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application for deerington;
IN CHARACTER
Character Name: Dana Polk
Canon: The Cabin in the Woods
Canon Point: at the very end of the film, just prior to the ancient gods rising up to remake the world
In-Game Tattoo Placement: small deer with flowers tattoo on her right ankle
Current Health/Status: currently suffering from one very large werewolf bite on her shoulder, though she's not dead so that's a considerable bonus
Age: 21
Species: Human
History: Dana's history | source material history
Personality:
On the surface, Dana appears to be little more than the quintessentially thoughtful (though unconventionally beautiful) college sophomore. She's definitely not without her smarts, though hers lean more towards book learning than being all that clued-in to the ways of the world. From her first scene, though, and our introduction to her character, we learn that she is absolutely the kind of girl who would much rather bring textbooks on a weekend trip to the lake than wear a skimpy bikini, get drunk and party — much to the chagrin of her best friend, Jules. While she tends to focus more on her studies than on her unofficial extracurriculars, she also knows when to let loose and have fun — even if she has to occasionally get prodded into participating, or pried into loosening up with a drink or two.
It may be no surprise that Dana was chosen as the embodiment of the "virgin" by the mysterious organization bent on offering her in a ritual sacrifice, but it was a role assigned in the loosest sense of the word. She might be the closest thing to innocence within her close-knit group of friends, but in her own mind she's hardly a saint. She's made mistakes; for example, she's not exactly proud of the time in her life when she briefly fell prey to the typical college cliché — falling for her (cough, married) professor who then later dumped her via email. While the role she was given is partly a demonstration of the fact that the Ancient Ones aren't that particular when it comes to who fulfills the requirements of said ritual, it also reveals that Dana is far from a perfect goody-two-shoes. She claims to have gotten over her past missteps, but there are moments when it's obvious that she's having a tough time moving on — the brief scene when she finds herself lingering on a sketch she drew of said professor, for example, illustrates that the relationship may have been more complicated than a mere teacher-student affair.
She wears her heart on her sleeve, and can be considered as someone who's fairly open and honest about what she's feeling — it's rarely difficult to tell when she's in a bad mood because she's usually got the sad or frustrated expression plastered all over her face, and those she's close to are even more capable of noticing it. Sometimes she comes across as soft-spoken and shy in comparison to the others who are more outgoing in the group, or tends to get predictably pegged as the girl who would most likely choose the truth option in a friendly game of truth-or-dare, but her quiet nature leads to her noticing things that might escape the attention of others. The film establishes that she has an artist's eye early on, someone who can definitely pick up on subtler details to capture them in a drawing, but she's also very perceptive, a good problem-solver, and when confronted with a bunch of puzzle pieces, it doesn't take her much time to fit everything together into a cohesive whole. Marty might have been the one who figured out how to get the mysterious elevator to go down into the underground facility, but Dana was the one who finally realized all the shit they were playing with in the creepy basement were the catalysts to unleash all manner of untold horrors ("they made us choose how we die").
But Dana's introverted personality can often do her a disservice; more often than not, she's underestimated because of her perceived meekness, dismissed because people think that she's basically just a "good girl" without bothering to look beneath the surface. As the "virgin" selected for sacrifice, her death is technically optional compared to the others, but eventually, it becomes obvious that the Organization never counted on her being strong enough to fight back and outlast the odds. (At one point, Hadley even mentions off-hand that he's rooting for her to make it out alive once he realizes just how full of determination and grit she really is.) It means that when she chooses to act out, it genuinely surprises the people around her, because they never picture that she'd be the one to take a hit off a joint while facing down the literal end of the world — or press the big red button marked 'system purge' to flood the Facility with its own mystery box chock-full of horrors.
When confronted with the dilemma of saving the lives of many by killing the few, Dana chooses one of her closest friends over the world. She refuses to shoot Marty (okay, she probably wouldn't have shot him) even though it would have appeased the ancient gods and likely spared the world from total annihilation, which points to a deeper loyalty that wasn't really accounted for by those who hand-selected her to fulfill a time-honored (albeit messed-up) tradition. The Organization might have been under the impression that they could slot her into a certain role and that would be the end of it, but Dana's proof of the fact that people aren't so easily defined — and, when presented with a choice, might just pick the option to let someone else burn it all down and start over.
Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses & Warping: N/A
Inventory: the bag she packed in order to spend a lake weekend at Curt's family's place, which includes:
- two outfits (consisting of two tops, one pair of jeans, one pair of shorts, two bras, two pairs of underwear)
- one strappy red bikini (thanks, Jules)
- a couple of college textbooks, including Soviet Economic Structures
- a sketchbook with a few half-used pencils
Writing Samples: TDM Top-Level, TDM Thread, and texting thread
OUT OF CHARACTER
Player Name: Carly
Player Age: 31
Player Contact:
Other Characters In Game: Wynonna Earp
In-Game Tag If Accepted: dana polk: carly
Permissions for Character: Here!
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: Absolutely!
What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?: SO MANY THINGS. Creepy settings/haunted or abandoned houses, body horror, sci-fi/futuristic/alien horror, vengeful women (which also tends to overlap with my love for female werewolves and any kind of transformation/body horror), gothic horror, monster horror, ghost/possession horror, and the list goes on.
Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: n/a
Additional Information:
