the living dead ate everyone she cared about, she never stopped thinking zombie movies were ******** awesome.
Purple gummy lollies are the best.
Up until the zombies, a small stuffed rabbit would sit on the spare side of Abby's bed. It was a gift from Nate, for the first birthday she had after she met him. They never exchanged gifts after that year.
She actually had no idea how to play poker the first time she did it with the other hunters. This is a fact she never admits to anyone, considering that admitting she won every hard through pure luck would damage her reputation.
Refuses to work with kids, or even tolerate them being near her, because she had to kill her younger brother when the zombies came.
