A/N: Alright! Welcome to yet another of my Dragon Age fanfics! For those of you who know me from "Pretender" and my Lion series (still in the works), thank you for jumping on this wagon as well! :3
There are a few of these types of fics running around; normal girl from outside of the game suddenly gets thrust into the throes of the Blight without knowing what the hell is going on, etc. I hope I do the category justice; this is definitely a new one for me.
That said, let's just jump straight into it, shall we? :3 [DISCLAIMER: I do not own Dragon Age, Mass Effect, or any of the characters within said games. The ownership of said games and characters remains property of Bioware. Zoe Payton is my own creation.]
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
"Nnngh..." a hand stretched lazily toward the infernal sound, slamming down hard on the button once it had found purchase on the object emitting said noise. After lingering for a moment, it retracted, and a light flickered on, illuminating the room. "Fuck's sake..." came a grumbled moan from the owner of the hand, followed by an exasperated sigh. "Up and at 'em, I guess." Shuffling ensued, and before long, Katherine Zoera Payton was standing at the side of her bed, looking down longingly at the soft mattress before she padded into the bathroom to wake herself up with a shower.
Katherine, who much preferred to go by Zoe, a shortened version of her middle name, rubbed her eyes as she tapped a few buttons on the wall of the shower, water streaming from the rain-head suspended from the ceiling. She had installed the new shower head only a week previously, and relished it as she stood lazily beneath the scalding water.
After thoroughly scouring her body with exfoliating soap and washing and conditioning her hair, Zoe stepped from the shower and smacked the control panel on the wall again, turning the shower off instantly. Grabbing a moss-green terry cloth towel from the rack on her left, she deftly looped it around her slender, size 5 frame twice, tucking the loose end inside the top of the towel to create a 'dress' of sorts. Reaching for a second, she bent herself over, rubbing the towel through her hair for a few minutes, squeezing gently to coax the excess water from the strands.
Straightening after several more minutes of ruthlessly towelling her hair, Zoe dried the rest of her body off rather quickly before pulling on her usual work uniform – a graphic tee depicting a scene from one of the many games the company she worked for had published, and a pair of tight-fit jeans. On her feet were a pair of high-top sneakers in bright orange, and on her wrist was the bracelet she'd been gifted upon being hired by the company.
Her usual routine had allowed her hair several moments to dry on it's own, and Zoe pulled her fingers through it several times before gazing at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Long, loose waves hung to her waist, and Zoe admired the dye-job she'd completed the night before once again. Her hair was black from the roots to roughly half it's length before it faded into a chocolate brown for another few inches before it flared into a blaze of glory – literally. Hues of brick red and fiery orange stretched from the edges of the brown until the ends of her hair, and looked like fire from their haphazard placement.
Grinning with pride, Zoe quickly applied her usual face – light concealer to hide her dark circles, natural shades of eye shadow accompanied by excellently drawn eyeliner that resembled a cat's eyes, and berry-flavoured lip balm. Satisfied with her appearance, she meandered to the kitchen to grab something quick to eat before noticing what time it was. Swearing loudly, she grabbed her keys and her phone before dashing down to her car, booking it to work.
Once parked, she assessed her appearance again before she headed into the building, swiping her bracelet at the door to gain access. Smiling when she entered the lobby, she took a moment to appreciate where she worked, it still rendering her speechless after being with the company for the 6 years that she had. "Earth to ZoZo!" a familiar voice called to her, making her laugh as she turned to face her colleague. "Good morning David." she offered with a sheepish smile, which he returned. "I know, it's fascinating to realise that you work for Bioware on a daily basis Ms. Lead-Designer, but you are very late for a production meeting. Ray sent me to get you."
Zoe groaned softly before she hurried along to the conference room, slipping in and shooting a very apologetic look at her superiors before she settled into her seat, pulling the folio in front of her open so she could read the contents. "Glad you could join us, Ms. Payton. Perhaps on time, next time?" Ray shot at her with a knowing look, making her cower slightly. "Yes, sir." She mumbled softly, busying herself with the ledger in front of her to avoid looking at him.
The meeting lasted a few hours, and by the end of it, all Zoe wanted to do was get to her computer and work more on restructuring some of the designs for companions in several of games that had already been released. The design team had insisted on patching the games, trying to make the companions and the protagonists more relatable to players, which Zoe could understand. It was now her job to make sure that the changes went according to plan, and the pressure was stressing her out.
Mumbling a few more curses under her breath, Zoe booted up her computer, waiting impatiently for it to come on. As she waited, she glanced at her notepad, having jotted down several companions and games who needed particularly special attention paid to them. Frowning, she noticed that her personal favourite companion, Alistair Theirin, of the company's Dragon Age series, had made the list of those who needed some reworking, and she flipped to the page containing his information. Apparently, many players found the poor man too whiny and naïve, and had requested that he gain some more maturity as well as a less self-deprecating nature. The rest of the design team had also requested a rework of his physique, deciding that the templar needed a bit more muscle and better proportions.
Sighing, Zoe started up the game and her design programs, and set to work on making the changes noted. She wasn't happy about having to change Alistair, but if she wanted to keep her job, she knew she had to do it. Pulling the electronic drawing tablet she had beside her down to her lap, she began to sketch out Alistair's new look, first beginning with his face.
She began with the outlines of his face, sketching out his chiselled jaw and strong brow features first before she added his facial hair and his eyes. When she began to draw his nose, she pondered a little bit, choosing to make it just a tiny bit crooked, as if it had been broken and then reset in the field. Once satisfied with it, she moved onto his eyes, widening them slightly and altering the colour. While she admired Alistair's hazel eyes, she knew that blue was dominant in his genetics, so she changed them to be more of a hazel-blue hue. Zoe also strengthened the lines of his jaw, still keeping them relatively soft but also squaring them off slightly.
Glancing up at the computer to ensure that the changes were registering as she added them, she began to sketch out the rest of his body. Many of the female designers on staff, Zoe included, had described Alistair to be an Adonis inspired figure, so in keeping with the stronger theme, Zoe added more definition to several muscle groups, paying special attention to his pectoral and arm muscles. She also added more muscle to his core muscle groups, knowing that he would have gained quite a lot of it from constantly carrying a shield and being a front-line defender.
When she realised that she would have to draw the poor templar nude, she flushed a rather flattering shade of crimson before sketching what needed to be sketched. She kept everything realistic, but knowing that Alistair was going to be of stronger build meant that particular anatomy would also have to change to be proportionate. Tapping the stylus against her chin thoughtfully, she paused for a moment before she continued her work, trying not to linger too long on...that particular region.
When the front of his body was complete, Zoe quickly sketched his posterior, adding more muscle to his shoulders and back, as well as his ass. She grinned to herself as she imagined being able to grab his newly toned rear end, and couldn't help the rather girlish giggle that escaped once she was done with him. Rendering the model on the computer took less time than drawing it on the tablet, since most of the work was already done. All she had to do was add the wiring and send it for approval. Once it was approved, it would be sent to animation, who would then send it back to her to be implemented.
While she waited, Zoe altered his personality complex as well, hardening him slightly so that players would not feel like they were travelling with an oversized man-child. She kept his witty humour the same, and added new dialogue as well as lengthening conversations with every party member. Personally, she always thought that the conversations were too vague and too short, and she knew several million players who felt the same way.
Lunch hour came and went, and Zoe was surprised to see that the animation and design department had already approved and wired Alistair to be implemented that afternoon. They had also added several appreciative notes, and pride swelled within her as she settled down to add the new Alistair to the game.
She repeated the process with all the listed companions, some of whom she was surprised to see listed and others she was not so surprised to see. Unsurprisingly, many of the companions came from Dragon Age and Mass Effect, the company's two most popular titles, and Zoe made sure that her work was up to her ridiculously high standards before she sent it onward. Wynne, Leliana, Morrigan, Kaiden, and the main characters from both games had all received work-overs from Zoe, and she had even spent the last 4 hours of her day in the recording studio at David's request, recording the voice for Dragon Age's female Cousland origin, something she was honoured to do.
Players had been crying out for the Warden to have a voice, and the designers had finally had to relent. Zoe took on Elissa Cousland's voice, while the company elected to have some well-known actors and actresses come in to record for the others. Zoe had a nice chat with Steve Valentine and Peter Bramhill, the voice actors for Alistair and Cailan, laughing softly as the two complimented her on her acting skills and the additions of the new dialogue options. Normally it would have taken months for Bioware to record the new vocal talents and the dialogue, but Steve and Peter had been visiting the company anyway to see what they had going on.
When the end of her long work day finally came, Zoe was beat. She packed her bag tiredly, making sure that she brought her drawing tablet and laptop home with her so that she could continue working on patching the game before it was released publicly, as well as several other projects that she had been allotted.
The drive home was refreshing, but after the day she'd had, all Zoe wanted to do was collapse into bed and forget about work for at least six hours, though she knew it wouldn't happen with the amount of work she still had to finish. Thankfully, she had already added Alistair and Cailan's changes into the game before she'd recorded her lines for Elissa, so there was one less task she had to immerse herself in when she arrived home.
Once home, she sank onto her bed after locking up, booting up her laptop with every intent on finishing her work. However, she didn't even get a chance to enter her password to log in before she felt a sudden blackness closing in on her. It was so unexpected that the only thing she was able to mutter before she passed out was, "Well, shit."
A/N: Thanks for reading! Hopefully it wasn't overly boring and allowed everyone a brief look into Zoe's life!
I thank Bioware for allowing me to play in their sandbox :3
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See you all in the next chapter!