Catherine Zier

[CondorTalon]

Name: Catherine Lina Zier
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Hobbies and Interests: Punk rock and punk fashion, playing the guitar, video games, wandering, creative writing

Appearance: Catherine stands at 5'7" tall and weighs 129 pounds. Her skin is fair, owing to her German-Irish heritage, and she has an average frame. Her face is round, with brown eyes, a short but straight nose, and a pair of full lips. Catherine's reddish-brown hair is chin-length, straight, and flared outward. In addition, Catherine often wears clip-on hair extensions with unnatural colors, with her preferred colors for her extensions being blue, pink, and purple. Her complexion is rather free of blemishes, though occasionally she suffers from mild breakouts, which she uses makeup to combat. Both of her earlobes are pierced, and she has a spider bite piercing on the left side of her lower lip. She got her ears pierced when she was fourteen, and her lip pierced right when she turned seventeen. She usually wears studs in her ears and rings in her spider bite.

Catherine's clothing preferences are heavily influenced by punk fashion, and specifically Japanese punk fashion. Her clothes tend to be high-contrast, and usually stray on the darker side. Many of her jackets, skirts and pants are adorned with belts, buckles, zippers, and chains. Catherine also has numerous pairs of tights with unusual designs. On the day of the abduction, she was wearing a t-shirt with a newspaper print design under a black shredded tee, a dark orange and black plaid skirt adorned with multiple chains and accompanied by three belts, worn for aesthetics rather than function. She was also wearing orange tights with a spider web print, as well as a pair of leather ankle boots, adorned with buckles down the front. She chose her blue hair extensions that day.

Biography: Catherine Lina Zier was born as the youngest child of three to Johannes and Bella Zier, who met at the University of Cologne in Germany. The two shared many classes together and often met with each other to study, eventually falling in love and getting married. It wasn't long before the two had their first child, Patrick, was brought into the world. Patrick would be born in Germany, but before too long the Zier family moved to America, since Johannes had been offered to teach statistics at the University of Minnesota at Saint Paul. The family moved when Patrick was six. Two years after the move, the second child of the Zier family, Gloria, was born. Catherine was born another two years later. With Johannes working as a professor and Bella working as a bus driver for Saint Paul's public transit system, the family is fairly well off. Catherine's relationship with her parents isn't particularly close; with both of them working busy jobs, neither had too much time to bond with their children, often leaving Patrick to babysit his younger sisters. Catherine's relationship with Patrick and Gloria is slightly closer, owing to how much time they've spent together, though they don't share many interests in common.

Catherine spent her early childhood alone. She found that she didn't really know how to talk to other kids in her class, and many times she didn't try, simply keeping to herself most of the time. She would join the other kids during playtime is she was invited, but very often she would become overwhelmed by the interaction and would separate from the others for too long. Catherine found that being solitary made her more comfortable, and would often wander listlessly around the school grounds during recess, thinking up fantasy stories. Catherine was a very imaginative child, and could often spend entire days on stories she had conjured up. As she grew older, these habits wouldn't go away, and would in fact only grow stronger. Catherine began to wander around the town in her free time, exploring the city and seeing what existed in Saint Paul. She also began to take up creative writing, finally having a way to put her stories down on paper.

As Catherine grew older, however, she began to feel more and more lonely. It wasn't that she didn't want to interact with other people, it was simply that she was too shy and found interaction overwhelming. She came to dislike that about herself, and vowed to change herself to be more confident. Catherine approached Gloria, asking her how she could accomplish this goal. Gloria was quite an extroverted girl, in contrast to Catherine, and so she seemed like the perfect person to ask. Gloria was more than happy to help her younger sister come out of her shell more. Among the many things that Gloria recommended was for Catherine to change her image. Taking this advice to heart, Catherine looked through the Internet to find any fashion styles that appealed to her. She eventually settled on punk fashion, and specifically the Japanese punk subculture. She chose this style in part because she liked the aesthetic style, but also in part because she thought that it would make her stand out, which she presumed would help her overcome her shyness.

Catherine's parents were initially hesitant to accept this aesthetic change. They were worried that Catherine getting into punk fashion would cause her to also adopt some of the less savory elements of the punk subculture, such as the anti-authoritarian views. It took both her and Gloria to slowly convince them that this would help Catherine break out of her shell, and Catherine also had to promise them that she would not become a rebel before they finally relented.

As Catherine came more and more into punk fashion, she found out about punk rock. At first, she listened to punk rock bands out of curiosity, and a little bit because she thought it was something she was expected to do as a person into punk fashion. As she listening more and more, however, she found herself beginning to really enjoy punk rock. She enjoys the aggressiveness of the music above all else. As she entered high school, she wanted to learn to play the guitar. Thankfully, Patrick had an electric guitar laying around, as he'd been in a garage band in high school. He was happy to lend the guitar to her, as long as she promised to take good care of it, which she did. Although Catherine enjoys playing the guitar, she doesn't practice that often, and is therefore not quite good at it.

When Catherine was twelve, Catherine got into video games. Both Patrick and Gloria played video games, Patrick moreso than Gloria, but they enjoyed games regularly as a hobby. Simply through proximity, Catherine was exposed to video games, but she didn't really start taking them seriously until she was twelve. The Zier family has a PlayStation 4 and a Wii, and Catherine herself has a Nintendo 3DS. Catherine's favorite genre of video games is role-playing games.

Academically, Catherine is squarely average. She mainly gets Bs and Cs across the board. Catherine doesn't have any particular favorite subjects. On the other hand, she absolutely despises math. She simply can't wrap her head around all the formulae and equations required to do well in math without help, and it's consistently the subject she has the lowest marks in. Catherine studies an average amount, enough to get a decent mark in school but not much more than that. She pays attention in class, but only enough to grasp the material. She usually doesn't go far beyond that in terms of academics.

Even though Catherine has grown out of her shell over the years, she is still not the confident and extroverted girl she aimed to be all those years ago. She does have a few close friends, mostly fellow gamers like her, and is a member of the Gaming Club. Other than that, she is not particularly close with much of the student body. Over the years, Catherine has learned to mask her shyness behind an air of aloof coldness. Many people who don't know her well simply see her as distant and mysterious, and those who approach her tend to find their conversations curt, yet detached. On the other hand, Catherine becomes much more friendly when communicated with indirectly, such as through texts, online chats, and forums. Catherine feels more comfortable communicating when she has time to think about her responses.

Catherine has tried to get into a musical extra-curricular, but they either didn't fit her style, or she couldn't mesh with the other members, socially.

Catherine is not sure what she wants to do after she leaves high school. She has briefly considered multiple options, such as being a writer or a guitarist, but she doesn't think too hard about these options. She figures that she'll only have to worry about these things when she actually graduates.

Advantages: Catherine has learned to hide her awkwardness and insecurities behind an air of aloofness. This could help her seem more independent and less vulnerable to others. Despite not liking being alone, Catherine is used to it, and can deal with solitude better than other more extroverted people.
Disadvantages: Catherine's cold and distant mask is still just that: a mask. She is still a shy girl, and the stressful situation of the island could overwhelm her like they did in her early childhood. This could cause her to shy away from allies. She is fairly weak, and especially has no upper body strength. Catherine has few close friends she could trust.

Original Profile: Here
Permission: Here

[MurderWeasel]

Hey, Condor! Catherine's looking pretty good, just a little bit left to hammer out.

Who was watching Catherine and her sister in her youngest years? Leaving them in the sole care of their four year old brother would be pretty bad news. Was there perhaps a neighbor or family member of some sort willing to keep an eye on them? A daycare program would also be possible, though it sounds like Catherine didn't widely socialize while young so maybe not that.

Was Catherine's isolation ever cause for concern to her parents and teachers? Was it something dysfunctional, or just a matter of personal preference?

Can I hear a little more about Catherine's writing? What genres does she like to work in? Is she working on any major projects? Does she share her writing with anyone, or keep it to herself?

At what age did Catherine decide to branch out and interact with others more?

How did Catherine start learning guitar? Did she take classes? Did her dad teach her? Or was she self-taught from YouTube videos or books?

What about gaming does Catherine like? Does she spend a lot of time on it, or is it more of a casual hobby?

While Catherine may not have to worry about her future completely until she graduates, this late in the year she should've applied to colleges if she's planning on attending in the fall. Is that in the cards, or is she taking a gap year?

I'd also like to get just a teeny bit more about Catherine's current relationship with her family. Can I get one little unique detail each for her and her mom, dad, and brother? Nothing huge—just something like how her sister coached her in fashion a little.

Can I hear a bit more about Catherine's bad upper body strength? Is she notably worse off than the average student? Does she struggle with gym class? How does she feel about it?

Post when you've got that taken care of, and we'll give Catherine another look. Thanks!