“He’s not a murderer, but thank you,” said Penny as Justin spoke up and took control of the situation.
Justin was right. As much as she wanted to punch Rita for holding out on her and Britney for bringing it up in the first place, they had much more important things to worry about than an invasion of privacy. Penny stood back and listened as the group debated possible plans of attack, and she jumped when the Hound spoke up. She even chuckled a little to herself. She thought by now she’d be used to otherworldly creatures appearing out of the ether. At least she managed to not flinch when the Speaker arrive and gave its piece.
“At least we can confidently cross one idea off the list,” said Penny as the Speaker disappeared. The things that had given into the Glutton didn’t seem free. They seemed more like puppets, pulled and jerked around by strings, and were dangerously prone to committing grievous self-harm in the name of redemption. She’d pass. “Honestly, I think there’s only one real option. I’m with Britney.”
“Sorry, Lynette,” said Penny, as walked over next to Britney. “Your idea isn’t a bad one, there’s just too many variables and, really, I’m not sure if I put much faith in jackasses from another dimension, especially jackasses that helped seal the Glutton here. And yeah, Justin, if you met Amethyst you wouldn’t fucking trust her either. She wears robes, man; she definitely wouldn’t bother to try and bring everyone back.” Penny smiled. “It’s just...I don’t want to throw away our one shot by putting our fate in the hands of people who don’t even give a shit about us. I trust everyone in this room....even if they may not trust me.”
“...I never said I didn’t trust you,” muttered Rita as she felt Penny’s eyes on her.
Penny continued, “We should do the Ascension like the Hound says, bring everyone back, and seal that orange glowing son of a bitch away for the rest of time. It’s the best shot we got.”
Rita didn’t lower her glare as Britney gave them doomed scenario after doomed scenario. Put all their faith in the Hound and the Child? Rita trusted them about as much as she understood them, which was very little, and the idea that there were other things like the Glutton out there haunted her. Her eyes narrowed on the vines that Britney played with, and that loss of focus was enough to break her abstraction.
“Rita, you never told us what your abstraction was.”
“I thought I did,” said Rita hurriedly, her ears darting to the ground. She felt a tightness in her chest. She should lie. She had another abstraction. Did Britney know that? The others certainly did. She glanced at Tuyen. Maybe she could help. Rita needed to keep her abstraction a secret, especially from Britney. It’d be broken, otherwise, and leave her out in the dark. She felt her breath quicken. Penny could help her, right? She looked up at the blonde and all of the blood drained from her face. Penny didn’t look like she was about to defend Rita. She looked puzzled.
“Actually, I don’t remember if you did,” said Penny as she rubbed her chin. It was strange, wasn’t it? Rita wasn’t the only one whose abstraction was still a mystery to the group—Penny couldn’t recall a time Kimberly used hers—but it would be in the group’s best interest to know what they had to use against the Glutton. Penny opened her mouth to ask her a question.
“Why didn’t you do anything about Billy after I told you he tried to kill me?” blurted out Rita as she beat Penny to the punch, deflecting the question about her abstraction.
“Because he’s my brother and I don’t want to fucking believe that the only living family I had left could do something like that!” shouted Penny with exasperation. “I still don’t. He’s an asshole and an idiot, but Billy couldn’t hurt anyone.” Not on purpose, anyway. Not unless his seed had started to sprout. Her eyes darkened. “I said I’d watch over him just in case, but I didn’t think he’d just disappear in the middle of the night. I’m sorry. I fucked up.”
Penny bit her lip. She wouldn’t have said half of that if it had been her choice. She glanced over at Britney, realizing that she had figured it out first, and then took a step towards Rita. In comparison to her confession, Penny’s voice was quiet and composed when she asked, “Rita, what is your abstraction?”
“I—” Rita glanced away and tried to come up with another question to ask Penny, but her mouth was already moving. “I just ask questions and get answers.” She sheepishly grinned. ”Is that a problem?”
“No, it isn’t a problem,” said Penny, lying, as she stepped back and prayed Britney didn't do anything stupid.
It was bizarre returning to where it all started. Penny found herself stopping and staring at the snow-covered husk of Dexter’s car where it rested a few yards away from the tree it had pinned Reese against. A thin frown set in on her face as she recalled that evening. If Penny had known things would turn out like this she probably would’ve joined everyone around the campfire as they drank and talked shit instead of search for her missing younger brother. Maybe if she had just accepted things as they were instead of try and push reality away she wouldn’t have even been in this town when all of it began. Although, the thought of not being in this town filled her with a kind of melancholy. As bizarre as it was to think, she was glad she was here.
Besides, someone had to be here to take Lynette’s side when Justin started proposing idiotic ideas. She trusted the hell out of the guy, but they were not splitting up. Penny kept it to herself, but she was concerned about what would happen when, no, if one of them succumbed to the Glutton’s influence. Regardless, it would be easier to handle the situation as a collective than as individuals. Also, she already knew where they could take a break.
“Yeah, I’m with Lynette. Splitting up is the last thing I’d want to do. The boy’s cabin was still relatively intact. We can hole up there,” said Penny.
Penny took her place back at the front of the pack and led the group to where she and Billy had hid during Scott Reese’s rampage. No place they found would be warm, but at least it hadn’t been hacked to parts by the bastard like the girl’s cabin so they could temporarily escape the elements. As they approached the small wooden building Penny shoved down a growing feeling of dread, mostly brought on by the hinged door being cracked ajar. She held up one had to stall the group and signaled for Justin to join her as she took a look inside. Fortunately, it seemed like the cabin was empty except for the unclaimed bags of campers. Penny stared at the pile. She felt like Billy’s bag should’ve been left there, but it was missing. She forced the thought out of her mind. Obviously, he had just grabbed it when running from Reese months ago.
“Okay, so Min brought up a good point earlier,” said Penny after the group piled into the cabin. She stood by the same window she had kept watch out for Reese at that summer, scanning the snowy grounds for any interlopers on the horizon. “To be honest, I have no fucking clue how we can fix the seals once we find them. There was nothing in the Mayor’s memory about it, Min?”
“Wouldn’t be surprised if Britney knows something,” muttered Rita under her breath. She sat on a bed with her back against the wall, her knees pulled up into her chest. She tugged at her sleeve as she glared over at Britney, trying to catch the woman’s eyes. “You keeping anymore secrets from us?”
Penny didn’t look at the group at the end of the recollection. She kept her eyes on the table with her jaw clenched tight as Justin’s revelation rampaged through her brain. Everyone of them was at risk of becoming like those maniacs that had attacked them in the hospital the other day. Penny knew that asking everyone to head up into the mountain to face the Glutton and whatever else awaited them was was already suicidal, but now they were at risk of a fate worse than death—being the Glutton’s puppet. To make matters worse, not everyone had shown up to the meeting that morning, including…
“...your brother?”
“Huh?” asked Penny, as she looked up from the table to stare at the source of the hoarse, meek voice.
“I said, where is your brother?” repeated Rita, her voice more firm than last time. She glared at Penny with betrayal in her eyes. Penny had promised to watch him for Rita, in case he tried to do anything weird again. In Rita’s mind, being absent this morning qualified. Especially just after what Justin had shown them.
“I don’t know,” said Penny. The words surprised her; she’d thought for sure she’d make some excuse. It was the truth. She didn’t know where Billy was. He hadn’t been in his room that morning, and he wasn’t answering her now. “Shit. Maybe he just ran away or maybe, well,” Penny let out a deep sigh and swallowed her emotions. Her voice sounded hollow. “I think we should just expect the worst from here on out.”
“Anyway,” said Penny as she stepped towards the table. “All I can say for certain is that we’re running out of time. If there’s some evil shit growing in my head then I’m not just going to stand here and consider all of the possibilities while it sprouts. We’re going to that mountain, we’re going into the mines, and we’re fixing those five seals to keep that piece of shit locked up for the rest of eternity. I think the easiest way in would be…” she drew at the last word as she scanned the map, and then jammed her finger down on a spot that would be familiar to all of them: the old campgrounds. “Here. Any problems?”
“Sorry, but I do not see how my personal information or work history relates to Mayor Gatch’s candidacy in the slightest. Perhaps we should steer the questions back to agreed upon topics?”
APPEARANCE: Lott has a thin frame that she masks with dark suits which are accentuated by big shoulder pads, wide pants legs, and platform heels. Her face is gaunt, her eyes are sunken, and her skin is an uncracked porcelain thanks to a deft hand with the makeup and several paychecks dedicated to the plastic surgeon. Her chin length hair is black and easily becomes oily much to Lott’s annoyance. Although she has a few tattoos and a number of distinguishable scars, none of them are discernible when she’s in her professional attire. She almost always wears jewelry, and she tends to stick to the flashier, somewhat garish pieces that glow a soft neon when in the dark and seem out of place with her otherwise professional appearance.
Her default body language is a closed off one, prone to crossed arms, slight scowls, and concerned eyebrows. She normally speaks in a quiet voice that is both low and calm, which can either be nicely referred to as relaxing cadence or accurately referred to as a boring monotone. Her movements are painfully slow yet somehow lack coordination. Overall, there is an air of lethargy surrounding the woman, and if not for the occasional blink or sniff she could get confused for a unique piece of upholstery.
OCCUPATION: Lott was an internal auditor for APEX Industries. On paper, her job was to travel from clinic to clinic and assure that they were following company policy, maintaining a safe work environment, and keeping in line with government regulations. Her presence, as she often claimed, should be of little concern to the clinic workers; she was little more than an observer who was there to offer consultation on better practices. In reality, her presence was utterly alarming. While Lott did perform a normal audit, she also doubled as a sort of counterespionage agent—she interviewed and scrutinized APEX employees for any hint that they may have violated their contract or exposed company secrets. Likewise, if a clinic had come under fire from a malpractice claim, it fell upon an auditor like Lott to find some kind of scapegoat or method of coverup.
Lott has recently replaced Mayor Gatch’s publicist, and will be assisting the Mayor is his bid for council by dealing with the media and maintaining a positive public image. More importantly, she will make sure that the rumors regarding Gatch harvesting votes from corpses will be laid to rest and that all other nasty, baseless rumors are kept out of the public domain until after the election.
Psychological Profile
“I dated my old psych evaluator. I fear they might have screwed with my test results.”
PERSONAL GOAL: Lott never followed through with the grand plan for her life, and this laissez-faire attitude has left her with a growing pit of emptiness inside of her. She has begun to think lately that all she wants is to find a purpose that’ll care for her as much as she cares for it. Basically, she just wants recognition, even if it’s something as small as someone turning to her and earnest saying, “Lott, we couldn’t have done it without you.” She’d make an excellent right-hand woman. She’d also serve as wonderful cannon fodder for a cult.
CAMPAIGN GOAL: It should be to help Mayor Gatch get elected to council, but Lott has been questioning her resolve since day one. She could really help push his career forward if she’s hit with the right motivation, and perhaps fit into a better position. She could also blow the whole thing and make some embarrassing headlines for everyone involved before people realize what an awful idea it was to bring her onboard.
PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY: Lott believes she is a cog; if she finds a place to fit, she can help make something function that is vastly bigger than her. She strives to avoid the center of attention, yet finds herself drawn to people who crave it. Simply put, she’s a follower and she knows it; the woman has zero delusions of grandeur. In her professional life Lott is by the books and adheres to the rules, and she tries to follow this routine in her personal life. However, such rigid inflexibility is likely to snap, so Lott allows herself little reprieves of debauchery to stop from completely flying off like she has in the past.
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY: Lott, in a bland attempt to be as inoffensive as possible, would consider herself to be pretty moderate. She would probably align herself with the Central Party, primarily because they seem the least fringe or prone to upset the status quo, but be able to understand some points from the other parties. This would be the case, if not for one thing: Samsara Washington. She absolutely worships the man, although she can’t quite put it into words. Perhaps she admires him for being so open with his eccentricities, while she keeps her own shoved off into the shadows? Or is it because despite this openness there's still an air of cool mystery around him? Then again, maybe it’s just a stupid celebrity crush. They shook hands once. It was a very big deal. As long as he is their candidate, then Lott’s willing to lean NTP.
SECRETS: Excluding the Mayor, nobody on Gatch’s campaign team is supposed to know that Lott isn’t just a publicist. She was planted on his team by APEX Industries to spy for the company and assure that their golden boy hasn’t lost his luster or surrounded himself with a lot of backstabbers and parasites. Continuing her work as an internal auditor, Lott is to vet Gatch’s team and find a way to cover up any blemishes and cut out any cancerous cells that would harm APEX’s interests. Her future employment is dependent on her assisting Gatch and protecting the brand. They promised a promotion. She’s no longer sure if she wants it.
“Fun Lott” isn't someone she talks about at work. That woman is a frequent face at the Koena Dome, where the act of watching a man get beaten to death is second in its level of excitement only to the thought of getting caught being there by a coworker or casual acquaintance. She can also be found at Duat in a blackout badly singing karaoke and introducing herself to the crowd as Adamantia.
FEARS: It’s public speaking. When sober, Lott finds that being the center of attention makes her stress skyrocket. So, of all the campaign positions Lott could’ve been shoehorned into, the company went with one where she has to present to groups of strangers almost daily. She also fears being a disappointment, and so the mortified looks on the faces of those around her as she stumbles through an introduction hits even harder.
REPUTATION: It all depends on the group. Someone in APEX Industries views her as the steady, solid workhorse she is while, in her opinion, simultaneously overestimating her capabilities. Most members of the campaign team have begun to draw the conclusion that Lott is unqualified for a publicist position, and might in fact be a burden on the campaign trail. Ultimately, they’re suspicious of her appointment, believing her to be either some kind of sycophant or saboteur. The people who happen to know Lott’s wild side view her as entertaining but potentially dangerous—she’s the kind of person that’d make a night unforgettable in a bad way or impossible to remember in a good way.
LIKES:
Sharp suits, pleasant colognes, flashy jewelry.
Coffee breaks, alone, with sweets.
Menial tasks, tidying, doing paperwork.
Karaoke, in a private room, with a handful of acquaintances.
Karaoke, in a public setting, if fully sauced.
Drinking, heavily, with harder substances at the ready.
Dancing, moving to the beat, getting lost in the crowd.
Strong personas, heavy augmentations, dangerous lifestyles.
Ultraviolence, pure chaos, the destruction of social norms—temporarily, when controlled, or reversible.
DISLIKES:
Bad haircuts, lame fashion, boring styles.
Tough decisions, calling the shots, being in the spotlight.
Weak hearted losers, unconfident and aimless jerks, reflections of herself found in others.
The late night comedown, that early morning shame, the daylong hangover.
Rulebreakers, backbiters, traitors.
The actual destruction of social norms, radical organizations and hiveminds, upsetting the balance between glamour and grime.
QUIRKS:
Lott is a space invader. She has a seemingly uncanny ability to always put herself just one step too close to someone for them to be comfortable. Unintentionally, she often does this in complete silence.
Lott looks in every mirror or reflective surface she passes, often stopping to fix something wrong with her hair, makeup, or clothes that only she seems to notice.
Lott softens all of her swears. The dirtiest four-letter word she has uttered in public is damn. Even in her strangest of states, she can’t bring herself to being foulmouthed.
Background Information
“I spent my entire adult life working for APEX Industries, and my name still appears as “Lotte Ramona” on my W2s. I even called. Once. Didn’t want to be a bother.”
Lott grew up the daughter of middle managers living in the New York Seaboard, and the prospect of life used to seem so exciting. The world was just a vast ocean of endless possibilities, all of which Lott eventually realized after she had wormed her way into the corporate world were way beyond the grasp of someone like her. All of the good possibilities were near the bottom of the ocean, and only the truly talented or the truly wealthy were given the necessary dive suit to survive being crushed by the water pressure. All Lott ever achieved was a bad case of the bends, horrible humiliation, and the dark realization that she wasn’t even cut out for middle management, let alone an actual position of relevance. Within a year of her first “real” job of interning for APEX Industries, the corporate world had successfully drowned all of her hopes and ambitions and left her the bloated husk of a human. In other words, she was now the ideal office employee.
Lott was bounced around like a ping pong ball, being relocated from branch to branch throughout what would eventually turn into her lifelong career slash internment at APEX. Eventually, she was pushed into a position that was so perfectly shaped for her that the company stopped shifting her from department to department. More likely, they had forgotten about her during one of their rearrangements and never bothered to bring her back into the rotation. She had been hammered into the Office of Risk Management as an internal auditor for the clinics in the Vegas Triangle region.
It was there that she’d stay for the next decade. It was ten years of nitpicking over minute details to find something wrong the company can ding a clinic with to avoid paying out bonuses for that year. Ten years of ratting out employees that seemed to have intentions of working for different companies or going against the APEX way. Ten years of being hated by just about everyone she worked with, because everyone she worked with thought she was out to get them fired. It was some of the most mind-numbing, soul-sucking work anyone could ever do. She was perfect for it, except the boredom was literally killing her.
Eventually, the only thing that seemed to keep Lott going was the weekend. The weekend gave Lott a chance to shake off her corporate shackles, and living in Vegas she was able to become a tourist to just about all of the things that could make a walking corpse feel something again. Her slide into depravity was a gradual decline without a stopping point thanks to her inability or lack of desire to say no. However, she never went fully unhinged, giving herself something called the “Weekend Rule” where she could excuse herself of any responsibilities as long as the consequences never affected work. Her life was kept in a delicate balance between corporate drone and party monster for about the last year, and outside of the occasional Monday morning hangover she never broke the rules.
In fact, she must’ve pleased someone, because she was offered her first major career change in forever. She was no longer going to be an auditor, she was going to be a publicist. It didn’t make much sense until she was told the dual nature of her role. However, since joining the campaign trail a month ago, it has become clear to Lott that she is in over her head. While she is entirely capable of being a snitch, the woman is grossly unqualified to be a publicist. Her first public event was a slight embarrassment (although nowhere near as bad as she believed it to be), and she felt as if everyone on the campaign team could tell she was a fraud. For the first time in ten years her biggest problem with work wasn’t of being bored, but being overwhelmed.
Honestly, she felt like she was breaking down. When she was an auditor, life was routine and easy, and all of the stresses could easily be washed away with a weekend shitshow. Now, every day is an absolute dreadfest, an anxiety cocktail compounded by the nagging feeling that her corporate overlords either do not care about her wellbeing or are somehow setting her up to be a patsy. Lately, the only thing Lott has found that keeps her steady is the one thing she swore she’d never do—she broke “The Weekend Rule”, and it felt fantastic. Maybe, she thought, she wasn’t breaking down after all; rather, she was about to break free.
Operative Information
“Being average is underrated. Imagine, being better than just about half of humanity. I would go for that in a heartbeat.”
AUGMENTATIONS: APEX VisionQuests IV // The Seeing of the Future: Smart glasses are so medieval. The APEX VQs revolutionizes the way people can see the world by taking smart glass technology and melding it directly to the human eyeball. No more weird red cybereyes, bleeding tear ducts, or nerdy glasses. The APEX VQs offers audio-visual recording, picture enhancing, data scanning, facial recognition, HUDs, Labyrinth interfacing, peer to peer connection, filters, adsupport, and user customization ranging from iris color to pupil shape.
APEX PureXcellence Watch // Achieve New Heights: a wrist implant that monitors a consumers wellbeing while also functioning as a stylish smartwatch It comes with an injector that can be fitted by approved supplements that stave off sleepiness, depression, anxiety, hunger, and other cravings, letting users overcome their more base needs to be a better, more productive member of society. Injections are programmed and monitored at APEX Clinics to be administered automatically throughout the consumers day to monitor wellness. Likewise, consumers will have to refill their supplements at their local APEX Clinic.
[CRACKED] APEX PureExcellence Watch // Achieve New Highs: Lott’s wristwatch implant has been hacked to allow the user to manually administer injections and feed false information to the APEX Clinics. The frequent bathroom trips of yesteryear for a quick little upper have now been replaced by a simple check of the time.
EQUIPMENT: The Professional’s Purse: No one bag should carry so much power, but Lott’s purse is brimming with everything she needs to attempt to be a publicist. Among other things, it has an ultra fancy tablet full of campaign details, a work phone full of important contacts, a personal phone full of questionable content, medication that she totally needs, medication that she totally claims to need, and even a bit of cash thrown in there.
SKILLS: Devout Detail Devil: Despite her own beliefs Lott is an exceptional auditor. She is hyper observant of the environment around her. Lott can easily pick up on minute details and snap a mental picture that, on the off chance she isn’t just recording things with her eye augments, is shockingly accurate. Lott claims that she can spot missing inventory or determine if a dive bar is the “dangerously fun” kind or the “dangerously get stabbed” kind in a single glance.
Unflinching, Unreadable, Unstoppable: There are tolerant, patient people, and then there is Lott. Even in the most aggravating of company she doesn’t furrow a brow or make a snappy retort. Likewise, she doesn’t visible stress underpressure and seems to have a higher endurance and pain tolerance than most people. Perhaps she’s just good at keeping things in. Then again, perhaps she’s just numb to it all.
Noteworthy Numbers Nerd: Lott wasn’t the best student overall, but her math skills are astronomical. Part of her audits were making sure nobody was reporting false profits for their own personal gain. She can crunch numbers like it’s nothing, and she believes it gives her a slight edge when it comes to her gambling. It is probably the only reason she isn’t deeply in debt.
FLAWS: Soulless Spineless Sycophant: Lott really wants to make other people like her, and she lacks the charm to do that through her wits and attitude alone. She’ll go above and beyond just to make someone see she has worth, to the point that she’s practically advertising to be manipulated—and, frankly, she’s notably worse at reading people than she is her environment. If she’s convinced someone really cares about her, there is little she wouldn’t do for them. Dangerously little.
Relentlessly Rigid Regulations: While Lott allows herself to bend and break the rules, she doesn’t show such leniency towards other people (excluding those she fancies). If she must find someone to fire by the end of her audit, then someone will be fired by the end of her audit. If Mayor Gatch says he doesn’t want to be interviewed, then he will not be interviewed. She is human red tape, the personification of the phrase “just doing my job”, or, more simply, a douchebag.
Best Brightest Burnout: She might appear stoic, but she is basically in the middle of a nervous breakdown and her shit is barely contained. Every night she’s throwing herself at stupid decisions, and every morning there’s new problems to try to ignore. She’s hardly bothering to keep her professional and personal life separate, and it’s only a matter of time before they collide.
NOTES: Since becoming Gatch's publicist a month ago, Lott's face has appeared on various forms of media. However, she is most recognizable from a Labyrinth vid taken of one of her first press conference that went viral for a hot minute. In the vid, Lott is seen responding to questions of an off-mic journalist who is asking leading questions regard claims of Gatch's corruption. She almost exclusively responds with some variation "We aren't making any comments about that, but thank you for your question", uttering that exact phrase nearly twelve times in a row to an increasingly bemused and mocking crowd of reporters.
While her daily routine is managing Gatch's brand and making sure members of his campaign are onboard with the current messaging (and making sure they're onboard with Gatch in general), she is also responsible for serving as a representative for the Central Party candidate when the Mayor is unavailable. This duty can range from fielding questions from constituents to meeting with members of other candidate's teams to arrange debates and sow discord.
Character name
Relationship
Stella Solomon
“Everyone else might see her as just an Ultrabartender, but I’m lucky enough to see her as my Ultrabestfriend.”
Lott primarily sees Stella through a swirling double vision clouded by chems and cocktails, most often provided to Lott by Stella herself at Duat. The publicist views the bartender as a beacon of hope, the bright, beautiful star that helps guide Lott’s escape from the mundane prison of her daily life. Yet, Stella is also an ever present reminder of the day Lott killed her coolness to go corporate. Honestly, the publicist almost doting fondness for the bartender might just be Lott’s hail mary attempt to catch some contact cool before she totally fades away. Still, at the end of the day the bartender knows how to get the good stuff, lets her cut queue for karaoke, seems to actually enjoy listening to Lott vent about work, and gets her drunk. Lott couldn’t ask for anything more.
Keah Kaito // Drift Demon
“He was a heck of a driver. Who knows, maybe if he’d listen to a few of the company’s suggestions he would’ve won that race.”
Back in 2055 and several months before she was condemned to be an auditor, Lott was given the exciting prospect of serving as a personal assistant to a high-profile racer that had been hired on by APEX Industries. She called the racer by the wrong name on their first meeting, and from the rest of her short-lived professional relationship with the Drift Demon it was one wrong step after another. Despite her best efforts to blackout the memories, Lott can still recall minor moments where she irritated the Drift Demon that fill her with major embarrassment. Honestly, she’s glad to never have encountered Mr. Demon ever again.
“Egg rolls? Sure, I know of this great place, although their delivery isn't as fast as it used to be. Why?”
Olexsandr Tataryn
“I still got the tattoo. It’s a reminder that I see in the mirror every morning, like there’s a little note under it that reads: Remember Lott, if you like a guy, he’s probably a jerk .”
When fresh intern Lott saw the neophyte Tinman for the first time she knew right away that this guy was the one, yeah, Olex was the one that would just piss mom and dad right off. He was cool. He was dangerous. He was a real man, a badass, a Pioneer Dog, nothing like those suit wearing losers who interned with her and came from a long line of corporate sellouts. She liked the idea of other people saying, “Watch out for Lott, her boyfriend killed a man just for…” just for, what, being poor? Olex wasn’t a badass. He was another legacy corporate loser in a suit, although his had more chrome, who also wanted to piss off mom and dad by dating someone his family thought was beneath him. What a prick. She heard about what happened to him after their break-up, after she’d moved away from the Seaboard, and she remembered thinking how he didn’t deserve that. He deserved so much worse.
Johnny Lovecraft
“Rumor is that Johnny Lawyer used to be a pretty mean killer. If I had known that then, I would’ve begged him to start blowing people away while we were stuck in that courtroom.”
When Serena Petrukov was taken to court by a rival corporation, APEX Industries saw fit to “help” the case by sending a packet of information as well as one of its auditors to help translate the mess of numbers. Lott was that auditor. She never dealt with Serena directly, only seeing her once on the day of the trail, but had a couple of meetings with her lawyer Johnny Lovecraft. They were brief, fruitful, and about as professional as one could expect from a guy who went by “Johnny” instead of “John”, and it was only after the trial that Lott heard tell that the lawyer used to be on a Scrapteam. A good thing for Johnny, too, because she would’ve been practically foaming at the mouth to get him to dig up details from the past.
Dr. Parker Howland
“He’s the best, really. What else can I say? He truly is the best.”
The first step to getting help is admitting there’s a problem. Unfortunately for Lott, she’s blissfully unaware that having a man like Dr. Howland as her psychiatrist could ever even be an issue. She started seeing him after a bad bout with anxiety during her transition to the new career, and the meds her prescribed her really seemed to set her mind at ease. Temporarily, anyway. He’s upped the dosage since her last incident which coincided with her first press conference, and she feels like with his help she’s gaining control. Lott’s truly grateful of his presence around the campaign trail. It’s nice knowing there’s someone who actually cares about her lurking around.
For Rita, last night had felt like the longest night of her life. She had tossed and turned for what felt like hours, mostly because she was steaming with anger. Jordan’s decision to go with the Hound ate at her. Kimberly said it was her choice, but it was the selfish choice. Plus, it felt like anyone who knew what was going on—Britney, the Child, the Speaker, the Hound—contradicted the others so much that Rita was certain that she was always getting lied too. Then, once she had managed to swallow her anger, push down her worries, and actually fall asleep her dreams were filled with memories of other people’s lives.
She had never even spoken with Charlie, and now she had to reflect on their deepest, darkest secrets and witness as they kept filling themselves up with false hope to keep on going down a fruitless career path. Rita shouldn’t hate so hard, as her studies were for Journalism with a minor in retail work, but at least it wasn’t Fine Arts. Despite spending too much of her night in Charlie’s head, Rita couldn’t understand how their mind worked. Since when did thinking happy thoughts do anything but set someone up for a grand disappointment? They were utterly unrealistic.
It was with this negative energy that Rita started her day, and it was with this negative energy that she joined the group. Nobody needed to have an empathic link with the young woman to see that she wasn’t her best self; the dark rings under her eyes, her stringy, unwashed hair, and yesterday’s sweater said enough as it was. Rita did what she normally did when they had their group sessions: find Tuyen, squeeze in next to her, and try to disappear from sight. However, this morning there was no hello, no wave, and not even a quiet smile as Rita took her spot. She was practically Tuyen’s second shadow, which while perhaps more moody than the first was certainly less likely to tear the whole lobby apart.
Penny offered Rita a smile as she joined the crew that were studying the map, the blonde’s face falling as the other girl outright ignored her. Penny also had a restless night, although she didn’t look as worn out or tired as Rita. Perhaps it was because she was no longer weighed down by heavy makeup, but Penny looked more like she felt—which was like a lost child crossed with a surprised deer. The role of leadership was proving itself to be an overwhelming one, and the fact that four of their own were now dead added a weight to any of the choices she was going to make. She should’ve fought harder against splitting up in the first place.
"Great, so..." started Britney as Lynette arrived with the copies of the map. "The balls in your court, what would we do oh wise leader?"
“Seriously?” said Penny under her breath as she shot Britney an annoyed look, not letting the tiny little dig slide by. Penny had an urge to remind Britney how she had been the one to suggest that Penny be one of their “oh wise leaders”, let alone how Britney would be dead if Penny and the others hadn’t backed her up against Amethyst. She swallowed it, and wished that she hadn’t smoked her last cigarette the other night. Penny was already feeling on edge because Billy still hadn’t decided to join the group yet, despite her telepathic reminders to get the hell up. She didn’t need to keep stirring up a rivalry she was trying to bury.
Justin mentioned having some tough news to swallow, giving Penny a minor reprieve of coming up with a plan.
“She’s right,” said Penny after Tuyen urged Justin on. “I’m pretty sure we can handle anything at this point.”
@OppositionHere's our corporate burnoutschill PR hero, ready to rebrand and promote synergy.
L O T T R A M A N A 37 | FEMALE | 5’6” | A+
General Information
“Sorry, but I do not see how my personal information or work history relates to Mayor Gatch’s candidacy in the slightest. Perhaps we should steer the questions back to agreed upon topics?”
APPEARANCE: Lott has a thin frame that she masks with dark suits which are accentuated by big shoulder pads, wide pants legs, and platform heels. Her face is gaunt, her eyes are sunken, and her skin is an uncracked porcelain thanks to a deft hand with the makeup and several paychecks dedicated to the plastic surgeon. Her chin length hair is black and easily becomes oily much to Lott’s annoyance. Although she has a few tattoos and a number of distinguishable scars, none of them are discernible when she’s in her professional attire. She almost always wears jewelry, and she tends to stick to the flashier, somewhat garish pieces that glow a soft neon when in the dark and seem out of place with her otherwise professional appearance.
Her default body language is a closed off one, prone to crossed arms, slight scowls, and concerned eyebrows. She normally speaks in a quiet voice that is both low and calm, which can either be nicely referred to as relaxing cadence or accurately referred to as a boring monotone. Her movements are painfully slow yet somehow lack coordination. Overall, there is an air of lethargy surrounding the woman, and if not for the occasional blink or sniff she could get confused for a unique piece of upholstery.
OCCUPATION: Lott was an internal auditor for APEX Industries. On paper, her job was to travel from clinic to clinic and assure that they were following company policy, maintaining a safe work environment, and keeping in line with government regulations. Her presence, as she often claimed, should be of little concern to the clinic workers; she was little more than an observer who was there to offer consultation on better practices. In reality, her presence was utterly alarming. While Lott did perform a normal audit, she also doubled as a sort of counterespionage agent—she interviewed and scrutinized APEX employees for any hint that they may have violated their contract or exposed company secrets. Likewise, if a clinic had come under fire from a malpractice claim, it fell upon an auditor like Lott to find some kind of scapegoat or method of coverup.
Lott has recently replaced Mayor Gatch’s publicist, and will be assisting the Mayor is his bid for council by dealing with the media and maintaining a positive public image. More importantly, she will make sure that the rumors regarding Gatch harvesting votes from corpses will be laid to rest and that all other nasty, baseless rumors are kept out of the public domain until after the election.
Psychological Profile
“I dated my old psych evaluator. I fear they might have screwed with my test results.”
PERSONAL GOAL: Lott never followed through with the grand plan for her life, and this laissez-faire attitude has left her with a growing pit of emptiness inside of her. She has begun to think lately that all she wants is to find a purpose that’ll care for her as much as she cares for it. Basically, she just wants recognition, even if it’s something as small as someone turning to her and earnest saying, “Lott, we couldn’t have done it without you.” She’d make an excellent right-hand woman. She’d also serve as wonderful cannon fodder for a cult.
CAMPAIGN GOAL: It should be to help Mayor Gatch get elected to council, but Lott has been questioning her resolve since day one. She could really help push his career forward if she’s hit with the right motivation, and perhaps fit into a better position. She could also blow the whole thing and make some embarrassing headlines for everyone involved before people realize what an awful idea it was to bring her onboard.
PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY: Lott believes she is a cog; if she finds a place to fit, she can help make something function that is vastly bigger than her. She strives to avoid the center of attention, yet finds herself drawn to people who crave it. Simply put, she’s a follower and she knows it; the woman has zero delusions of grandeur. In her professional life Lott is by the books and adheres to the rules, and she tries to follow this routine in her personal life. However, such rigid inflexibility is likely to snap, so Lott allows herself little reprieves of debauchery to stop from completely flying off like she has in the past.
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY: Lott, in a bland attempt to be as inoffensive as possible, would consider herself to be pretty moderate. She would probably align herself with the Central Party, primarily because they seem the least fringe or prone to upset the status quo, but be able to understand some points from the other parties. This would be the case, if not for one thing: Samsara Washington. She absolutely worships the man, although she can’t quite put it into words. Perhaps she admires him for being so open with his eccentricities, while she keeps her own shoved off into the shadows? Or is it because despite this openness there's still an air of cool mystery around him? Then again, maybe it’s just a stupid celebrity crush. They shook hands once. It was a very big deal. As long as he is their candidate, then Lott’s willing to lean NTP.
SECRETS: Excluding the Mayor, nobody on Gatch’s campaign team is supposed to know that Lott isn’t just a publicist. She was planted on his team by APEX Industries to spy for the company and assure that their golden boy hasn’t lost his luster or surrounded himself with a lot of backstabbers and parasites. Continuing her work as an internal auditor, Lott is to vet Gatch’s team and find a way to cover up any blemishes and cut out any cancerous cells that would harm APEX’s interests. Her future employment is dependent on her assisting Gatch and protecting the brand. They promised a promotion. She’s no longer sure if she wants it.
“Fun Lott” isn't someone she talks about at work. That woman is a frequent face at the Koena Dome, where the act of watching a man get beaten to death is second in its level of excitement only to the thought of getting caught being there by a coworker or casual acquaintance. She can also be found at Duat in a blackout badly singing karaoke and introducing herself to the crowd as Adamantia.
FEARS: It’s public speaking. When sober, Lott finds that being the center of attention makes her stress skyrocket. So, of all the campaign positions Lott could’ve been shoehorned into, the company went with one where she has to present to groups of strangers almost daily. She also fears being a disappointment, and so the mortified looks on the faces of those around her as she stumbles through an introduction hits even harder.
REPUTATION: It all depends on the group. Someone in APEX Industries views her as the steady, solid workhorse she is while, in her opinion, simultaneously overestimating her capabilities. Most members of the campaign team have begun to draw the conclusion that Lott is unqualified for a publicist position, and might in fact be a burden on the campaign trail. Ultimately, they’re suspicious of her appointment, believing her to be either some kind of sycophant or saboteur. The people who happen to know Lott’s wild side view her as entertaining but potentially dangerous—she’s the kind of person that’d make a night unforgettable in a bad way or impossible to remember in a good way.
LIKES:
Sharp suits, pleasant colognes, flashy jewelry.
Coffee breaks, alone, with sweets.
Menial tasks, tidying, doing paperwork.
Karaoke, in a private room, with a handful of acquaintances.
Karaoke, in a public setting, if fully sauced.
Drinking, heavily, with harder substances at the ready.
Dancing, moving to the beat, getting lost in the crowd.
Strong personas, heavy augmentations, dangerous lifestyles.
Ultraviolence, pure chaos, the destruction of social norms—temporarily, when controlled, or reversible.
DISLIKES:
Bad haircuts, lame fashion, boring styles.
Tough decisions, calling the shots, being in the spotlight.
Weak hearted losers, unconfident and aimless jerks, reflections of herself found in others.
The late night comedown, that early morning shame, the daylong hangover.
Rulebreakers, backbiters, traitors.
The actual destruction of social norms, radical organizations and hiveminds, upsetting the balance between glamour and grime.
QUIRKS:
Lott is a space invader. She has a seemingly uncanny ability to always put herself just one step too close to someone for them to be comfortable. Unintentionally, she often does this in complete silence.
Lott looks in every mirror or reflective surface she passes, often stopping to fix something wrong with her hair, makeup, or clothes that only she seems to notice.
Lott softens all of her swears. The dirtiest four-letter word she has uttered in public is damn. Even in her strangest of states, she can’t bring herself to being foulmouthed.
Background Information
“I spent my entire adult life working for APEX Industries, and my name still appears as “Lotte Ramona” on my W2s. I even called. Once. Didn’t want to be a bother.”
Lott grew up the daughter of middle managers living in the New York Seaboard, and the prospect of life used to seem so exciting. The world was just a vast ocean of endless possibilities, all of which Lott eventually realized after she had wormed her way into the corporate world were way beyond the grasp of someone like her. All of the good possibilities were near the bottom of the ocean, and only the truly talented or the truly wealthy were given the necessary dive suit to survive being crushed by the water pressure. All Lott ever achieved was a bad case of the bends, horrible humiliation, and the dark realization that she wasn’t even cut out for middle management, let alone an actual position of relevance. Within a year of her first “real” job of interning for APEX Industries, the corporate world had successfully drowned all of her hopes and ambitions and left her the bloated husk of a human. In other words, she was now the ideal office employee.
Lott was bounced around like a ping pong ball, being relocated from branch to branch throughout what would eventually turn into her lifelong career slash internment at APEX. Eventually, she was pushed into a position that was so perfectly shaped for her that the company stopped shifting her from department to department. More likely, they had forgotten about her during one of their rearrangements and never bothered to bring her back into the rotation. She had been hammered into the Office of Risk Management as an internal auditor for the clinics in the Vegas Triangle region.
It was there that she’d stay for the next decade. It was ten years of nitpicking over minute details to find something wrong the company can ding a clinic with to avoid paying out bonuses for that year. Ten years of ratting out employees that seemed to have intentions of working for different companies or going against the APEX way. Ten years of being hated by just about everyone she worked with, because everyone she worked with thought she was out to get them fired. It was some of the most mind-numbing, soul-sucking work anyone could ever do. She was perfect for it, except the boredom was literally killing her.
Eventually, the only thing that seemed to keep Lott going was the weekend. The weekend gave Lott a chance to shake off her corporate shackles, and living in Vegas she was able to become a tourist to just about all of the things that could make a walking corpse feel something again. Her slide into depravity was a gradual decline without a stopping point thanks to her inability or lack of desire to say no. However, she never went fully unhinged, giving herself something called the “Weekend Rule” where she could excuse herself of any responsibilities as long as the consequences never affected work. Her life was kept in a delicate balance between corporate drone and party monster for about the last year, and outside of the occasional Monday morning hangover she never broke the rules.
In fact, she must’ve pleased someone, because she was offered her first major career change in forever. She was no longer going to be an auditor, she was going to be a publicist. It didn’t make much sense until she was told the dual nature of her role. However, since joining the campaign trail a month ago, it has become clear to Lott that she is in over her head. While she is entirely capable of being a snitch, the woman is grossly unqualified to be a publicist. Her first public event was a slight embarrassment (although nowhere near as bad as she believed it to be), and she felt as if everyone on the campaign team could tell she was a fraud. For the first time in ten years her biggest problem with work wasn’t of being bored, but being overwhelmed.
Honestly, she felt like she was breaking down. When she was an auditor, life was routine and easy, and all of the stresses could easily be washed away with a weekend shitshow. Now, every day is an absolute dreadfest, an anxiety cocktail compounded by the nagging feeling that her corporate overlords either do not care about her wellbeing or are somehow setting her up to be a patsy. Lately, the only thing Lott has found that keeps her steady is the one thing she swore she’d never do—she broke “The Weekend Rule”, and it felt fantastic. Maybe, she thought, she wasn’t breaking down after all; rather, she was about to break free.
Operative Information
“Being average is underrated. Imagine, being better than just about half of humanity. I would go for that in a heartbeat.”
AUGMENTATIONS: APEX VisionQuests IV // The Seeing of the Future: Smart glasses are so medieval. The APEX VQs revolutionizes the way people can see the world by taking smart glass technology and melding it directly to the human eyeball. No more weird red cybereyes, bleeding tear ducts, or nerdy glasses. The APEX VQs offers audio-visual recording, picture enhancing, data scanning, facial recognition, HUDs, Labyrinth interfacing, peer to peer connection, filters, adsupport, and user customization ranging from iris color to pupil shape.
APEX PureXcellence Watch // Achieve New Heights: a wrist implant that monitors a consumers wellbeing while also functioning as a stylish smartwatch It comes with an injector that can be fitted by approved supplements that stave off sleepiness, depression, anxiety, hunger, and other cravings, letting users overcome their more base needs to be a better, more productive member of society. Injections are programmed and monitored at APEX Clinics to be administered automatically throughout the consumers day to monitor wellness. Likewise, consumers will have to refill their supplements at their local APEX Clinic.
[CRACKED] APEX PureExcellence Watch // Achieve New Highs: Lott’s wristwatch implant has been hacked to allow the user to manually administer injections and feed false information to the APEX Clinics. The frequent bathroom trips of yesteryear for a quick little upper have now been replaced by a simple check of the time.
EQUIPMENT: The Professional’s Purse: No one bag should carry so much power, but Lott’s purse is brimming with everything she needs to attempt to be a publicist. Among other things, it has an ultra fancy tablet full of campaign details, a work phone full of important contacts, a personal phone full of questionable content, medication that she totally needs, medication that she totally claims to need, and even a bit of cash thrown in there.
SKILLS: Devote Detail Devil: Despite her own beliefs Lott is an exceptional auditor. She is hyper observant of the environment around her. Lott can easily pick up on minute details and snap a mental picture that, on the off chance she isn’t just recording things with her eye augments, is shockingly accurate. Lott claims that she can spot missing inventory or determine if a dive bar is the “dangerously fun” kind or the “dangerously get stabbed” kind in a single glance.
Unflinching, Unreadable, Unstoppable: There are tolerant, patient people, and then there is Lott. Even in the most aggravating of company she doesn’t furrow a brow or make a snappy retort. Likewise, she doesn’t visible stress underpressure and seems to have a higher endurance and pain tolerance than most people. Perhaps she’s just good at keeping things in. Then again, perhaps she’s just numb to it all.
Noteworthy Numbers Nerd: Lott wasn’t the best student overall, but her math skills are astronomical. Part of her audits were making sure nobody was reporting false profits for their own personal gain. She can crunch numbers like it’s nothing, and she believes it gives her a slight edge when it comes to her gambling. It is probably the only reason she isn’t deeply in debt.
FLAWS: Soulless Spineless Sycophant: Lott really wants to make other people like her, and she lacks the charm to do that through her wits and attitude alone. She’ll go above and beyond just to make someone see she has worth, to the point that she’s practically advertising to be manipulated—and, frankly, she’s notably worse at reading people than she is her environment. If she’s convinced someone really cares about her, there is little she wouldn’t do for them. Dangerously little.
Relentlessly Rigid Regulations: While Lott allows herself to bend and break the rules, she doesn’t show such leniency towards other people (excluding those she fancies). If she must find someone to fire by the end of her audit, then someone will be fired by the end of her audit. If Mayor Gatch says he doesn’t want to be interviewed, then he will not be interviewed. She is human red tape, the personification of the phrase “just doing my job”, or, more simply, a douchebag.
Best Brightest Burnout: She might appear stoic, but she is basically in the middle of a nervous breakdown and her shit is barely contained. Every night she’s throwing herself at stupid decisions, and every morning there’s new problems to try to ignore. She’s hardly bothering to keep her professional and personal life separate, and it’s only a matter of time before they collide.
NOTES: Since becoming Gatch's publicist a month ago, Lott's face has appeared on various forms of media. However, she is most recognizable from a Labyrinth vid taken of one of her first press conference that went viral for a hot minute. In the vid, Lott is seen responding to questions of an off-mic journalist who is asking leading questions regard claims of Gatch's corruption. She almost exclusively responds with some variation "We aren't making any comments about that, but thank you for your question", uttering that exact phrase nearly twelve times in a row to an increasingly bemused and mocking crowd of reporters.
While her daily routine is managing Gatch's brand and making sure members of his campaign are onboard with the current messaging (and making sure they're onboard with Gatch in general), she is also responsible for serving as a representative for the Central Party candidate when the Mayor is unavailable. This duty can range from fielding questions from constituents to meeting with members of other candidate's teams to arrange debates and sow discord.
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@Moskau SpieluhrShould I feel personally attacked that Sister ViK doesn't enjoy pineapples on pizza? I feel personally attacked that Sister ViK doesn't enjoy pineapples on pizza.
Neziul
Antlers
CassidyTheButch
ML
Simply Not Real
NoriWasHere
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Passable Writer
Evil Ghost Note
