[female she/her] Welcome to Aurora Bay, [ZOE GUTIÉRREZ]! I couldn’t help but notice you look an awful lot like [JESSICA ALBA]. You must be the [FORTY] year old [RN/TRAUMA NURSE AT AURORA BAY HOSPITAL]. Word is you’re [FRIENDLY] but can also be a bit [RECKLESS] and your favorite song is [STOLEN BY DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL]. I also heard you’ll be staying in [CRYSTAL COVE CONDOS]. I’m sure you’ll love it!
@aurorabayaesthetic
About:
Name: Zoe Elena Galan Gutiérrez
Pronouns & Gender: she/her, cis woman
Birthday: December 4, 1985 (40 years old)
Star sign: Sagitarius
Born in: Seattle, WA
Location: Crystal Cove Apartments
Time in Aurora Bay: arrived late 2024/early 2025
Sexuality: Straight
Relationship Status: Single/Divorced
Occupation: RN/Trauma Nurse at Aurora Bay Hospital
Degree/Certification: BSN, ACLS, CEN, TCRN
Face Claim: Jessica Alba
General appearance: Long brown hair, brown eyes, 5’7, slim build
Personality: When she’s in her element, Zoe can light up a room. She’s friendly and bubbly, despite some harsh life experiences. She’s usually quick to make friends–or at least make acquaintances–and easy to talk with. She’s curious, and genuinely interested in the people around her and the world they share. She can be somewhat self-destructive and reckless when she’s up in her feelings, but usually does a good job of smoothing things back out. She’s the epitome of grace under pressure in most instances, and almost always able to take control of any level of stressful situation and diffuse things.
Zoe’s Story (tw light mentions: foster care, drug use, infertility, cheating, divorce):
She had always been a survivor. She had to, growing up being tossed around the foster system, bouncing between relatives and strangers, depending on who had the time and space to take care of her. She and her older sister spent more time apart than together in their youth. Their mom just couldn’t manage to stay clean long enough to be a decent parent, and both their fathers were long out of the picture. It wasn’t until she was in her teens that she got some stability in her life, her sister Marisol (Maisie) bringing her to live with her once she had an apartment of her own. They were seven years apart, but Maisie and Zoe remained extremely close, even after time and circumstances kept them apart. Maisie did everything she could to give them a good life, and she was the role model her baby sister needed to get her own life on track. Zoe struggled with some of the same addiction issues their mother had, and her older sister was there to help her get clean each time, pick up the pieces, heal.
Despite her reckless nature, Zoe was always the friend who looked after everybody else. Even in her teens, she was constantly taking care of her friends, keeping them safe and healthy, helping them recover through their own struggles. She got the nickname ‘Doctor Zoe’ long before she ever came to stay with her sister. It was Maisie, though, who encouraged her to look into nursing programs when she was in her 20s and kind of aimless, her big sister recognizing Zoe’s innate desire to take care of people. She loved to be needed. Craved it, even. She spent so much of her childhood being ignored or overlooked or cast aside that she’d do anything to keep someone’s focus. She developed a bit of a promiscuous side, happily spending time with any guy who paid her even a little bit of attention. She went through a slew of messy hookups and pseudo relationships, with a mix of longer dating periods here and there. Usually, she’d find a way to mess things up with whoever she was seeing, always eager for that next new entanglement. Eventually, though, she met a sweet young doctor, Thomas, at the hospital she was working at, and she couldn’t imagine wanting to spend another night with any other man.
They dated for less than a year and got married way too soon. Their life wasn’t exactly a fairytale romance. They both worked long hours, making it immediately hard to actually build a life together. Their personalities clashed much of the time, Zoe far too outgoing and extroverted compared to her quiet, introverted husband. She loved to socialize and go out and he hated leaving the house on his days off. They could barely agree on what to have for dinner some nights, let alone bigger life decisions, like where to settle or when to have kids–Zoe wanted to focus on her career and wait. Tom wanted them to start soon, since they were already in their 30s. For Tom’s sake, and the sake of their marriage, she relented, agreeing to try for kids, even if it meant she’d have to put her job aside for a while.
Nearly two years later, they still hadn’t been able to conceive. They were arguing frequently, and whatever love they’d had early in the relationship had turned to toxicity. Still, she tried to make things work, tried to put whatever free time she had into the marriage, tried to be the good little wifey she was supposed to be. They went to counseling for the next year, and things seemed to be getting better. They were even talking about trying for kids again and looking into fertility treatments. And then she found out Tom had been having an affair with one of the residents at their hospital. He wanted to do counseling again, try to fix things. In Zoe’s eyes, there was nothing left to fix.
Their divorce was as quick and amicable as it could be, mostly because Zoe wanted to put as much distance between herself and that life as she could. She left the hospital they’d worked at and their shared apartment, and moved back in with Maisie for a short time while she applied for more nursing jobs. She did part time work at a few clinics in the meantime, and finally got a full-time trauma nurse position in a town called Aurora Bay. It was hard to move so far away from her sister, but this was an opportunity to rebuild her life and start fresh.
freyja: is that like the one sportcam? 🤣
freyja: ofc! that makes lot of sense now!
freyja: yes! i mean i hit the gym and hot yoga every day, i mean hot yoga when i'm in AB.
freyja: oh! milla jovovich?! for a brief second i thought in mila kunis.
freyja: milla is a inspo! my first movie of seeing her was Blue Lagoon. 🤣
zoe: haha yes! 🫣 Our ending is getting told via GoPro unfortunately.
zoe: I mean yeah I work out allll the time but not to fight zombies 😜 Gotta add some more weights or something prob
zoe: omg haha. yes yes sorry. Milla Jovovich bc of the Resident Evil stuff
zoe: I think mine was The Fifth Element tbh. I WANTED that hair too but I would have had to fry it to get light enough to go orange... ⚡
@freyjadahl
"See, I was thinking about doing it even if it turns out to be nothing." Addison's mind is mostly made up in spending her money on easy things like this - maybe add some more fun in her life. "Wanna do it together?" @recklesszoe
"Best way is to, like... play up whatever they say," she says with a grin. "Just go all wide-eyed like, 'Oh my gosh you're right! I did just meet a mysterious stranger, right here in the park!' Or, you know, whatever they are talking about." Her brows raise at the offer and she nods. "Yesss. What's our backstory? Best friends? Sisters? Girlfriends in a fight trying to see if the palm reader has any insight into our fractured relationship?"
@addisonxoconnell
Sal can only assume that everyone flocking to the ride must have possessed one or they had made it this far in life without ever watching a single Final Destination movie.
With his hands on his hips, he stays planted where he is.
"I am trying to be more spontaneous though."
He hopes that won't end up ironically carved into his headstone.
"I believe they're fairly safe," Zoe offers with a playful smile. "I'm pretty sure nobody has died on it at least this entire carnival." Her tone is entirely too cheery. "Possibly even longer."
She doesn't actually expect him to say yes, so she's genuinely surprised when he suddenly changes his mind, amusement showing on her features. "That was a quick shift. Alright, and if we die, at least it's... surrounded by... a terrified group of strangers at a carnival?" she offers, not helpfully.
"Zoe, by the way," she says, "So you know what name to yell the I-told-you-so if it does derail." A pause. "Sorry, sorry. I... really need to not tease about it."
@salvadorcavendish
"God, I fucking wish," Mac says mournfully with a scrunched face, looking longingly at the drop tower.
Any other summer, and she would been flirting with the ride operator to let her skip the line as many times as she wanted.
"But my doctor says I'm not allowed to do anything 'too crazy' -- which is a very vague barometer of behavior to be working with when you're me because I don't consider a lot of things I do to be crazy. But I'm guessing being dropped from an exhilarating height is on that 'too crazy' list."
"Oh!" she perks, looking her over more carefully at the admission. A small smile tugs her lips and she nods quickly. "Yeaaaah I'm pretty sure anything that could potentially get the adrenaline going and raise heart rate or blood pressure probably falls on the 'no' list for 'too crazy.' But that is a wild metric for a doctor to give, for sure."
@macaulaymontgomery
“ oh fuck “ Arkin replied as he looked at the ride and let out a sigh. He hadn’t really been on many of the rides lately since he’d been more in dad mode. But he was just trying to sort of get out there and have more fun again. “ oh so you assume I’ve got a death wish cause I look like I’ve got one?” @recklesszoe
"Hey, I've watched like twelve groups get off safely," she offers, smirking. "Although that could make us... unlucky 13." Her eyes widen and she mock covers her mouth, then laughs, shaking her head. "I mean... I don't want to pressure you. I am going either way..."
@arkin-oconnell
"Uhh..." Tess slurped from her vodka-spiked lemonade as she looked up at the ferris wheel, squinting in the bright sunlight. "I think your friend might be the smart one here. Don't these things just get collapsed in and carted off to the next fairground? Or is this like a permanent fixture in this town?"
"I mean, yeah," she says with a shrug, "But I'm pretty sure they cart all the pieces with them and have instructions on how to rebuild them and stuff. But, no... This is all just for the festival." Her eyes follow the next group of people as the drop tower releases, the screams making Zoe grin. She motions. "That looked stable, right?"
@thetessxacevedo
"And you had a song too, I assume?" That was likely what Luca had curated more than anything, trying to have something thematically appropriate for any mood that managed to strike. "And probably witnessed at least one all out brawl over Top 8 status." At the time, it was taken so seriously, but thinking about it now was pretty hilarious to just how trivial so much of it really was.
"Yeah I tried one of those too. So I get you, the convenience is there," Luca agreed. "I cook more now, when I'm not shark wrangling," he laughed. "My grandmother tried to teach me as a kid, which had mixed results then but have learned a lot more as an adult. Is it something you were always interested in?"
"Song?" she asks, scoffing teasingly. "Sir. I had an entire playlist at one point--The Used, Taking Back Sunday, Dashboard Confessional, Thursday... Definitely some Fall Out Boy on that thing too." Zoe laughs. "I was so happy when they added the playlist to the music player. Like stupidly excited. It felt life changing." When he mentions the Top 8, her amusement grows. "Ohh my God. I bet friendships were lost over that damn Top 8, too." She shakes her head, smile remaining. "I remember when they switched it, too, and you could have, like, a Top 12 or Top 16? But real ones knew they were still in the top eight slots of that."
Her expression goes briefly wistful, but she laughs it off. "Is it sad I still kind of miss the innocence of MySpace though? No constant ads, no algorithm always trying to keep you sucked in or learn about you. Just you and your friends and the 87 bands you were following, everything just showing in your feed chronologically. The good old days."
Her eyes stay with him, and Zoe smiles again as he talks about cooking and his grandma. She can't fully relate, but she can appreciate the sweet sentiment in that, too: a grandmother wanting to teach her grandson family recipes and secrets. The expression softens some.
"I think as a kid my plan was to grow up and become so rich that someone else would cook for me," she admits with a smirk. "But that sort of fell through, and I had to learn to do it myself. My older sister kind of taught me the basics when I was staying with her... which was, like... late teens to early twenties. She is an amazing cook. Just does her thing and makes it look effortless. I... have to follow the recipes. Unless it's something really easy. Like eggs or something." She pauses briefly, then perks. "So what's your kitchen specialty?"
@lucacochrane
"It looks pretty high." Brooke says, as she peers to the top of the tower. "I mean, I'd never say never... but I think I might need you to hold my hand on this one."
"Mm... probably only about fifty-ish feet?" she offers, like the idea of falling from that height is nothing at all. "The regular amusement park ones are way taller..." Zoe grins at Brooke. "Oh, absolutely. And we can scream together."
@brcoke
Bradley cranes her neck back, looking up at the ride that she absolutely does not trust. "I'm not sure." She hums softly, glancing back at Zoe. "Kinda feels like signing a death wish. Look how rickety it is."
"I'd say the risk is part of the fun," she offers, smirking, "But that would sound crazy." She motions to a sign. "They do daily safety checks, which is a little reassuring, but I know these traveling setups are a lot less stable than, like... A legit theme park..." Zoe shrugs. "I always loved these drop tower rides, though. Just, you know... stomach-coming-out-your-mouth sort of feeling?"
@bradleybanner
"Oh, really? Seattle seems like such a pretty place." She'd never gotten the chance to go. "I like random places. Before I moved here, I had a travel blog and I loved finding the cool underground places that the locals liked going to."
"It is," she says warmly. "I know it gets a bad rep for the dreary weather but honestly Washington in general is... so green and pretty. And I never minded the rain... Just used it as an excuse to buy the cutest boots and pea coats." Her eyes stay with the other woman, Zoe nodding. "Oh, that's really cool. Hm... Alright..." She sits up slightly, trying to focus. "Without knowing anything about you, I'd probably recommend Capitol Hill area just because it has some fun little shops and it's pretty close to downtown. Melrose Market is right there. And there are sculptures and murals and little artsy type places to check out. Just a cool vibe with a lot to see. Plus, some great restaurants. And coffee places, obviously. It wouldn't be Seattle without coffee at this point..."
@hollandbrights
"No, absolutely not. You should come and work for us, it's beautiful." Lorna smiled in return, as she observed the handcrafted bouquet once more. Her cheeks reddened, however, at the compliment bestowed upon her. "Oh, wow, really? Thanks. I mean I can't take all the credit, but I do pride myself on those bouquets."
"You should," she says with a genuine smile, noting the blush. "Like, legit. I know it's a hard skill and you make it look flawless." She pauses, then adds, "I work in a hospital so we see... a lot of floral arrangements from your shop come through. Probably a weird way of seeing them, but yeah they're so pretty. Did you go to school for that?"
@dilcne
"Well if I'm honest then I have to say that I don't think anything is a weird choice because ultimately it's up to the person who knew them. I think that all flowers are also beautiful so it's really coming down to preference." She bites her lip for a moment, unsure if she should share any funeral shenanigans, "I'd say the weird requests start coming into play in different ways. Like asking the women to wear coconut bras and the men to wear Hawaiian shirts because their loved one enjoyed Jimmy Buffett." @recklesszoe
"OK that is weird," she says, fighting a little laugh. "Like... I've heard about the celebration of life things being more upbeat and stuff, but that definitely would be the extreme end of things to me..." Zoe shakes her head. "I think I'd want mine to be more... chill, simple. Maybe not full-on mourning and weeping vibes. But just... eh. I don't want people karaokeing the Pina Colada song at it or anything..." Her tone is teasing for the last bit, then she perks. "Oh! I did see this weird clip online where people had a choreographed dance they performed in front of everybody. I... have to hope that was staged. It was super awkward."
@gravenewgirl
zoe: you underestimate my curiosity, girl... I might be dying right there with you!
zoe: but I guess I do have the whole emergency training thing going for me. Don't worry. 😉 I will bandage your wounds really well! We'll survive those zombies together!
freyja: LMAOOO at first I thought damn, we're doomed.
freyja: bc you said u would die right there with me, and i remember, dead men tell no tales, who would finish our movie ?!
freyja: but since i really trust in ur skills, i'm chill now.
freyja: amen! it'd be zombie like resident evil!?
zoe: isn't there a whole... "'"the cameraman never dies?"'" meme?
zoe: So definitely the random person who happens to be recording is telling our tale 😉
zoe: Ohhh girl are we gonna try to be badasses? I better hit the gym and start training so I can get ripped like Milla was...
@freyjadahl
closed starter: @highmayx
where: aurora bay carnival
"Is it weird that the scariest thing here to me is the fun house?" she glances Jaime's way, motioning toward said attraction. "Those things always just kind of freak me out. Too many carnival-themed horror shows or movies always have, like... a fun house murder..."
closed starter: @reggiellewellyn
where: summer carnival inside Well Played games area
"Heyyyy. Wanna get your ass kicked in giant Connect Four?" Zoe offers, a playful smirk tugging on her lips as she motions toward one of the games. "I already ran off my last two competitors, but I'm trying for a personal best... Either that or you're gonna make me eat my words."
