#my runner five

[i-will-go-with-you-five]

Colored this lineart from @meadow-roses!! :D Running right home to Sam!!

[sunkissedliterarylightofchrist]

Lil flat color of the girls <3

lineart and Vinni is from @masterfuldoodler!

[stellar-collective]

Okay see now I wanna see your Runner Five design and hear the LORE behind them and everything:D

here she is!! pretty similar to my Agent Phoenix design-wise, but their backstories and personalities are VERY different. design notes and lore under the cut!

keeps their bangs long to help hide their expressions. they are so sick of “how do you even see lol” jokes

always wearing long pants (typically cargo) and a light jacket for several reasons. the one that she usually rattles off when people ask is that it protects her from sunburn

insanely practical and always prepared. no mission will ever be wasted as long as she has anything to do with it. she never drops supplies and always has a trick up her sleeve.

military girl. dad is ex-army, and he drilled her on all the proper procedures during their journey to Mullins Base. she’s very aware of the chain of command and is very stiff and professional around authority figures. she didn’t really care about any of that before the outbreak, but it kept her alive, so she leaned into it really hard. it’s the subject of a lot of teasing and people are always giving her Captain America merch and bald eagle stuff and anything camo printed, but she doesn’t mind too much.

was in England as a birthday trip with their dad and little sister. as soon the outbreak started, they headed for the nearest military base (Mullins) but unfortunately, their little sister… didn’t make it.

trained themselves out of screaming when surprised or scared and learned at Mullins not to speak unless spoken to. they’ve learned to keep their expression carefully neutral and avoid questions, too, so they’re nigh impossible to read, but they still manage to be friendly and approachable to most. very mellow and easy to talk to, although they probably won’t talk back. never, ever, EVER spills secrets. tightest lips in Abel.

her coping mechanism of shutting up when danger approaches is usually useful but sometimes goes too far. there have been a couple of times when Sam couldn’t see her and her throat locked up so she couldn’t tell him she was ok, which decidedly did not help with the already stressful situation

knows all of the gossip in Abel at any given time due to their winning combination of being extremely trustworthy and their talent at sitting still and blending into the background

quick to judge, quicker to forgive. inherently suspicious of everyone, but keeps their opinions to themselves until they’re dead sure because they’ve been wrong about a lot of people a lot of times.

nicknames include: Sticky Fingers Five (how do they get so many SUPPLIES), Boy Scout (always prepared!), The American Mary Poppins (they’ve got everything in that bag of theirs), and Cap/Captain America. they’ll respond to anything tho

absolutely, positively, irrevocably WHIPPED for Sam Yao. would live, die, and kill for him.

i am currently about halfway thru season three so there are ofc more specific stuff abt her relationships w people and things that happen in between missions but i wanted to keep this general and spoiler free :P

[thelittlehorrorshite]

I blame @stellar-collective for this /silly /lh

Anyway have my Five design, ae refuse to leave my head

(I currently am unable to get the game, so please no spoilers :c)

[runner5ive]

I just wanted to let you know that I am absolutely in love with your art! Thank you for sharing your Five with us ❤️

Weh thank you so much 🥹🥹🥹 Your Five is also super awesome! I still remember loving all your Five posts when I first made this tumblr!

I saw I had this ask weeks ago and really wanted to answer but didn’t have any doodling time until today - sorry it took so long!

Whoops it’s 2:32am time I got some sleep

[cyclist-5]

whats your Five lore? how did they get to Abel? all the fun details and stuff!

Alright! So my Five is pretty heavily based on myself, but thrown into a truly wild situation, and with some details changed for the fun of it. They're nonbinary and use they/them pronouns, and are somewhere in their late-20s to early-30s. I'm a little unsure of what they did before the zombie apocalypse, but I'm currently leaning toward grad (or maybe law) student. They were a bicycle commuter for eco-conscious reasons. They were American, but doing a semester abroad when things went Bad. After a trusted faculty mentor tried to eat them, they hopped on their bike and just fled, eventually reaching Mullins Military Base. I gave them my own hypermobility and joint issues- running is pretty hard for them so they weren't a full Runner at Mullins, but they did get some physical and weapons training there and started to do some work as a courier. Eventually, they were assigned to Project Greenshoot (they still have no idea what it is), and sent by helicopter to Abel township, when they were shot down by rocket launcher and had to make a run for it. You know the rest! When I originally started playing ZR, I actually listened to Welcome to Nightvale instead of music between segments, and interpreted WTNV as a radio signal that Runner 5 was picking up! While I generally listen to music rather than podcasts while playing these days, I still like to think that my version of the world still has some of that Weirdness. They have a small portable radio that always seems to work despite not having any visible power supply, and they can tune it to some of the fiction podcasts that I listen to. Whether they're tuning in to something in an alternate universe or picking up something happening elsewhere in the world is kind of ambiguous, but there's clearly *something* going on. Also, I kind of think that they don't tell anyone their name. I'm not entirely sure why yet, but I think they like having that bit of a distinction between their previous life and the topsy-turvy world they're in now. They can go back to being [redacted] once things are back to normal, but for now, they're Five.

[wubbelwubbwubb]

Taking a break during a quiet autumn run

[abeltownshipslittlebitch]

So true, the 5/Simon dynamic is just *chef's kiss*!

Can I ask what your 5's relationship with Simon was like pre-betrayl? What kind of things did they do together and we're they just friends or was there maybe something there that could have been, in a different life?

Also (because I have to sneak in a question about my other fav ship), what was your 5's relationship like with Peter pre-reveal? And did your 5 see it coming or was she completely blindsided?

Sorry if you've answered/talked about this before. Feel free to just link the posts if you have. 💛

I really haven’t talked much about my specific five so thanks for asking! It’s kind of long so I have a read more.

Pre-Betray my Five, Callista, and Simon were besties. They loved going on runs together and Callista cared about Simon quite a bit and vice versa. Callista didn’t have any attraction to Simon romantically or vice versa during early seasons, although their friendship was strong in a way that made them almost seem like platonic soulmates. During the time Callista couldn’t speak, she taught him sign language (she’s American but she knows British sign language) although it didn’t help much because I say that Simon would always grab her wrist while they ran together. It made running a bit awkward and uncomfortable, but it became a habit and it kept Simon from having to worry about Callista being the little crow she was from running off to collect a new trinket and nearly giving him a heart attack when he turns around to see her gone.

They hung out a lot, but usually with some OCs I made just for my world that were people Callista cared about. Callista loved reading as an escape so she babbled to Simon about books a lot, and she is a pretty good cook so cue her dragging Simon into the kitchen to help her with a recipe. And since she is American and lived in the southern region she cooked those kinds of foods which Simon always was skeptical about but tried anyway because she looked so happy to be reminded of home again.

Speaking of her being American, when she regained the ability to talk, it became pretty common for the two of them to make fun of each other’s accent. They teased each other a lot but it was always in good fun.

Basically in those early seasons my Five and Simon were best friends who loved each other platonically but much more than most friends did.

In the seasons with Peter pre-reveal, Callista did feel drawn to him and she trusted him way quicker than she normally would. It confused her, honestly. But it felt nice to be close to someone again in that platonic way, although this time there were romantic notes in there that was the start of an a extremely slow burn… because neither of them actually believe they have feelings for each other until much later. Peter didn’t realize he had romantic feelings for Callista until near the end S7 and Callista didn’t realize she had feelings for him until the gap between S8 and 9, and neither of them even admit it to each other until about 1/3 way through S9, and things are complicated because of other failing relationships they were both in but not sure if they should let them go.

Back to pre-reveal though, Callista has smart and stupid moments. She’s an amazing runner and is quick in coming up with plans and spotting things but she always did not see the reveal coming for two reasons:

1. She can be really fucking stupid and oblivious when it comes to these things.

2. After Simon “died” in S3 finale she refused to believe there was a chance he might be alive because if she gave herself that hope and then never saw him again and he was actually dead it would destroy her. (She was so devastated by Simon’s “death” in S3 she actually stopped talking and only spoke via sign language, which she hadn’t done since she regained her ability to speak in early S2. She was mute during the entire time skip between S3 and 4 and only spoke again because her sister came to Abel and she was so angry because she and her younger sister have major beef that she started speaking just to curse her out.)

Back to the point, there were obvious signs, but Callista was oblivious and in denial so she never saw it coming. Peter even did the same habit of grabbing her wrist while on runs and she would just awkwardly pull away and tell him only one person had that privilege (but Peter still did it out of habit and Callista eventually just let him). Callista tries not to think too much about it.

When Peter admits that he’s Simon, Callista’s brain short-circuited and she nearly had to be dragged to safety from the zombies around them because she just froze. There was an argument later because Callista wasn’t sure how to process all of this, but it ended in tears with Callista’s much shorter frame hugging Peter right enough to hurt as she sobbed “I missed you,” over and over again.

I hope that answered your question! And thank you for the ask about my Five!