Persephone āPercyā Evans | Twenty Seven; Ā Elite
House: Delma
Status: Uninfected
Elite Specification: Rehabilitation Specialist and Infection Research
Alignment: New Wave Reformists
Ever since she was a kid, Persephoneās been told she has an old soul. She could often be found reading a book (paper copies only), or having deep philosophical conversations with the adults. She didnāt have many friends her own age; in fact, many children saw her as a bit odd. And though she was quiet around most, deep down she was just a bubbly girl who wanted to help people.
The extent of her compassion came about when she was thirteen and her younger brother was hit by a train. And it wasnāt the doctors or the EMTs who practically brought him back from the dead that most impressed her, but the occupational therapists. Yes, her brotherās life had been saved by the doctors, but if he had been stuck in the state he was in after all the operations, it would hardly have been much of a life. The OTs came in and taught her brother how to eat and speak again. They helped him get used to his new leg and helped him relearn to write. They gave him the tools he needed to become a whole person again, and thatās what Percy wanted to do.
Life after her brotherās accident was hard. Insurance could only cover so much. Percy tried to maintain good grades, but there were a lot of external factors in play. Like her eight year old brother falling into a deep depression. She would often spend her evenings with him, keeping him occupied so his mind didnāt wander to those dark places. Her mother always tried to be there for her children, but it didnāt take long for the stress of working three jobs to get to her. Sheād come home grumpy and tired. Percy and her brother, Samson, grew distant from their mother, relying mostly on each other for support. Percy took on the role of Samās mother, sister, friend, and nurse.
Percyās father, who had always been distant, became a rare sight in the household. But it wasnāt until the day she saw her father out with another womanāand a young childāthat she truly understood why. Percy, who was usually a calm and compassionate person, was furious. She was heartbroken. Not only did her father have another family, but it was one that was well off; she watched them get into a nice car, dressed in their expensive clothes, and she felt sick.Ā
When she got home, Percy locked herself in her room and cried. But they were tears of anger; here she was fighting for her brotherās second chance at life, picking up her motherās slack, and her father had abandoned them al for something better. Something easier. They had been played, and she vowed that sheād never let that happen to her again. This is when Percy grew colder, when she stopped caring about people as much as she once had, because she couldnāt trust them. No more was Persephone that young girl, compassionate girl, because being that girl left her too vulnerable to getting hurt.Ā Ā
When she was seventeen, she saw some kids she knew as a couple of Samās bullies, stealing from a store. It was juvenile crime, really. Theyād distracted the clerk and managed to get away with a few packs of cigarettes, a handful of cash from the register, and a case of beer. But they saw her, when they were high tailing out of there, and they knew sheād seen everything.Ā In fact, sheād filmed it on her phone. The next day at school, Percy confronted them, and promised that if they ever even looked at her brother again, she would make sure that they would not only get caught for stealing, but would find themselves pinned for other crimes too. Some that they may not even have committed. Sam was never bothered again.
It was about then that Percy realized something; she was a good liar. She was also perceptive with people. She knew how to manipulate and twist others and their words so she ended up on top. She didnāt use this skill often, but she knew the cards she had and how to play them, and that knowledge gave her power. One night, while walking home, she decided to test this theory. She had just turned nineteen at the time, and a half-cut businessman stumbling down the sidewalk had crossed her path. Heād whistled and come on to her, complimenting her body, her beautiful skin.Ā
Percy noticed the wedding ring and the Rolex. The expensive tie clip and cheap cologne. Instead of telling him where to shove it, she batted her lashes and smiled. And then she went home with him. Itād been obvious he was rich, but entering his penthouse apartment confirmed it. And she hated him. Not for catcalling her, not for taking a young girl home, but for betraying his family, just like her father had done.
So, she went with him to his bedroom and he messily undressed her along the way. She grit her teeth against the disgust and played along, just until she had him on his back. And then she made her demands: Cash. Enough to pay off her brotherās medical bills, enough to put them both through college. If not, she would start screaming. She would scream and scream and when the police came she would tell them heād assaulted her.Ā Theyāll never believe you,Ā heād said. And sheād said he was probably right. But they would believe the truth, and his wife definitely wouldnāt prefer it to the lie. And what would that kind of scandal do to his professional reputation? Nothing good, surely.Ā
So he paid. And Percy never heard another word from him. When she came home with the cash, her mother was scared, for good reason. But Percy promised she hadnāt stolen it; that it was given to her as a charity. A good samaritan had wanted to help out their family. And, since no police ever knocked on their door, her mother had no reason not to believe her.
Eventually, Percy got a job at the local hospital. She went to school during the day, and the nights she wasnāt working at the hospital, she would entrap unfaithful husbands and bribe them. She maintained that deep down, her true passion was helping people, but sometimes helping the right people meant hurting the wrong ones.Ā
It was during one of her late shifts at the hospital that the power surged, and when Percy looked outside, the whole world appeared to be burning.
Everything was in mass hysteria. Nurses and patients panicking. Sirens going off. Code blue. Code red. Doctors were called from every wing to help treat new patients. The whole time, all Percy could think about was her mother and Sam, but it wasnāt until the middle of the next day that she found a chance to slip out of the hospital. She ran home on foot, dodging fires and damage. When she arrived at her familyās small home, she found it destroyed. The parts that still stood were burning. In a panic, Persephone ran into the rubble, searching and screaming for her family. Her screams went silent and her blood ran cold when she found her motherās body, crushed and blood.Ā But she didnāt have time to cry. Determined, Percy went through every inch of the pile that was once her house, her room, her whole life, until she found Sam. He was miraculously alive, shaking in the remains of the fireplace and chimney. His prosthetic leg was nowhere to be found. When Percy approached him, he flinched at her touch. Back at the hospital, they confirmed the entire lower half of Samās body was had been paralyzed.Ā
Persephone and Sam ended up in Colony 7, in what was once Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Life there was chaotic and always moving. Percy told the Elites of her background of study (bio-med and rehabilitation therapy) and she wound up volunteering to help with the injured and recovering survivors coming into the Colony.
It was a couple of months before Samās mental condition became apparent: he believed he was a prisoner, the only prisoner left alive after the asteroids hit and he was planning some sort of escape. Only, Sam wasnāt a prisoner, and he couldnāt walk anymore, despite his apparent inability to acknowledge this. He would yell at people, screaming about his innocence, begging for his freedom. And he barely recognized Percy, anymore. She was a warden to him now, someone who was masquerading as his sister. He practically despised her. And yet, she still pushed him around in his wheelchair every day, protecting him with her life. He was her whole world. And it didnāt matter to her how many people she helped if Sam ended up hurt. All her lying and cheating would have been for nothing. Unfortunately, she couldnāt keep him safe forever.
Percy was working late. She was dozing off at her desk reading through files. She probably wouldāve fallen asleep if it hadnāt been for the gunshot. At first, Percy thought nothing of it; thought maybe someone had dropped something and it just sounded like that through her haze of sleep. But then there was another. Then another. And another. Persephone raced from her office to look for Sam, thinking that it had to be some sort of raid. By the time she reached the common room, she heard two other gunshots and then, she saw it. On the floor, blood pouring from his head, was Sam.Ā Several other bodies scattered the floor, some dead, some just wounded, all bloody. As Percy approached her brotherās body, she saw the gun clenched in his fist. In his other hand was a piece of paper, scribbled with the words āDO IT NOWā in red pen over and over again.
When the New Wave Reformists rose to power, they made initial attempts to recruit Percy due to the interest she took in her Infected patientsāespecially the Deluded. She wanted to learn how to manipulate the conversation in ways that they felt empowered enough to trust her and be honest with her. Having noticed this, the NWRF sought to exploit her skills and sensitivity to help them with research on the Infected evolutions. They wanted her to help run tests and experiments, as they saw her ābed side mannerā with the infected as something they could use. At first, Persephone politely declined. To her, the Infected werenāt the problem; just the Infections. It wasnāt until an NWRF Rep promised her a way out of Colony 7, that she told them sheād consider.
In the end, Percy took the chance to leave and accepted the job offer. But she made it clear that she didnāt want to do anything that might make the Infected distrust her. That was how she worked the system; with kindness, trust, and a pretty face. Now, itās her job as an NWRF Rep to assist with medical and experimental testing in the scientific initiative to better understand these evolutions so that they might have the ability to cure, control or even use these evolutions in a more disciplined manner. But Percy didnāt join the NWRF because she wanted to eradicate or even manage and contain the Infected. She wanted to help them. She didnāt hate the people, she hated that people had to be Infected. Infections had ruined her life, so she now wants to save others from the same unfortunate situation that Sam had found himself in. She wants to give the Infected a choice.
Percy arrived recently to Colony 22 with the other NWRF reps. She likes to see herself as almost a counterweight to some of the NWRFās brash and sometimes harsh decisions, but she knows nobody else wants her to be. Along with lab testing and experiments, she provides one on one consultations with the Infected and Deluded, and makes a sincere effort to be kind to them and convince them sheās on their side. Sure, most still distrust her intentions because of her connections to the NWRF, but she tries hard despite that. Some of her ways of gaining the trust of the Infected could be seen as unethical, due to her less than transparent approach, but she believes her intentions are good. Sheās certainly unconventional in other ways, as well; sheāll purchase from the black market, sheāll let people by when theyāre late for tuck-in, sheāll keep their secrets, tell their lies. Some people probably think that sheās just gaining all this information and trust to eventually get them into trouble, but the truth is she likes to take risks. She likes the way it makes her feel when people trust her, and she really does have good intentionsāitās just her methods that are a littleā¦ unorthodox.
TAKEN; ORIGINAL CHARACTER
